Carlton beat Suns to push for first AFL finals berth in seven years
Carlton fans must be used to heart-stoppers this season, but finally they got to see their side win convincingly.
Carlton fans must be used to heart-stoppers this season, but on Friday night, they got to see their side do something they have not done in seven rounds – win convincingly.
Do not let the scoreboard fool you – the Blues dominated Gold Coast in their Indigenous Round clash at Darwin’s TIO Stadium and could have won by 10 goals if they had kicked straight.
Instead, the 7.18 (60) to 4.3 (27) win – Carlton’s biggest since beating the Western Bulldogs by 52 points in Round 6 after having six games this season decided by seven points or fewer – continued David Teague’s side’s push for its first finals appearance in seven years.
Carlton looked like shooting itself in the foot with poor goalkicking when it led by just seven points – 2.7 to 2.0 – midway through the second term, despite dominating play and possession.
But a goal to crowd favourite Eddie Betts sparked the Blues, who kicked the last three majors before half-time to push out to a 25-point lead that they never looked like relinquishing.
Playing their first Friday night game, the Suns struggled to get any momentum or even get the ball inside 50 and rarely played with any adventure.
Carlton, leading throughout, finished with huge advantages in disposals (334-239), marks (93-60) and inside 50s (53-26), in an indication of the Blues’ supremacy.
Jack Martin returned to the Carlton side from a calf injury to face his former team and was arguably the Blues’ best player.
As some players struggled to handle the ball, Martin showed his class and used it well.
By the game’s end, he’d had 21 disposals.
Carlton got Martin for nothing via the pre-season draft last year and would have to be happy with his contributions to date.
Betts and Izak Rankine were the headline grabbers ahead of this game irrespective of it being the Sir Doug Nicholls Indigenous Round. Both showed glimpses of their brilliance – Rankine kicked the Suns’ opening goal, 10 minutes into the second term, while Betts kicked a major of his own in that quarter and was typically unselfish. But neither was able to truly take the spotlight.
Betts, who said in the lead-up to the game that he “gets tingles” whenever he thought about the round, received huge cheers from the Darwin crowd whenever he had the ball.
He brought out the party tricks during the second term when tight against the boundary line he tapped the ball against Charlie Ballard, but missed the shot from the resulting free and lacked fluency at times.
Rankine missed a golden chance on the three-quarter time siren, when he tried a checkside kick from just 15m out and the ball hit the post.
Should Carlton defender Jacob Weitering be in the All Australian team?
The 2015 No 1 draft pick continues to improve his game and after keeping big guns such as Tom Lynch goalless so far this season, emerging Gold Coast forward Ben King became his latest victim.
King had just one disposal until midway through the game and had only five by full-time.
The humid conditions did not help key forward marking, but Weitering was able to read the ball better in the air and blanket King all night. At the other end, Harry McKay had few issues marking the ball (he had eight) and was impressive, if not for his 2.4.
Both teams struggled to adjust to the greasy conditions on Friday night, as Darwin sweltered in 28C heat and 85 per cent humidity and the ball at times resembled a bar of soap.
Dropped marks and mishandling of the ball was a regular sight, but it was exacerbated by both sides at times choosing to go short too often, particularly early.
The conditions contributed to a scoreless first quarter for the Suns.
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