Goalkickers: S. McKay 2.1, L. Goss 1.1, E. Fitzpatrick 1.1, K. Sherar 1.0, B. Harrington 1.0, M. Guerin 1.0, D. Finn 0.1, M. Austin 0.1, Rushed 0.2.

Reports: Nil.

Umpires: Katelin Bayre, Jason Gibb, Leigh Haussen.

Injuries: Y. Duursma (shoulder), A. McKay (hamstring awareness).

Ladder: 5th.

Game Review

Irish stars shine as Blues defeat Dogs in a classic

Carlton has defeated the Western Bulldogs by 16 points at Ikon Park on Saturday afternoon. - By Lincoln Tracy at Ikon Park

Carlton has won its third game of the season, with Dayna Finn putting on a best-on-ground performance to help the Blues to a 16-point victory at Ikon Park on Saturday afternoon. Irishwoman Finn was everywhere, finishing with a game-high 30 disposals, 15 contested possessions, and 346m gained. However, the win came at a cost, with big improver Yasmin Duursma taken out of the game before half time after injuring her collarbone. Although the Western Bulldogs dominated territory early, it was Carlton’s Sophie McKay who opened the scoring in the sixth minute. The father-daughter selection was caught high while attempting a mark, before converting from directly in front. The Western Bulldogs looked more dangerous in attack for most of the first quarter but were unable to make it count. Alice Edmonds took a powerful contested mark in her 50th game but couldn't convert, while several other forays forward were cut off by Blues defender Harriet Cordner. The Blues favoured a more run-and-gun style early when they pushed forward, with Finn showing great speed and clean hands as she gave and received multiple handballs to Lily Goss and Sophie McKay before pushing the final effort wide. Ellie Blackburn, playing her 75th career game, found space inside 50 early in the second quarter and was rewarded, with Jasmyn Smith hitting the former Bulldog skipper with a short pass. Blackburn drilled the long-range shot to give the visitors their first goal for the day. Alice Edmonds, the other Bulldog celebrating a milestone today in her 50th game, slotted her first for the day five minutes later after taking another strong mark inside 50. At that point the Bulldogs had taken five marks inside 50 to Carlton’s one – an impressive return given they had averaged three per game prior to their round four clash. Fears were sent through the Carlton camp midway through the second quarter when Yasmin Duursma was on the receiving end of a fair but crunching bump from Heidi Woodley. The former Port Adelaide player was taken straight down to the rooms with a collarbone injury. But the Blues didn’t go into their shells after Duursma’s injury. McKay put through her second for the day in the seventeenth minute after a strong overhead mark, and Maddy Guerin pouncing on a palm down from Breann Harrington three minutes later to give the home side a four-point lead at the main break.

Both teams had their opportunities to score in the third quarter but struggled to find targets. The Western Bulldogs had six inside 50s but could only generate three behinds. The Blues goaled through Goss, who was left unmarked after Keeley Skepper was pushed in the back. Harrington almost extended Carlton’s lead after collecting a loose ball in the centre square and streaming forward, but some outstanding defensive pressure from Issy Grant prevented the two-time best and fairest from scoring. However, the Blues ruck couldn’t be stopped in the dying stages of the third quarter, goaling after taking a strong contested pack mark. Bulldogs skipper De Berry, back for her first game in 2025 after missing the previous three round with a hamstring injury, got the visitors off to the perfect start in the last quarter. Berry, playing behind Cordner, had the ball bounce directly into their hands after it stayed unexpectedly low before turning and snapping on her right. The home side’s class came through when it mattered, with goals to Irishwoman Erone Fitzpatrick and reigning club best-and-fairest Keeley Sherar in the fourth quarter enough to secure the Blues their third win of the season. The Bulldogs broke even for inside 50s, but ultimately their inaccuracy cost them as they only registered a goal from 13% of entries in comparison to 22% from the Blues. They maintained pressure on the ball, outtackling Carlton by 17 as well as applying a higher pressure factor. The Blues are victorious with a 16-point win over the Bulldogs. They were able to win the ball in the contest, leading the groundball gets by four, as well as owning the ball on the outside, leading the uncontested possessions by 24. They capitalised on stoppages in their forward half, scoring 26 points from this source.

Blues better around the ball
The Western Bulldogs had performed slightly better than Carlton over the first three weeks with respect to hitouts (averaging 33.7 versus 31.0) and clearances (26.0 versus 22.7); a trend that continued as the daughters of the west clearly won the hitouts (29-15) and centre clearances (9-5). But Carlton turned this on its head around the ground, with finishing +7 in stoppage clearances and +3 in clearances overall. This result came on the back of Finn, Abbie McKay, Mimi Hill, Goss, and Fitzpatrick all finishing with three or more clearances, compared to just two players for the Bulldogs (Isabelle Pritchard and Jessica Fitzgerald).

Up next
Carlton will be aiming to continue its climb up the ladder when it welcomes Gold Coast to Ikon Park next Saturday at 2.35pm. The Western Bulldogs are also back in action next Saturday, travelling to Canberra to play winless Greater Western Sydney at the Corroboree Group Oval from 4.35pm.

Best: D. Finn, A. McKay, S. McKay, E. Fitzpatrick, L. Goss.

Bucky speaks on thrilling Round 4 win

Carlton AFLW coach Mathew Buck speaks on Saturday's win against the Bulldogs. - By Isabella Chessler

Carlton AFLW coach Mathew Buck speaks on the compelling game between the Blues and Bulldogs.

Reflecting on Round 4:
"I love the game and the game challenges in a different way, this week as opposed to last week. We want to play an open fast brand of footy, and today the Bulldogs to their credit, were good enough to kind of get a handle on us in that. So we had to kind of win a different way. "They asked us to go into the contest, we probably looked to take the game forward a little bit harder, and then off the back of that we managed to score. So proud of our team to be able to adjust in game with how we wanted to play, and really glad that they were brave enough to go at it in the first half. "

On competing in contests:
"We always knew that challenges strongly in that area and obviously Jess Good missed out through injury for this game, and Maddie Torpey stepped in and did an amazing job, I think she bought her own fan club as well, which was really nice for the game." he joked. "The way we compete at contests, we really like and we've enjoyed, and we've hung our hat on that for probably now going into our third season, proud of the girls to see that we could get at them today."

On Dayna Finns performance:
"Dayna has backed up from a terrific game last week and it's credit to Dayna and the work she did over the pre-season, went home to Ireland, she has to slog it out in another winter to get her fitness to where it is. She's now an elite athlete, an elite performer. "To see what she can produce in-game now, I'm really ecstatic for her, but the credit all goes to Dayna for the hard work that she's put in. She's ruthless in the way she prepares and then she's ruthless in the way she plays, and I think over the last two weeks, we've really seen that."

On transitioning the ball to into the Blues forward half:
"To play some exciting footy in our transition, a big part of that is to win the ball back. We had Harriet Cordner, Maddy Hendrie down there who was just terrific today, and Poppy Scholz as a youngster. Those three big keys for us really control of the air, gives us the ability to win the ball back and then we can look to play off that. "The way they defend and then the way they support our offense and that's where, Ciara Fitzgerald, Amelia Velardo, and Darcy Vescio get involved, and they give us really strong bounce off there, but they're misly, they don't want any scores against them and they were pretty strong in that area today."

On competing with the Bulldogs:
"We've got some quality players, that wanna make sure the numbers are going their way, they wanted to turn the tide themselves, your captain's in there, Abbie McKay, you go to work with her, Izzy Pritchard's a great player, we love watching Izzy play, but you've got a Curt Taylor at some point. So Abbie had some different stoppages, made sure that that happened and, they put some hard work into her as well. "So there was a little bit of that and then we backed Madison Torpey in as well, we thought Breann was pretty influential in front of the ball. For a first gamer to go in there and box on with Alice Edmonds, who's a terrific ruck comp, a testament to her, so I think the numbers swung on, on what was happening inside the contest rather than outside."

On Sophie Mckay's performance:
"That's a little bit more like the Soph McKay we've seen over preseason. What freakish ability to fly in the air and take a great contested mark, kick some goals, set up some others...Where she's grown is her ability to defend the ground, her ability to get up and defend and then work back. She's a work in progress, but we're gonna see a lot more of what we saw today from her, she's an exciting player and she's just getting started."

On the importance of Indigenous Round and the Carlton community:
"The two rounds for our indigenous round are really special and put on our indigenous jumper and the players get in there and do that learning, but I think the persistence really shone through today and to hear from an indigenous person and take those lessons is really great to see. "To do that in front of our crowd here at IKON today, another banging crowd that comes in and watches us play an exciting brand. I've always said we've got a little sleeping giant of a crowd that once we start rolling and play some footy that they want to come see, we'll see them turn up, I think we're starting to see that now, I can't wait to take on the Gold Coast here next week."

On winning three out of four games thus far:
"We're in a strong position now, but of course we'll be a week by week, take it a week at a time. Strong competition against Gold Coast, who had a great win today, so we'll be all eyes in on that one. We're not going well enough where we can project too far forward, so we'll go all in on the Gold Coast and see how we go."

Team

In: Maddison Torpey, Mia Austin
Out: Jess Good (calf), Lika Keck (omitted)

Milestones

Debut: Maddison Torpey
Most Goals in a Game: Sophie McKay
AFLW Rising Star Nominees: Sophie McKay

AFLW Coaches Votes

10 - Dayna Finn CARL
5 - Erone Fitzpatrick CARL
4 - Keeley Sherar CARL
4 - Breann Harrington CARL
3 - Britney Gutknecht WB
2 - Sophie McKay CARL
1 - Abbie McKay CARL
1 - Alice Edmonds WB

AFLW Best and Fairest Votes

3 - Mimi Hill (CARL)
2 - Breann Harrington (CARL)
1 - Erone Fitzpatrick (CARL)

Club Best and Fairest Votes

Match Highlights