AFL 2023: All the latest news and analysis from Carlton vs. GWS Giants
Two weeks ago, Carlton looked close to the best team in the competition. Now, the air of what was a soaring balloon over Princes Park is being let out, writes Chris Cavanagh.
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The winning streak has been snapped and Carlton coach Michael Voss suddenly has more headaches than he would like at the wrong time of year.
Two weeks ago, the Blues looked as good a premiership chance as any in an even season.
Their forward line was scoring freely and defensively they were The Great Wall of Carlton – as hard a team to score against as any in the competition.
Since then, more than a little bit of air has been let out of what was a soaring balloon over Princes Park.
A come-from-behind four-point win over Gold Coast in round 23 was less than convincing and the Blues found themselves overwhelmed as Greater Western Sydney brought the Orange Tsunami to Marvel Stadium on Sunday night in a 32-point thumping.
While Carlton entered the match knowing it had little to gain – already locked into fifth spot and a home elimination final in the first week of September – it soon found out there could be a lot to lose.
The night started as a celebration, with Charlie Curnow taking just 15 minutes to put two goals on the board and get his hands on a second-successive Coleman Medal.
Curnow received a standing ovation from a stadium drenched in navy blue as he reached a career-high 77 goals for the season to leapfrog Adelaide’s Taylor Walker (76 goals) for the award.
However, many of those same fans that stood to clap Curnow had headed for home in the opening minutes of the last quarter as their frustrations from a barren middle part of the season bubbled back to the surface.
After quarter-time, the Blues’ defence was picked apart, their forward line struggled to function and there were serious question marks hanging over the availability of two key players ahead of the club’s first final since 2013.
The most pressing of those was vice-captain Jacob Weitering, who faces a nervous wait for the AFL match review officer findings on Monday.
As much as it took Curnow only 15 minutes of the first quarter to win the Coleman Medal, it might have taken only a few seconds of the second quarter for Weitering’s apparent brain fade to derail his side’s finals hopes.
After first tugging at GWS captain Toby Greene’s jumper to try and pull him off Mitch McGovern amid a lingering tackle, Weitering made unnecessary contact with Greene’s face.
Should that contact be deemed a reportable offence, it could be graded as intentional, low impact and high contact – resulting in a one-week suspension for Weitering.
Greene himself missed a preliminary final in 2019 after he received a one-match ban for making contact to the eye region of Brisbane’s Lachie Neale.
Asked about the incident with Weitering on Sunday night, Greene replied bluntly.
“He (Weitering) might be in trouble,” Greene told Fox Footy.
“I think I got in trouble for that, so we’ll see how he goes.”
Blues coach Michael Voss said he had not seen the incident when asked if he was concerned about it post-match.
“I haven’t even bothered to have a look at it,” Voss said.
“I’m comfortable with the commentary around is so I’ll leave it at that.
“(Weitering is) pretty important. I think that’s probably stating the real obvious. He’s had a fantastic year. Our leaders have been really important through this period of time.”
The third quarter threw up another availability headache, with Blues wingman Blake Acres seated at the back of the bench with ice on an injured shoulder after a heavy bump.
A key part of the Carlton side with his run, Acres has missed just one match this season and had rated elite for disposals and metres gained.
“The early indication might not be great, but we’ll just assess that and hopefully get all the results by Tuesday,” coach Michael Voss said post-match.
Add in a defence that gave up 105 points to the Giants – including 10.7 (67) from turnovers – and the Blues have some untimely issues.
Voss’ side now faces a do-or-die clash against Sydney in an elimination final at the MCG.
The two teams last did battle at the SCG in round 11, with Carlton managing only six goals in a 26-point loss that night.
Carlton – and potentially its legal team – have some work to do.
Voss confident Blues’ best stacks up
– Ronny Lerner
Carlton coach Michael Voss embraced a return to finals footy despite a disappointing end to the home-and-away season.
“To come into the game (against GWS) and know that we had a (finals) position locked away, and we had a home final, it’s a significant achievement from where we were to where we are,” Voss said post-match.
“I understand that there’s been a lot of disappointment (for the fans) and there’s been a lot of frustration over a long period of time.
“They’ve really stuck at it, we’ve had a fair journey together this year, so to be able to go out there, play an elimination final, put our best on show and be able to pack out the MCG will just be a great moment and we’re looking forward to thrive in it.”
Carlton have completed a spectacular turnaround in the second half of the year, with a nine-game winning streak dragging them out of the bottom four in Round 15 all the way up to fifth on the ladder.
Having taken the scalps of premiership contenders Collingwood, Port Adelaide and Melbourne in the process, Voss was confident his team was good enough to win finals.
“We don’t pretend to think that we’ve got a game style that’s going to win every single game, what we’re trying to build is a system that will stand up in big moments and in big finals,” he said.
“We feel like we’ve made massive inroads into that particular part of our game.”
But Voss has noticed a slip in standards over the past two games, with a narrow win over Gold Coast backed up with a convincing loss to GWS.
“The defence and our ability to defend the turnover was pretty poor today, and it was poor last week as well,” he said.
“We dodged one last week (against Gold Coast) and we didn’t dodge one today, but we’ve got the feedback we need to just make sure that we correct it and put it back into place when we come into our first final.”
Carlton was excited to test themselves against the best teams over the next month if they’re good enough to keep winning, according to Voss.
“One of the things that you want to be able to see is what’s your level like? What’s your top end look like in terms of the way you play?
“Obviously there’s a lot of teams in there that have a really good top end and they’ve earned their way into the finals, but I know we measure up well against that.
“Our challenge of course is to make sure we continue to bring that and that’s why finals is so exciting because they demand it every single week.”
Giants return to finals, Weitering faces MRO heat
– Ronny Lerner
Greater Western Sydney has qualified for the finals in convincing fashion after snapping Carlton’s nine-game winning streak in the last match of the home-and-away season at Marvel Stadium on Sunday night.
But unfortunately for the Giants – and fortuitously for St Kilda – the 32-point margin fell just short of earning them a home elimination final.
The Giants finish in seventh position and will return to Melbourne to face the Saints in week one of the finals, a remarkable result in Adam Kingsley’s first year in charge.
Carlton might have to head into its first finals campaign in 10 years without star defender Jacob Weitering, who is sure to come under MRO scrutiny after appearing to make contact to the eye region of Greene late in the second quarter.
Meanwhile, Carlton gun Blake Acres looks to be in a race against time after being subbed out in the third quarter with a collarbone injury. He was seen sporting a big icepack on the bench. But the Blues will regain captain Patrick Cripps for their home elimination final against Sydney.
Greene had just laid a tackle on Blues backman Mitch McGovern with less than four minutes remaining in the opening half when Weitering tried to pull the Giants’ forward off his teammate.
Anything to worry about here for Jacob Weitering after some contact to the face of Toby Greene?
— Fox Footy (@FOXFOOTY) August 27, 2023
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Weitering initially tugged at Greene’s jumper, before going on to put his left hand on Greene’s face and making contact around his eye region.
Greene left the field moments later after the field umpire saw blood flowing from above his right eye.
Under AFL tribunal guidelines, making unreasonable or unnecessary contact to the eye region is a classifiable offence for match review officer Michael Christian.
If the incident was graded intentional, low impact and high contact, Weitering could be handed a one-week suspension and face the prospect of missing the Blues’ elimination final.
But if it was graded careless then the star defender would escape with a fine.
GWS headed into the game in ninth spot with a percentage of 105.6, and a game behind sixth-placed St Kilda, and when Greene kicked their seventh goal in a row midway through the final quarter, he put them up by 45 points and provisionally put them in sixth position as it increased their percentage to 107.80 – 0.03 ahead of St Kilda’s 107.77.
However, Carlton kicked the last two goals via Corey Durdin and Zac Fisher, which brought the Giants’ percentage back down to 107.1.
It completes a remarkable transformation from the Giants, who have won nine of their last 11 matches after they were in the bottom four in round 12 with a 4-8 record.
The 16.9 (105) to 11.7 (73) result has also knocked the Western Bulldogs out of the finals race. They were clinging onto eighth spot heading into the Blues-Giants match, and needed GWS to lose to stay there.
After Carlton did the Bulldogs a huge favour on the last day of the season last year, the Blues would not be affording such luck to Luke Beveridge’s team for a second season running.
The equation for GWS heading into their match with the Blues was simple – win and you’re in.
Things got off to a horror start for Adam Kinglsey’s team when their superstar defender Sam Taylor was a late out due to a hamstring injury.
Upon hearing that news, Adelaide forward Taylor Walker’s heart would have sunk as well because he had only a one-goal lead over Carlton spearhead Charlie Curnow in the race for the Coleman Medal.
CURNOW CLINCHES COLEMAN
Jack Buckley was given the big task on Curnow, and within 15 minutes, the Carlton star had sewn up his second Coleman after kicking a pair of majors in quick succession. But Buckley did a magnificent job keeping Curnow to three majors for the match.
Curnow finished 78 goals for the season to become just the fifth player in the last 30 years to win back-to-back Colemans along with Gary Ablett senior (1993-95), Matthew Lloyd (2000-01), Fraser Gehrig (2004-05) and West Coast’s Josh Kennedy (2015-16).
GWS TRIO STAR
Stephen Coniglio was sensational for the Giants, finishing with 28 disposals, six tackles and two goals. Tom Green was immense as well, registering 35 touches (20 contested) and eight clearances, while Greene (19 disposals) ended up with four goals.
GIANTS RECOVER FROM SLOW START
Carlton ambushed the Giants in the first 20 minutes with ferocious pressure enabling the hosts to open an early 14-point lead, but they didn’t capitalise on their dominance.
GWS absorbed the onslaught and responded by kicking six of the next seven goals, including three to Toby Greene, to lead by 18 points early in the second quarter. The Giants looked sharper in attack and Carlton’s disorganised backline struggled to cope as they gave the GWS forwards too much leeway too often.
Carlton hit back with the next three majors to regain the lead just before half-time, raising Bulldogs hopes, but a dominant second half from the Giants, emphatically booked them a ticket to September.
SCOREBOARD
BLUES 4.3, 7.5, 9.5, 11.7 (73)
GIANTS 3.2, 8.4, 13.7, 16.9 (105)
LERNER’S BEST
Blues: Acres, Walsh, Fisher, Kemp, Weitering, C.Curnow.
Giants: Coniglio, Green, Greene, Buckley, Himmelberg, Whitfield, Idun.
GOALS
Blues: C.Curnow 3, Owies 2, Cottrell, Martin, De Koning, Hewett, C.Durdin, Fisher.
Giants: Greene 4, Riccardi 3, Coniglio 2, Ward, Keeffe, Hogan, Cumming, Lloyd, Brown, Daniels.
INJURIES
Blues: Acres (shoulder). Giants: Sam Taylor (hamstring) replaced in selected side by Toby McMullin.
Umpires: Foot, Stevic, Deboy, Stephens
Venue: Marvel Stadium
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
LERNER’S VOTES
3. Stephen Coniglio (GWS)
2. Tom Green (GWS)
1. Toby Greene (GWS)
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Originally published as AFL 2023: All the latest news and analysis from Carlton vs. GWS Giants
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