AFL round 6: Carlton defeats GWS Giants, Patrick Cripps and Sam Walsh star in midfield
Carlton has brought GWS’ unbeaten start to the season to a grinding halt, producing an emphatic second half after losing another key player to injury.
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Sometimes the winner of a shootout is just whoever has the biggest gun.
Struggling for so much of Saturday’s clash against GWS, Carlton unholstered their weapons and blew the Giants away.
Everybody knows how powerful and dominant Charlie Curnow and Harry McKay can be, but often they haven’t done it together.
Everyone also knows how good Patrick Cripps and Sam Walsh are through the midfield.
For a glorious 15 minutes in the third quarter, all four of those big guns fired off huge bullets.
It all happened in less than eight minutes of actual playing time and the Blues started that stretch 20 points behind, having conceded six goals on the trot.
Three goals to Curnow, two to McKay and one to Tom De Koning later and Carlton fans delivered a standing ovation at three quarter-time for a 15-point lead.
As is always said these days: it started in the middle, as Walsh and Cripps combined for 23 disposals in the term to lead attack after attack.
Those two midfield dynamos ended up with 74 possessions between them in trademark performances.
In the third quarter, Carlton had 31 more disposals, 10 more contested possessions and 23 more uncontested possessions.
It was David Parkin’s old premiership quarter unleashed in the 21st century.
De Koning said post-match that these Blues know they can win a match in a short burst.
“Once our system really gets ticking we know we can score quickly and we only need a patch of 10 minutes sometimes to put the foot down and score and put some score on the board,” he said.
As Curnow and McKay got going, De Koning – who ended a superb game with three goals from 15 disposals – said he just finds himself “trying not to get in their way”.
“Those two big boys have such a big presence and when they are playing well it is hard to beat us,” De Koning said.
The Blues wound up 19-point winners after reeling off eight consecutive goals.
The decisive third term started with more injury woes for Carlton, as Zac Williams was subbed out with a sore achilles and Jacob Weitering limped his way to full-back after a big corkie on his quad.
Williams was in good spirits in the rooms post-match and was walking without a pronounced limp.
With him off, it could be argued the Blues had 11 first-choice players watching from the wrong side of the fence.
But when your superstars dominate, you can fight through so many setbacks.
The incredible burst belied what until then had been a superb team game from the Giants.
They stretched the Blues to breaking point with uncontested play, tallying up 36 more marks for the entire game.
Josh Kelly had bagged three goals from the wing and the speed of that orange tsunami meant that while Cripps dominated from stoppages, GWS was winning on the outside.
There was certainly no shame in this first loss of the season for the Giants.
Jesse Hogan was causing trouble to Carlton’s defence but, while Hogan is a terrific player, he is not at the level of Curnow, or McKay at his best.
Hogan was drawn into a small punch to Brodie Kemp in the final quarter that will draw scrutiny from the match review officer, while Toby Greene will again be a talking point post-match.
Greene appeared to pull up in a marking contest where Blue Jordan Boyd came back with the flight but the Giants skipper turned his body and bumped Boyd in the head, in a similar incident to one that saw Essendon’s Peter Wright ruled out for a month earlier this year.
In Greene’s favour, Boyd played on with no apparent discomfort.
Through injury and sometimes indifferent form, Carlton – who faces Geelong in a blockbuster next weekend – has been far from dominant in a 5-1 start to the season.
But there is no need to be dominant in April – you need to win to set up a top-four spot.
If the Blues empty out the injury list to fill out their side and get the big guns firing at the right time, few sides can go with them.
Perhaps no team has the weapons to keep up.
BLUES HIT BY ANOTHER DEFENSIVE INJURY BLOW
Zac Williams has been added to Carlton’s growing injury list, with the comeback defender subbed out of Saturday’s clash with GWS after a knock to his Achilles.
Williams did not return to the field after halftime and was subbed off for youngster Jack Carroll.
The interruption for the former Giant comes after he had been steadily building form in five games this season, on his return from an ACL injury that ruined his 2023.
Williams ruptured his Achilles when playing for GWS in 2018 and in 2022 suffered an injury to his calf that was initially feared to be the Achilles.
Williams being subbed came after concerns for fellow defender Jacob Weitering, who copped a heavy cork to his quad just before halftime.
The vice-captain picked up the injury just moments before the main break and returned to start the third quarter with his left quad visibly strapped.
Running defender Nic Newman also had difficulty with a knee issue in the first half but played through the pain.
Carlton’s backline has been recently ravaged by injury with Mitch McGovern and Adam Saad pinging hamstrings, while Caleb Marchbank is out with a back and concussion complaint.
Several other Blues are out with hamstrings – such as Adam Cerra, Jack Martin, Jesse Motlop.
David Cuningham (calf) and Lachie Fogarty (wrist) are also sidelined, while Jack Silvagni and Sam Docherty are both out for the year with knee injuries.
Originally published as AFL round 6: Carlton defeats GWS Giants, Patrick Cripps and Sam Walsh star in midfield
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