Game Review

Blues keep rolling with wildcard triumph.
The match report from Carlton's AFL wildcard final win. - By Cristian Filippo, Carlton Media

Carlton keeps rolling. The Blues have produced a scintillating come-from-behind victory, overcoming conceding the first four goals of the game to prevail by 19 points against Melbourne. In the first weekend of wildcard finals, Carlton ensured the crowd of 91,733 - largely wearing Navy Blue - went home happy in the 10.14 (74) to 7.13 (55). Carlton didn’t concede a goal after the five-minute mark of the third quarter, overturning a 21-point deficit in the first term to keep their season alive. The contested side of the game stacked up early for the Blues, winning the tackle count 16-9 inside the opening term with five of those coming inside 50. However, the polish in offence that Blues fans have come accustomed to in recent weeks was lacking, with Carlton unable to capitalise on its own chances going forwards while Melbourne punished errors at the other end. After the Dees kicked the opening four goals of the game, a smother from Patrick Cripps and chase-down tackle from Francis Evans led to the Blues hitting the scoreboard in a meaningful way for the first time through Harry McKay. That proved to be Carlton’s sole major for the opening term, registering just 1.3 from five shots on goal and lamenting key skill errors as they trailed by 18 points at the first change. The Blues were in need of their prime movers to get them going in the second term, and that’s exactly what they did. Sam Walsh led the way with 10 second-quarter disposals as Carlton surged back into the contest. Ben Ainsworth continued to look dangerous as McKay found him close to goal, before a huge contested mark and snap from Patrick Cripps - in a throwback to his Round 12 heroics against Geelong - brought the Blues right back into the contest.

In their first ever finals, Harry Dean and Jagga Smith were excellent. Smith had five clearances to go with his 15 disposals in the first half, while Dean had seven intercepts in another showing that was far beyond a first-year key defender. The Blues’ desperation was demonstrated when Lachie Cowan brought down Bayley Fritsch on centre wing, and after Ollie Hollands and Brodie Kemp converted set shots in quick succession, the Blues were suddenly in the lead for the first time. However, a clearance goal immediately from the restart saw Tom McDonald convert on the half-time siren, seeing the Blues trail by a solitary behind at the main break. When the two teams returned for the third term, it was a much more open first five minutes, with Melbourne kicking two goals either side of McKay’s second major. Adam Cerra continued to mop up across half-back while Blake Acres had some typically strong defensive moments working back from the wing, as the Blues managed to hold up after an early Melbourne flurry. The Dees had more of the territory in the third term but the Blues looked dangerous on counter attack, and it was Ainsworth - playing in just his third final, and first for the Blues - who was the man for the moment. Kicking two consecutive goals to finish the quarter, including one on the run which brought the Carlton-heavy crowd to its feet, the Blues found themselves four points ahead at the final change. A brilliant team passage of play to start the term ended in the lap of Smith, who slammed one home from the square to give the Blues a two-goal ascendancy for the first time. There was no shortage of nervy moments from both sides, with the Blues leaving some goals on the table while a Cooper Lord snap was ruled out for a free kick in the build-up. But the Blues defended brilliantly, with Jacob Weitering (10 intercepts) and Nick Haynes - who twice left the field with injury concerns - producing some clutch moments to ensure the Blues didn’t concede. The ball lived in Carlton’s forward for long periods, but when Matthew Cottrell hit the post for the third individual time for the night - and Carlton’s fifth in total - the Dees were still in touch. That was until who else but Smith bobbed up again, kicking his second final-quarter goal with his 29th disposal to ensure a famous Carlton victory. Sam Walsh was simply brilliant, recapturing his finals football form to amass 39 disposals, 17 contested possessions and eight score involvements. Carlton will return to the MCG next Friday night to take on Geelong in an elimination final.

Blues' fairytale run continues after epic wildcard finish against Demons.
Carlton will meet Geelong in an elimination final next weekend - By Danielle Croci at the MCG.

What a difference 153 days can make. Last time these two sides faced off, back in round three, Carlton under Michael Voss gave up a 43-point lead in what was fast becoming a characteristic second-half fadeout. After an off-season of what many saw as too much change to overcome, Melbourne was beginning to defy expectations under first-year coach Steven King. Instead, in Saturday night's wildcard final, it was recently confirmed senior coach Josh Fraser's Blues taking the win, ending Melbourne's season with a 19-point win in front of 91,733 at the MCG. The Blues rode the waves of momentum that come with finals, and after conceding four unanswered goals to start the match, held the Demons to just three more for the match and rose to the occasion to run out 10.14 (74) to 7.13 (55) winners. Fraser notched up his 12th win in the role, since taking over as interim coach as the Blues reeled at one win and eight losses that cost Voss his job. Jagga Smith was crowned Telstra AFL Rising Star on Tuesday night, and he reminded everyone just why on Saturday night. Providing silver service to his side with 29 disposals and nine clearances, he sealed the deal with a goal with 90 seconds on the clock to send the crowd into raptures. It was a night made sweeter after missing his entire first season due to an ACL injury. It was a full-team effort for the Blues on the night. Midfield maestro Sam Walsh finished with 39 disposals, seven clearances and three tackles. Ollie Hollands was also busy, stamping what has been a shaky position in the side at times with 18 touches, four tackles, 534m gained and a goal. Demons captain Max Gawn battled all day, finishing with 31 hitouts and six clearances, but to no avail. Cooper Lord curtailed the impact of Kysaiah Pickett, who has so often dominated the midfield at the feet of Gawn this season. Pickett also struggled in front of goal, finishing with three behinds and a couple of other misses. It means Melbourne now bids farewell to veterans Jake Melksham and Tom McDonald, who recently announced their retirements. For Carlton, it means an elimination final against Geelong next Friday night.

Despite roughly even inside 50s to quarter-time (13-12), the Blues were going at 41.7 per cent efficiency in their forward 50. Each time, their build-up was a little too slow and shallow, allowing Melbourne to intercept with ease again and again. A free kick from a push in the marking contest for Harry McKay gave Carlton its only goal for the quarter, despite attempts from the likes of Matthew Cottrell and Hollands. Down the opposite end, minutes after being the reason for a reversal of a shot on goal for teammate Harrison Petty, Demon Harry Sharp redeemed himself with a dribbling goal to open the ledger. Harvey Langford also kicked one of the goals of the game on the run from the 50m arc across the body. The Blues worked their way back into the match in the second quarter. Now, they were getting the ball in deep, moving the ball quicker for their forward entries. Pressure instead built on the Demons, who struggled to make it count on the scoreboard. And it was working. Carlton scored four unanswered goals, including a huge conversion from Brodie Kemp to put the Blues ahead momentarily that had the MCG shaking, before McDonald put Melbourne back in front on the stroke of half-time. A flurry of goals began the second half, with the teams trading them off the back of centre clearance wins, before things settled again and moved from end-to-end. Carlton defender Nick Haynes went down with a right ankle injury in the first term, returning in the second before going down to the rooms again. He ultimately played out the second half. And Blues fans' hearts were in mouths watching the bench in the third term, with captain Patrick Cripps coming off limping slightly after a tackle on Jake Bowey with a left knee concern. With 40 seconds to go in the term, Ben Ainsworth scored his third goal to put the Blues back in front for just the second time for the evening. Despite dominating clearances and forward 50 entries, Melbourne couldn’t make it count on the scoreboard. The Blues threw Lewis Young forward for the final term. Smith goaled early after the side chipped the ball around. In a game where goals felt relatively hard to come by, it felt like a huge moment. And the Blues did something they have struggled to do for so long – held onto a lead, when they needed it most. Despite a comedy of errors in the final 10 minutes, they took the full 30 seconds on multiple set shots, and fought for the ball to live largely in their forward half. In the final quarter, Carlton won contested possessions 44-22 after this metric was even through the first three quarters. This set Carlton up to control the ball with 115-68 disposals and 14-5 inside 50 entries. Carlton are through to an Elimination Final against Geelong next week. Sam Walsh and Jagga Smith were outstanding in the midfield with 68 disposals and 15 clearances between them, while behind the ball, Harry Dean and Jacob Weitering combined for 21 intercept possessions and 20 spoils.

Questions raised again about injury breaks.
Early in the first quarter, Melbourne’s Changkuoth Jiath landed awkwardly and stayed down. As play continued with Carlton moving the ball into its forward 50, the umpire stopped play to allow him to be treated by trainers. The delay before the Blues received the ball back allowed Melbourne’s defence to set up, with them ultimately unable to make it count. In the third term, play was momentarily stopped again while Ollie Hollands was attended to 100m away in the opposition goalsquare after staying down following a marking contest. Both ultimately played out the match, raising questions yet again about how best to handle different injuries in real time.

Viney on return
Jack Viney returned to Melbourne’s line-up for his first AFL game for the season, after battling Achilles and back complaints all year. Melbourne coach Steven King chose to use him in short bursts, ultimately only spending 49 per cent of the game on the ground. He built into the match with 13 disposals and two clearances. It was a risky decision given his lack of match fitness, limited to just one recent VFL game, but speaks to the trust King had in what the vice-captain’s experience and toughness brings.

History repeats
Saturday night's match marked Carlton's first finals win since their semi-final win on their dream run in 2023. On that similarly close night at the MCG, the Blues broke Demon hearts with a late Blake Acres goal to run out two-point winners. It leaves Melbourne waiting for its first finals win since the drought-breaking premiership in 2021. Given the coronavirus pandemic measures of the time forced them to base their side in Perth, it means the Demons haven't won a final at home at the 'G since 2018.

Best: J. Smith, S. Walsh, O. Hollands, B. Ainsworth, F. Evans, P. Cripps.

Full Fraser press conference as Blues march on.
Josh Fraser's post-wildcard final press conference. - By Carlton Media

Taking hold. Carlton was challenged, but its players stood up to the task - and the occasion - in front of over 91,000 people, prevailing by 19 points over Melbourne. Despite conceding the first four goals of the game, the Blues didn't flinch, surging on the back of a vocal Navy Blue crowd to ultimately keep their season alive ahead of an elimination final against Geelong next week. Here's what AFL Senior Coach Josh Fraser had to say.

On embracing the occasion:
“It didn’t feel like we got spooked. It was another sign of the growth of this group where momentum is against you, but you stay connected and trust our system. I don’t like the word mature, but collectively it found like a mature performance, particularly in that first quarter. “Our players are growing in different scenarios and finding different ways to win, they embrace everything that’s thrown at them. From the coaches’ box, we didn’t feel flustered: there were parts of our game early that we thought was the right way to play, we weren’t connecting with some fundamentals and made some errors which you have to embrace in a final. Our boys did a good job of that.”

On a widespread team performance:
“It’s something we’ve gone to work on. Maybe historically, there’s been some players who have felt like they’ve had to do everything - the intent is fine, but it’s misguided. In actual fact, you’ve got to be so reliable in your role and trust the guy next to you to get his job done. “I thought we had a really even spread of contributors tonight, and I think that’s been our story for large parts of 14-15 weeks. We’re not reliant on one or two… absolutely, guys will stand up and have very good games, but the load is shared and spread. So is the ownership. Players are doing a fantastic job owning it.”

On a strong defensive showing, conceding a season-low 55 points:
“Part of our planning was acknowledging how good Melbourne are and the speed they put on the ball. They’ve been one of the great teams to watch over the course of the season with how quickly they can put a score on the board, so we knew we had to be defensively sound. That’s been a strong part of our game, Ash Hansen has done a great job driving our education and defensive intent and method. “You need a collective buy-in, and through all lines, we were well-connected defensively. For large parts of the game, we took away what they wanted, which is a challenge because they often double down and test you in other areas. They’ve had an incredible season and there were lots of threats we had to nullify tonight: being able to stop their ball movement was one of them.”

On taking a moment to enjoy it:
“Not so much ride the rollercoaster: tonight presented an opportunity with the players and some staff to not so much take a breath, but just enjoy it for a minute. The rooms felt incredible with our family and friends and so many people connected to the Club. We had incredible support with the crowd, they keep turning up and giving us great energy. “I said to the players, they should understand what performances like that do to so many people and for so many people that are connected to the Club. They’re important. That moment to enjoy it for a minute was important, and now we get back to work.”

On embracing everything:
“I haven’t looked back. My thought process at the start was how do we position the Club better moving forward. In many ways, that’s still the case. Tonight was a different challenge and we found a different way. We’re embracing the next opportunity to take on an opponent and test ourselves on where we’re at. We’re not in a position to get too carried away, nobody inside the Club is of that mindset or those behaviours. “It’s so process-oriented, which I love. We’re trying to be better every day we’re at the Club, and we’re trying to continue to put a brand of football on the field that our supporters can identify with - that regardless of result, we can walk away and say ‘That looked like a Carlton game’.”

On young players stepping up:
“Nope. I got asked that during the week, I thought they’d be fine. I’ve got the luxury of seeing them day-to-day and knowing their character. They’re mature beyond their years with the way they play, and their understanding of what they have to do within their roles. They’re so well-coached by our playing group.”

On Cooper Lord’s role on Kozzie Pickett:
“Young player, big task. Talking about the threats we had to try and nullify, Kozzie was one. I thought Coop did a great job, he was well-supported by guys around him but he stuck to his task. “He’s a very team-oriented guy and I thought over the course of the four quarters was able to nullify Kozzie as much as he could. It’s hard to stop a great player like that all the time, but I thought Coop did a great job. “The Pitto-Max Gawn match-up, I thought Pitto was excellent for us. He’s been so reliable and a great competitor. They’re two threats we had to try and nullify, and those two guys did a great job.”

On negating Max Gawn’s impact:
“Ideally, we weren’t kicking it to him often, because of how good he is in the air. We had to find another way, and sometimes that presented for us and other times it didn’t. When we had to go down the line, we got a pretty good contest. The players’ ability to keep working to provide that option to get the ball offline and try to go around Max, and then going inside 50 with our ability to lower our eyes at the right time… it wasn’t perfect. “There were times in the game it frustrated myself and the other coaches, but it was the ability for the players to embrace the imperfection of that, still understand our method and persist.”

On Patrick Cripps leaving the ground in the third term:
“He’s fine. He’s a guy who I think his game looks as good as ever - it might not show on the stats sheet, but the role he plays for others, he’s leading incredibly well. I’m not sure what he finished with tonight, but some really important moments through pressure and setting up other guys around him. “I thought he was terrific.”

On sticking to process;
“I thought it was a continuation of what we’ve been doing. At no stage did we look like we were phased by not having the momentum. The resilience attached to that is important, the players looked really calm and collected. We train a lot of different things around that as well, we’re not turning up hoping that’s the case - we put a lot of time and effort into it. “We’re not a finished product, we were able to do it tonight and then you face a different challenge against Geelong next week. At some stage in that game, we’re going to have to be as resilient as we were tonight.”

On Ollie Hollands’ showing:
“This year in a football sense has provided a lot of challenges for Ollie. I can speak to his character, he turns up wanting to grow his game - maybe there’s disappointment of not being in the team and going back to the VFL, but he turns up with the right mindset and attitude and gets to work on his game. “We’ve had a high level of confidence to bring him in at the right time to play a role. The reality for him is there’s been guys in the team that have been performing, that’s been the challenge for a lot of guys in the VFL. Ollie in particular has shown a lot of resilience and character.”

On moving onto the next:
“Pretty quickly. Tomorrow we’ll start to pull the game apart and be ready for Monday and prepare as well as we can. Preparation won’t be an excuse for next weekend, against a team that has been a benchmark for a long period of time.”

In: Nick Haynes
Out: Wade Derksen (omitted)

Milestones

First Final: Talor Byrne, Harry Dean, Cooper Lord, Jagga Smith, Billy Wilson.
First Final (Carlton): Ben Ainsworth, Francis Evans, Oliver Florent, Nick Haynes.
First Final (Coach): Josh Fraser.

Interesting Facts

1. Before this match, eight of the last 12 games between these two teams have been decided by eight points or less.
2. The AFL's Wild Card experiment has proved a success with a total of 172,769 people attending the two Wild Card matches on successive nights at the M.C.G.
3. Matt Cottrell three behinds were all posters; Carlton hit the post on five occasions during this match.
Another two of Carlton's shots at goal were kicked out of bounds on the full.
4. Carlton has now become the first team to win a finals match from 9th (2013) and 10th (2026). In 2013, the Blues finished 9th but played in an Elimination Final as Essendon had to forfeit their spot in the finals due to the drug supplement saga.
5. This is Carlton's most successful 15-week stretch since 2000.

Free Kicks

Carlton 25
Melbourne 13

Not an official stat, but 8 to 9 of Carlton's free kicks were the direct result of run-down tackles by the Blues.

Umpires

Matt Stevic, Andrew Stephens, Brendan Hosking, Craig Fleer.

Front Runners

1. Ed Langdon (Melb) 14.8 km
2. Oliver Hollands 14.6 km
3. Cooper Lord 14.3 km
4. Adam Cerra 13.9 km
5. Koltyn Tholstrup (Melb) 13.8 km

Disposal Efficiency

1. Nick Haynes 95%
2. Jacob Weitering 89%
2. Adam Cerra 89%
3. Talor Byrne 88%
4. Harry McKay 83%

Best and Fairest Votes