AFL 2024: Blues barely survive epic with Dees, win 77-76 on rainy MCG night
Christian Petracca dominated a comeback like few we have ever seen in footy, and looked to have taken the game himself from the Blues, until one unsung hero down back sealed a Carlton victory.
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It was the Nic Newman tackle that saved the game for Carlton, stopping an almost superhuman five-goal performance from Christian Petracca from dragging Melbourne off the canvas in an old-fashioned slugfest between these two AFL protagonists well versed in nailbiting finishes.
In a match that carried on the recent tradition of epic close finishes between the Blues and the Demons, this was a game of inches which ended up going right down to the wire, with Carlton holding on by a point in the dying seconds.
Petracca might just be the best ‘break glass in case of emergency player’ in the AFL and when Melbourne’s forward line was spluttering like the exhaust of an old bomb on a cold morning, Simon Goodwin had no choice but to send him forward.
In doing so, Petracca almost single-handedly wrenched this game back into the hands of the Demons after the Blues looked to have it locked away on multiple occasions.
“Look it’s ongoing … we’ll just continue to look at what’s best for our footy club,” Goodwin said when asked if he would consider revamping the Demons’ forward personnel.
“We had to adjust a lot in-game, a lot of players played different roles and we were trying to find an avenue to score and get back in the game.“Christian was one of those guys and he was outstanding. Clearly he had an exceptional night and has enormous impact for us, so it was really pleasing for us that we were able to put Christian in a position where he could have an impact on the scoreboard for us.”
Michael Voss’ team kicked the first six goals of the game and then led by 28 points after kicking the first goal of an enthralling final term.
But those who know the recent history of encounters between these sides knew there was a fresh script to come.
Charged by Petracca’s dominance in attack, the Demons stormed home with a four-goal last term, including their star’s fifth major of the game at the 27-minute-mark of the final term which brought the margin back to seven points.
Then Max Gawn reprised his efforts from last week with another goal from outside 50m to cut the margin back to a solitary point with 40 seconds left.
In almost the last passage of play, Petracca broke loose within scoring range and looked forward with opportunistic intent. The game looked in his hands – again.
Blues’ fans felt their hearts aflutter again, less than a week after losing a heartbreaker to Collingwood. They feared it was happening again.
Enter Newman. He lunged at the man no one had been able to stop all night and dragged him down alongside teammate Patrick Cripps, who was huge on the night.
The free kick was the break in play the Blues needed. The game was over, and this victory meant it was the sixth time from the past eight games that these two teams had played a game decided by less than a kick.
In last year’s semi-final, it was two points in the Blues’ favour.
This time it was one point, and Voss and his players were left breathing a huge sigh of relief.
Voss said the disappointment of allowing Melbourne back into the game would not “take away from the positives” for the Blues.
“The start was really impressive, that was how we wanted to make sure we (got the game) really early … obviously Melbourne were off the back of a five-day break, so just trying to get the jump,” he said.
“We’ve been fighting I reckon for a good month, I think we’ve been in some good form, we’ve played against some really good sides.
“It’s been something we’ve been chasing hard … to absorb 20 inside 50s in the last quarter and to still be able to hang on – I’m sure we’ll look back at it and say there’s moments we’d like to do better, we’d like to have some better composure, but generally across the whole game, I was really impressed with the win.
“We’ve been talking about the phases of the game and how we want to defend as a team, and I saw a real shift there, so we’ll walk away pretty happy with the result.”
Sam Walsh was the star early. He got the ball rolling for the Blues early. He has only played five games so far this season off a cruelly interrupted pre-season back injury, but his form has been devastatingly brilliant … spare for one brief passage of play.
It came in the dying moments against the Magpies last week when he was side by side with Nick Daicos at a crucial stoppage.
He lost his opponent at the most inopportune time which allowed the Magpies star to burst clear unopposed to kick the matchwinning major.
He gambled … and lost.
The vision was replayed on every footy review show ad nauseam, and it was almost as if Walsh had taken it personally.
This time against Melbourne, particularly early, he looked as if he was a poker player on a hot streak.
One moment summed up Walsh’s extraordinary scene-setting first term. It came after five minutes of football, when the Blues looked to clear the ball out of defence, and Walsh played a part in extricating out of the danger zone.
But his job wasn’t done.
As the ball swept up from defence to offence, Walsh put the afterburners on and kept running … and running. He regathered the Sherrin on the MCC members’ wing and launched into Harry McKay … before running some more.
The Blues key forward couldn’t grasp it, but Corey Durdin handballed forward to Marc Pittonet, who sensed a player charging near him.
That player?
Walsh, of course, and his ‘double cobra’ celebration was almost as good as his around the body right foot snap goal.
It set the scene for the Blues’ early dominance, but it was the drag-down tackle from Newman that ultimately closed it out.
SCOREBOARD
BLUES 5.0, 8.2, 11.4, 12.5 (77)
DEMONS 0.0, 3.1, 7.6, 11.10 (76)
BOURKE’S BEST Blues: Weitering, Walsh, Cripps, McGovern, Acres, Pittonet. Demons: Petracca, Neal-Bullen, Viney, Gawn, May, Oliver.
GOALS Blues: Owies 3, Curnow 2, Walsh, Pittonet, Martin, McKay, De Koning, Cripps, Hewett. Demons: Petracca 5, Turner, Pickett, Fritsch, van Rooyen, Windsor, Gawn.
UMPIRES Deboy, Mollison, Stevic, Williamson
INJURIES Blues: Cerra (hamstring), Pittonet (finger). Demons: nil.
CROWD 58,472 at the MCG
BOURKE’S VOTES
3. Christian Petracca (Melb)
2. Patrick Cripps (Carl)
1. Jacob Weitering (Carl)
Originally published as AFL 2024: Blues barely survive epic with Dees, win 77-76 on rainy MCG night
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