AFL 2020: GWS tops Carlton despite both clubs’ horrific goalkicking woes
The curtain might be drawn on a season that promised so much for Carlton, and GWS still has a heartbeat, but this was a match dominated by some of the worst kicking for goal you will ever see in an AFL match. See the stats.
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Carlton’s season is almost certainly over and its seven-year finals drought looks set to stretch on after blowing a major opportunity by losing to an out-of-sorts GWS by nine points in a dour game at Metricon Stadium on Thursday night.
Melbourne’s upset loss to Sydney earlier in the evening opened the door for the Giants to move into eighth spot at the Demons’ expense or the Blues to go level on points with them.
And Carlton coach David Teague says his side got what it deserved because it is not able to string four quarters together under pressure.
Carlton is now 6-8 and two wins behind the now the eighth-placed Giants with three rounds remaining.
Asked if the Blues' season was over, Teague said: “You’d have to have a look at it mathematically but it’s not over for us, we’ve got three more games to get better and see what happens”.
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Teague said the game was a missed opportunity, regardless of where the ladder stood.
“We got out there to play for four quarters and put the effort and make the right decisions, and right now we’re not there,” he said.
“We’re probably sitting where we should sit.
“What we do have is belief that we can do it, we’ve showed we can do it for periods of games.”
Instead of leading to a tense, pressure-filled contest, it was error-riddled and among the worst displays of goalkicking you could see at AFL level despite perfect conditions.
Going into the final term, the Giants had kicked 2.11, trailed by 15 points and did not look like winning, but they came hard, playing more instinctually and ending their accuracy woes.
For the second week in a row, Carlton only had itself to blame for wasting a big chance to keep pressure on sides above them.
Just like against Collingwood on Sunday, when it led by eight points at halftime and failed to kick a goal in the final two terms, it faded badly, this time kicking only one major after quarter time.
So poor were the Blues’ forwards, they managed just one goal from their last 42 inside 50s.
Teague said the end of Friday night’s match was frustrating but he was proud of how his side had played before that.
“Our ball use going inside 50, it was wet, slippery and we tried to go shallow ... and it got turned over and allowed them to attack off a shorter pitch,” he said.
“And we lost critical contests behind the ball late in the game.”
Second halves continue to be a problem for the Blues.
In their past seven games, they have scored 36 goals before half-time but just 13 after that.
“When the pressure comes, that’s our challenge, that’s our growth – we need to be stronger in the contest and stronger with our decision-making with the ball and understanding what’s required in the game at those times,” Teague said.
WAYWARD KICKING
Poor goalkicking was the theme of the night.
GWS was ahead 15-7 in inside 50s at quarter-time and had six scoring shots to four but trailed by 13 points because it butchered chances at goal to be 1.5.
It did not get any better during the second term, as the Giants added another four behinds without a major.
At least four of their first-half shots were very gettable.
The sides had kicked 1.14 from quarter time to late in the third quarter when Marc Murphy pounced on a ball that trickled towards goals and finished truly on Carlton’s 17th forward entry of the term to open up a 15-point three-quarter time lead.
Things did not improve until the last term, when the Giants got on a roll.
DE BOER SHUTDOWN
Tagger Matt De Boer struck again on Friday night, keeping Blues co-captain Patrick Cripps to just 13 disposals.
Cripps took until late in the term to have his first possession and that was the only one he had for the quarter.
He had three more in the second term but struggled to find space and influence the game as he usually would.
De Boer restricted Cripps to 12 disposals in the Giants’ victory last year.
Teague said Cripps came into the match with a corked thigh after his big collision with Chris Mayne last week but “seemed to get through the game OK”.
He said the team wanted to be able to swing Cripps forward, but needed more players to stand up and fill the void.
“We need more guys to share the load when the heat’s on and the pressure’s on, and that’s our growth,” he said.
“Who is it? Who are those guys going to be to step up when the game’s on the line?”
WHERE ARE THE GOALS?
Neither side booted a major during a very dour second quarter.
It was only the third goalless for the season and first since another GWS game – against Essendon in Round 10.
The other match to feature a goalless term was Richmond versus Collingwood in Round 2.
Three minutes into the second term, the Giants booted the first six-pointer since Harry McKay’s 22 minutes into the opening quarter when Jeremy Finlayson capitalised on confusion between Liam Jones and Tom Williamson.
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RICCARDI WINS IT
When GWS needed someone to stand up and kick a goal, it was not Jeremy Cameron or Toby Greene, or anyone else from the club’s 2019 grand final tilt – it was Jake Riccardi.
The first-year mature-age forward, who was recruited from Werribee during the off-season, kicked the opening two majors of the last term and sparked the Giants.
One came from a mark on 50m, the other was from a goal out the back.
SCOREBOARD
GWS 1.5 1.9 2.11 6.12 (48)
def
CARLTON 4.0 4.3 5.8 5.9 (39)
GOALS
Giants: Riccardi 2; Greene, Finlayson, Perryman, Hill.
Blues: Martin, Dow, Walsh, McKay, Murphy.
MATT TURNER’S BEST
Giants: Haynes, De Boer, Greene, Hill, Hopper, Whitfield, Riccardi.
Blues: Weitering, Walsh, Docherty, Curnow, Jones, McKay.
MATT TURNER’S VOTES
3 — Nick Haynes (GWS)
2 — Matt De Boer (GWS)
1 — Jacob Weitering (Carlton)
Injuries: Nil
KID OVERSHADOWS GIANT FERRARI FORWARDLINE
A star has been born at GWS, to the point where third-game sensation Jake Riccardi is “embarrassing” the Giants’ $1.2 million man.
Riccardi kicked two brilliant final quarter goals to clinch the Giants’ a place back in the AFL top eight with a crucial come-from-behind win over Carlton.
In a low-standard match where GWS’s goal kicking was deplorable and highly paid star Jeremy Cameron didn’t look like hitting the scoreboard, Riccardi showed for the third consecutive week that he is a man for the big moment.
Brisbane Lions premiership great Jonathan Brown said Cameron – off contract but expected to re-sign at GWS as the game’s highest paid player – looked “disinterested” and should be “embarrassed” by the way he was shown up by rookie Riccardi.
“When Jeremy Cameron goes back and watches that replay tonight and sees what Riccadi did in those moments and the way he gets around that field and the way he competes, Jeremy should be embarrassed,” Brown said on Fox Footy.
“And I’m a fan of Jeremy Cameron fan, but too many times this year he’s looked disinterested and he hasn’t played like a big man.
“He’s got to play like a big man. He might say he’s a bit slight. No. He’s a key forward, he’s a power forward. He gets paid like a key forward.
“He needs to take hold in those moments with physicality and he just hasn’t been able to do that.
“Riccardi is showing the way. A third gamer is showing the highest paid player in the competition the way to do it. And they play the same position.”
The Giants’ nine-point victory has secured them eighth spot on the table after cross-town rivals Sydney took care of Melbourne to open up the mid-table log-jamp.
Riccardi was unwanted in the 2017 and 2018 drafts, and in the 2019 mid-year draft, yet is keeping the Giants’ season alive.
The 195cm go-getter kicked back-to-back goals in the space of two minutes early in the fourth quarter to get the Giants back within touching distance, before Harry Perryman kicked the go-ahead goal and Bobby Hill another to push the buffer out.
Brown said Riccardi had something special.
“The one single thing you’re looking for in a key forward, not necessarily a third gamer is moments,” said Brown on Fox.
“Can he sense a moment and what can he do in that moment?”
Fellow commentator Nick Riewoldt said Riccardi’s match-winning performance was even more significant when compared to Cameron’s poor match.
“He does the key forward thing. He takes the big contested mark and goes back and slots the goal,” said Riewoldt.
“And on a night where their marquee key forward Jeremy Cameron couldn’t buy a kick, he was the one who stood up in the highest leverage moment.”
Ex-great Gary Lyon said the hype around RIccardi was justified.
“Sometimes you can be accused of falling in love with a player. But there were moments in this game where they just weren’t threatening at all and needed someone to take the responsibility, and it was the third gamer again,” Lyon said.