Carlton could ride its momentum past Sydney this week

HOW far would a club dare push its luck? Carlton's ashes were scattered by the club elders, yet here it stands like a cyborg assassin renewed.

Judd

HOW far would a club dare push its luck?

A team filleted and dissected for its inadequacies. A list enrolled for radical surgery on its shortcomings. A body first buried and then cremated for its repeated failures.

Carlton’s ashes were scattered by the club elders, yet here it stands like a cyborg assassin renewed, reinvigorated and threatening.

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It’s no longer a work of outrageous fiction — ninth knocking out the defending premiers in straight sets. It’s a narrow equation measuring the infused and enthused Blues against the wounded and wilting Swans.

If momentum is the god of modern football could Carlton capitalise on circumstances unprecedented and progress to the final four?

Judd

It’s a historical anomaly unrivalled since Fitzroy finished on the bottom in the four-team competition of 1916 and went on to win the flag.

A team without sufficient wins to fulfil the mathematical requirement of finishing in the top eight finds itself rising in a finals series in which assumption has already been blown apart.

Mick Malthouse avowed the ladder was irrelevant when it obsessed the minds outside. What seemed pretence is now vindicated.

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Carlton was killed off in every week of August.

Judgment came decisively at the hands of a relentless Fremantle. It was a trademark failure, unable to match or withstand the rigid discipline and work ethic of a well-drilled rival.

The follow-up loss to the Western Bulldogs was damning. With its season to play for the Blues were not only thoroughly outpointed but shown what hunger looked like.

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David Parkin observed success was a country mile off. Mark Maclure assessed the list as a collection of ruckmen and taggers. Robert Walls concluded they were no better with Malthouse than they had been under Brett Ratten.

It all seemed well founded as the Blues were laid bare when Richmond took them for eight goals to three in an opening quarter onslaught. In the moment it was ugly.

Carlton’s fight back from 30 points down was its most meritorious moment of the season. It required such effort and commitment as to choke the elders with pride.

But the recasting was fleeting as they snatched defeat at the hands of Essendon, by then the ghost team of the competition. David Zaharakis dropped Carlton into the molten lava with his dying seconds winner.

A landmark ruling from the AFL Commission transplanted the Bombers to ninth. It seemed only to taunt the Blues as they fell 39 points behind Port Adelaide.

At AAMI Stadium they had played like a team awaiting the merciful blow of the executioner until, suddenly unburdened by the certainty of defeat, Marc Murphy mustered the resistance.

It was pulsating but still would have ended in downfall had Matthew Broadbent either navigated the width of the post or seen Angus Monfries alone 20m out from goal.

History though reflects the victor’s perspective.

In the lead up to the Elimination Final, Malthouse was asked where was Carlton strong, what asset could it rely on to mount a September challenge?

His answer was revealing. He was gearing the Blues at selection and tactically to combat the opposition’s strengths more so than their own. The capacity for unpredictability was both a blessing and a curse.

The maestro had read his team well, for they were as wonderful after intermission as they were woeful before it last Sunday. In a rare and heaving atmosphere Carlton rounded up and routed Richmond with a combative mindset and pace to burn.

Confounding though it all might be, it has transformed the conversation around the Blues. From the expert to the local barista they speak of a different Carlton.

You’d discount it as crazy if not for the grit of Judd and Murphy, the fearlessness of Henderson and Robinson, and the speed of Garlett and Betts.

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It might prove to be the awakening or the cruellest illusion and in the difference will lie the direction of the next decade.

Whatever the truth it’s the darnedest thing we’ve seen in decades.