AFL Finals 2023: Mark Robinson on Melbourne’s great choke and the ticker of the Blues
They choked again, the Demons, writes Mark Robinson. The game was there to be won but, instead, Melbourne achieved a club-first on Friday night – and not the positive kind.
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Melbourne’s season choked at the death, and Carlton’s improbable resurrection will continue in what will be Michael Voss’s homecoming at the Gabba.
The Blues were mighty. They will play in a preliminary final after being an inglorious 15th at round 13.
This is not a season of remarkable fortunes. It is a season of football miracles.
On Friday night, Blake Acres kicked the go-ahead goal with just less than a minute to play. The final 56 seconds was boys’ own. Players for both teams competed without fear, but exhausted by the torrid encounter that, from the 17th minute of the third quarter, saw firstly Melbourne take control, then Carlton, then Melbourne and then, when it was required most, Carlton.
The roar at the final siren was immense. The sudden and deafening expulsion of nerves, relief and excitement was louder than the week before when the Blues sent Sydney packing.
Last night it was Melbourne.
They are never beaten, the Blues. They seem to take standing count after standing count, yet they are still climb off the canvas.
They won this game because they had ticker. It’s not a word which has been associated with this football club for a long time. And now, they are in a preliminary final.
Ticker gives you a chance and they will need all of it if their “contest and pressure’’ can quell Brisbane on the fastest deck in the AFL.
Sam Walsh is all ticker – and lungs. He had 34 and kicked two goals which just about made him BOG. Nic Newman, Patrick Cripps, Adam Saad, Tom De Koning, Jacob Weitering … each and all of them have a moment, or many moments, when they were pivotal in turning the tide.
The Demons would be shattered. They lost last weekend to Collingwood by seven points. It was a bloodied flesh wound.
Last night, it was two points. And death came via a stake through the heart, or as it happened, a dribble kick from Acres from near the top of the goal square. They choked again, Melbourne.
They scored 9.17 from 53 forward 50 entries. Carlton kicked 11.7 from 52 entries.
And it wasn’t just the scoring. Melbourne’s failed to apply scoreboard pressure when it had control of the game
The first half was even. The second half opened up from the 17th minute of the third quarter. From that time to the three-quarter time siren, Melbourne had 10 inside 50s to 1. They kicked 2.2 to 0.1.
They couldn’t get it done.
Carlton kicked the first two goals of the final quarter to square the game, but again Melbourne took the ascendancy. But, again, they couldn’t get it done.
It was the first time in the club’s history the Demons had lost four consecutive finals.
They made a record they didn’t want and lost in a way the didn’t expect.
Kozzie Pickett was the villain, the hero and will be the villain on Saturday when he will likely be suspended for a week. It was an all-kind of game from Pickett. The brilliance and responsibility was matched by ill-discipline and stupidity.
In the third quarter, he jumped off the ground and hammered Patrick Cripps with a bump to the head.
In the first quarter he had a reversal free kick paid against him and Joel Smith lost the ball. In the positive, he kicked two goals.
Melbourne gave away too many free kicks and 50m penalties.
De Koning also has ticker – and talent. His brother made a name for himself in September last year with Geelong and on Friday night, kept a cool head when the Blues were nearing the point of panic in the first quarter.
He kicked the first two Carlton goals and was also solid in the ruck. Marc Pittonet tagged Max Gawn and Voss would be thrilled with that outcome.
Gawn will be disappointed with missed shots and a tap back on the goal line.
In the third quarter, the Blues looked tired and turnovers killed them.
Whatever motivation Voss found at three-quarter-time will be told in the afterglow.
From being tired and being camped in their D50 for the last 10 minutes of the third quarter, the Blues went bang, bang to start the final quarter.
And they’re alive again, when the season looked shot.
Ticker does that. It makes players seem invincible and that’s the best way to describe Carlton in the second half of the year.
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