AFL Round 21 Carlton v Gold Coast: All the action and fallout from Blues-Suns clash
It was a brutal and untimely defeat for Carlton coach David Teague as he fights desperately to hang on to his job. Here’s what the troubled coach put it down to.
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David Teague’s tenuous grip on the Carlton coaching job suffered a significant setback after the Blues’ finals hopes were extinguished by a shock 19-point loss to Gold Coast.
As Carlton prepares to reveal the findings of an external review into its football department — which could yet seal the coach’s fate — a frustrated Teague maintained on Saturday he was “absolutely” the right man to lead the Blues into the final year of his contract in 2022.
He said his team lacked energy against the Suns and couldn’t sustain the consistency required to qualify for the finals.
Teague conceded some of his players might have been distracted by the “outside noise” which has engulfed the club at times this season.
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Asked if he still had faith in his ability to get the best out of this group, despite recent losses to Gold Coast and North Melbourne, Teague said: “Absolutely ... I am really confident in myself and in the team we have got here and in the direction we are going.”
“I have faith in the group.
“A couple of times when we have probably gone in as favourites, we haven’t actually played as well. In other games, when we have got a long way behind and the shackles have come off, we play some nice football.
“We have got to find a way to … execute our best for longer and that’s what good teams do.
“We just didn’t execute at the level we needed to execute … Last week we did and this week we didn’t. That’s where we are at, and that’s why we are not going to be in the finals because we are not consistent enough with those habits.”
Carlton has only won eight games this season, meaning they will miss the finals for an eighth consecutive year.
The Blues have won only 21 of Teague’s 48 games as senior coach since he took over in difficult circumstances when Brendon Bolton was sacked in the middle of 2019.
In another age, and bearing in mind the ruthlessness of past Carlton boards, a loss such as the one to Gold Coast on Saturday might well have been classified as a coach-killer.
That remains to be seen, but the fact that four-time premiership coach Alastair Clarkson could now be gettable, raises the stakes for the Teague and the Blues.
While Teague is contracted for next year, his future is precariously placed and could be decided by the review into the club’s football operations brought on by incoming president Luke Sayers.
The findings are likely to be revealed before Round 23.
Teague conceded Blues fans had every right to be “disappointed” and “frustrated” by the wild fluctuations in the team’s performances.
“I just thought our effort looked off,” he said, pointing out the Blues had an eight-day break leading into the Suns clash from the previous Friday night win over St Kilda.
“Maybe it was thinking about the outcome (of being back in the finals race) rather than thinking about the process, and sticking to that.
“Probably (before the St Kilda win) players may have thought the finals were out of contention, and now it was back on their minds.
“Maybe they were thinking about it too much. If that was the case, each individual would have to look at that closely. But as a group, we went in with a clear plan and a focus on how to play the game and we weren’t able to execute that.
“We have got a lot of work (to do).”
Coleman Medal leader Harry McKay hurt his shoulder but played out the match, while Charlie Curnow showed glimpses of his talent in his second game back from a long injury layoff.
The Blues have a difficult last fortnight of the season to play out with games against Port Adelaide and Greater Western Sydney to come, with the spectre of the review hanging over more than just the coach.
Match report: Sun sets on Carlton’s season
- James Mottershead
Gold Coast all but ended Carlton’s season with a 19-point win against the Blues on the back of midfield domination.
The Blues led by nine-points at halftime but could only muster three goals when they needed them most in the second half.
The Suns’ midfield, namely Noah Anderson (30 disposals, nine clearances and 546-metres gained) and Touk Miller (35 disposals, seven clearances and two goals), dominated inside and were too much for Sam Walsh and Patrick Cripps to handle.
Will Powell (29 disposals, 531-metres gained, 10 intercepts and a goal) was immense for the Suns defensively, hardly losing a contest and providing scintillating rebound.
David Teague and Carlton will lament the second half fadeout, but truth be told, the Blues simply didn’t have enough gears to stay with the Suns.
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After a nervy start to the match, Carlton took 15 minutes to kick its first goal of the game after Brandon Ellis opened the scoring.
The 28-year-old got on the end of a kick from his former Richmond teammate Jacob Townsend with the two showing no signs of a lack of connection, despite not having played together for 1099 days.
But once Carlton had kicked its first, courtesy of Charlie Curnow making the most of a half-chance from the pocket, Josh Honey took over for the Blues.
The rookie-listed teenager kicked two late goals to give Carlton a 10-point quarter-time lead.
It was slow going for the Blues again in the second term, as goals to Touk Miller and Townsend gave the Suns a three-point lead.
The Blues clicked into gear again later, and an Eddie Betts goal from his first touch of the game at the 17-minute mark restored Carlton’s lead, before Jack Silvagni extended their advantage to nine-points at the main break.
Other than a Jack Martin goal early in the third quarter, it was all Gold Coast as the Suns opened up a seven-point lead at the final change.
Goals to Joel Jeffrey, Alex Sexton, Brayden Fiorini and Zac Smith were just reward for the Suns, who controlled the ball and had 33 more disposals than Carlton in the quarter.
Anderson and Miller got on top around the ball and had 10 touches each for the term.
After an early goal to tie the scores, the last quarter couldn’t have gone much worse for Carlton. Harry McKay injured his right shoulder with 13 minutes to go and, a minute later, Jacob Townsend nailed Jacob Weitering for holding the ball and kicked truly to give the Suns the lead back.
Goals to Josh Corbett and Miller wrapped the game up for the Suns before best-on-ground Will Powell kicked one of the goals of the year to add icing to the cake.
Ellis’ rotten luck
Brandon Ellis was a huge inclusion for Gold Coast this week after suffering a hamstring strain against the Western Bulldogs in Round 18 and wasted no time in lifting the Suns with an early goal.
He’d arguably been the Suns’ best player until halfway through the second quarter when the luckless 28-year-old clutched at his left hamstring and came from the ground.
It only took minutes before medi-sub Jack Bowes was activated and Ellis was subbed out with the season-ending injury.
Arms around
The AFL has given umpires the license to pay free kicks for defenders wrapping their arms around forwards this season, but why not around the ground?
Within the first 10-minutes of Saturday afternoon’s game, there were three incidents where a player was blatantly stopped from going for the ball by an opponent almost applying a bear hug.
The most notable was at a centre clearance in the first quarter when Matt Rowell beat Sam Walsh to the ball, before Walsh made it nearly impossible for Rowell to attack the ball with arms around.
If the AFL wants the game to become more free-flowing, and exciting to watch, it’s time to stamp it out and let players use their explosiveness around the ball.
Honey’s sweet start
Carlton looks to have found a gem of a small-forward in Josh Honey.
Playing in his fourth career game, the 19-year-old gave Carlton a spark in the forward line in the first term, helping the Blues to an early lead on the back of two opening-quarter goals.
The rookie-listed teenager seemed to find space in the Carlton forward line with ease, and his polish around goal to nail two set shots from 45-metres out will excite Blues fans.
Honey finished with two goals and nine touches.
Anderson steps up
When Ellis went down, and with Miller not finding the footy like he normally does, the Suns needed one of their midfielders to stand up. Enter Noah Anderson.
The 20-year-old arguably had the best game of his fledgling career, finding the ball at will and running the midfield with a career-high nine clearances.
More importantly, Anderson was able to use his 30 disposals with great effect, notching up 546-metres gained.
The moment that would’ve had Suns fans the most excited was when Anderson burst away from a stoppage in the back pocket before taking a bounce and hitting a teammate on the chest with a 40-metre pass.
SCOREBOARD
BLUES 3.2 5.5 6.8 8.9 57
SUNS 1.4 3.8 7.9 11.10 76
MOTTERSHEAD’S BEST
Blues: E. Curnow, Jones, Newman, Weitering.
Suns: Anderson, Powell, Miller, Sexton, Fiorini, Collins.
GOALS
Blues: Honey 2, McKay, C.Curnow, Betts, Silvagni, Martin.
Suns: Townsend 2, Miller 2, Ellis, Jeffrey, Sexton, Fiorini, Smith, Corbett, Powell.
INJURIES
Blues: McKay (shoulder).
Suns: Ellis (hamstring).
UMPIRES Whetton, Toner, Mollison.
Marvel Stadium
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
JAMES MOTTERSHEAD’S VOTES
3 Will Powell (GC)
2 Noah Anderson (GC)
1 Touk Miller (GC)
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Originally published as AFL Round 21 Carlton v Gold Coast: All the action and fallout from Blues-Suns clash
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