By Katie Bice
After Friday night’s game Carlton’s performance was destined to become the news of the round, until Essendon said, “Hold my beer”.
Their virtual no-show against St Kilda left their fans frustrated and coach Brad Scott barely containing a simmering rage at his side’s lack of effort.
“The end result, extremely disappointing but more disappointing than that was, you know, a lack of effort and intent which has been present for most of the year,” he said. “Particularly in the third quarter our effort and intent in the contest was really poor.
“It doesn’t take much in this game, if you drop off in that area, for you to look second rate and we looked third rate today.
“...We want to play a style that is competitive against the best teams and that gives us a chance to compete at the pointy end of the year and right here, right now, we’re not there. That’s pretty obvious.”
The Bombers are now in danger of missing finals.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images
It’s the second week in a row they’ve lost to a bottom five team.
Two weeks ago, The Age’s Michael Gleeson pointed out in this column that the misfiring Bombers had areas of concern to address heading into September.
Now they’ll be flat out just trying to make it with a run home that includes games against Fremantle, Gold Coast, Sydney and Brisbane – three of whom are above them on the ladder.
It seems a long time ago that the Bombers form had many pundits predicting that a finals win would see the team meet expectations for 2024.
Sitting third at the end of the bye rounds it’s gone downhill fast since then. Perhaps, as Scott hinted, it was a false dawn.
There’s a chance we’ve overrated Essendon’s list. Behind Zach Merrett their second-best player has arguably been Sam Durham.
Durham came to the Bombers via the 2021 mid-season draft from Richmond’s VFL side. He’s taken strides forwards ever since while the more highly rated top 10 draft picks around him fail to fire.
Nik Cox and Archie Perkins, picks eight and nine respectively, haven’t progressed and more recent additions of Ben Hobbs and Elijah Tsatas are running around in the VFL.
In the increasingly likely event the Bombers do miss finals it will be a tough to convince fans that the young brigade are the future and the bandwagon didn’t just hit a giant pothole on the road to a rebuild.
Bulldogs
The Western Bulldogs have registered their intention to create top-eight chaos by breaking in for the first time since round six.
They never looked like losing after making the road trip to Sydney, adding a strong win against the ladder leaders to victories over Geelong and Carlton in the last three weeks.
Their ability to kick goals will continue to trouble teams, particularly with Jamarra Ugle-Hagan in such good form.
Jamarra Ugle-Hagan (left) and Aaron Naughton of the Bulldogs celebrate.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images
Their midfield has been able to stack up against the best competition but much of the credit for their turnaround can go to their defenders.
Rory Lobb has been enormous since being swung to centre half back, Liam Jones had another cracker on Sunday and when you throw in Buku Khamis they are a near impenetrable trio.
Throw in Adam Treloar, Tom Liberatore and the around the ground brilliance of Marcus Bontempelli and you have a compelling case that they are a settled, scary side who have timed their run perfectly.
Coach Luke Beveridge was coy last week about whether Lobb’s move down back would be a permanent switch after he nullified Jeremy Cameron.
We can only hope that’s a question no longer up for debate.
Blues need to spread the load to fire
There are plenty of excuses for the Blues, a five-day break, injuries and whispers of a pre-finals increase in their training load.
But if they are going to tease us as a genuine premiership contender they need to turn out better - and more consistent - displays than they have in the last month.
While proving professional in putting away teams below them on the ladder, the concern over the last five weeks is their performance against the sort of competition they can expect come September, dropping games to Greater Western Sydney, Western Bulldogs and Port Adelaide.
On Friday night they looked to have the momentum but then went missing in action, kicking only one goal in the second half.
Coach Michael Voss bristled a little at questions after the match about the Blues continuing to be a one-man show. No Cripps, no Carlton.
The situation is clearly a bit better than that, but there’s also no doubt that their top-end players are really good – see Cripps, Charlie Curnow, Jacob Weitering, Harry McKay and Sam Walsh – and they are too often not supported by the mid-range battlers around them.
Carlton now face Collingwood, Hawthorn, West Coast and St Kilda to scrape into the top four.
If they do, they’ll likely face a trip interstate in the first week of finals and a chance to redeem themselves and our hopes that the team who so convincingly beat Geelong in round 15 was the real deal.
A Giant on the finals horizon
Victorian footy fans might want to book themselves a September holiday abroad. Carlton is spluttering, Geelong has drifted from the top four and Essendon, Hawthorn and Melbourne are likely to be left fighting for scraps.
Meanwhile, Brisbane and GWS are both flying at the right end of the season, Fremantle continues to chug along and Port aren’t to be sneezed at, sitting on 12-7 and looking a more reliable prospect than the Bombers for a top eight finish.
Jesse Hogan starred in a Giants blitz of the Demons at the ’G.Credit: Getty Images
GWS were savage in the first five minutes of the last quarter kicking four goals to bury Melbourne. Jesse Hogan is enjoying a career-best season and Toby Greene is certain to make an impact in a final.
If the cards fall the way of the interstate teams Victoria is staring down a finals’ series with only two games in town, one of which would be the grand final.
You’d be hard-pressed on current form to tip any of the Victorian-based sides to go deep into September.
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