By Michael Gleeson
This year it was Jack Higgins who toyed with Carlton hearts. This year it was Power who picked those tender hearts up and shocked life back into them.
“It’s heartbreaking. Absolutely heartbreaking,” Michael Voss said after his side’s loss in the final seconds and before Port Adelaide rescued his team.
Carlton players show their dejection at the final siren of Sunday’s game.Credit: Getty Images
Yes, it was heartbreaking – again – because victory was ripped from them and with it went an assured place in the finals. But it was heartbreaking for fans because the Blues should never have let themselves get into a position where finals were in doubt. For most of the year they were better than that.
For all the new coach-speak this is not the type of vulnerability you want in your team.
Voss, like all Carlton fans, would have watched the game in Perth through a finger prison, enervated by his team’s loss only to find two hours later that he was suddenly invigorated by the reprieve Port Adelaide provided them.
This is a side that has this year beaten Brisbane, Port Adelaide and GWS and smashed Geelong. That’s four of the top five.
That form validated claims on the flag not a sketchy hold on a finals berth. The Blues should never have been in the position where a kick by a player from the side 12th on the ladder in the last 13 seconds could create such heartbreak and doubt over their finals. They should never have needed Port to bail them out.
But now they have been bailed out, those questions of how they got themselves to the point where they lost control of their season can wait.
The loss to St Kilda was heartbreaking because control was lost and the certainty of their finals place disappeared.
Adam Saad struggles to comprehend Carlton’s two-point loss to St Kilda.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images
But otherwise it was not a heartbreaking loss. They should never have got close with the team they had out there, even against the 12th side on the ladder – albeit the Saints had won four of their previous five games and had just beaten top-four team Geelong.
What will comfort Voss and his coaches was that his depleted team should have beaten this form side and were in front with seconds remaining. His side, which lost three games in a row before losing a number of important players to injury, played with more of the intensity and endeavour that it displayed earlier in the year. But they just didn’t have the manpower to win.
Brisbane have been unconvincing in the past month, but at the Gabba they are still a tougher proposition than St Kilda at home. The Blues will get Charlie Curnow, Harry McKay and Adam Cerra back at the very minimum. Tom De Koning is more doubtful, but with a weekend off before the finals Jack Martin and Zac Williams should both be available as well. The speed of Williams will be as important against the sluggish Lions as the two key forwards.
Jones’ headache
Liam Jones will probably miss the Dogs’ first final. His tackle on Aaron Cadman did not injure the Giants forward, but the method of his tackle could have. It was ugly and the type of tackle where, although he only had one arm pinned, it was a pivot move with a second action that saw the Giants player’s head hit the ground.
Western Bulldogs defender Liam Jones will face scrutiny for this tackle in the round 24 game against GWS.Credit: Fox Footy
That Cadman got up was fortunate for him and Jones. It looked similar to other tackles we have seen this year that have resulted in suspensions for the tackler.
Outside the imperious Marcus Bontempelli, Jones is about the last player the Bulldogs want to lose because the alternatives are so decisively inferior. Rory Lobb is helpful behind the ball as a second tall, but he can look vulnerable. Jones reads the ball better than their other talls, and his importance will be even more critical given they are playing the Hawks in an elimination final.
Hawthorn have Mabior Chol, Jack Gunston and Calsher Dear up forward. It’s a difficult blend because none of them are the obvious first target. Chol is biggest, so Lobb would likely go to him. Potentially, Jones would have found himself on the precociously talented Dear.
Jones’ intercept marking is key to his game, and against a Hawthorn side that has Dylan Moore, Nick Watson and Jack Ginnivan – as well as Luke Breust coming off the bench – they are content to manufacture a forward contest that brings the ball to ground for those smalls to get to work. Consequently, marking defenders are especially critical.
Jones’ marking behind the ball in the last quarter was crucial to the Dogs withstanding the Giants’ counter-punch against the wind.
His possible suspension could prompt the Dogs to consider sending Aaron Naughton behind the ball. There are many observers who would rather him there anyway, but Luke Beveridge has been firm in keeping the head-banded Vitas Gerulaitis of football in his forward half.
Cody Weightman breaks a tackle for the Bulldogs.Credit: Getty Images
Despite the coach’s reluctance, this might be the moment for him to make the switch, given he has Sam Darcy and Jamarra Ugle-Hagan in form as key forwards. The rationale for not doing so would be that, firstly, it would mean a wholesale reshuffle of what has been an effective structure, and, secondly, as a trio the tall Dogs forwards would be a handful for Hawks James Sicily, Josh Weddle and Sam Frost to try to contain.
Hawks embarrassment
Hawthorn are an embarrassment.
They are an embarrassment to Essendon. They are an embarrassment to Gold Coast, they embarrassed Carlton for not already having a finals place safeguarded, and they are absolutely an embarrassment to North Melbourne. Their season of progress embarrasses North, their game on Saturday humbled them.
Hawks players celebrate with what has become a trademark selfie after their thumping win over the Roos.Credit: AFL Photos
Hawthorn have not played finals for five years and finished in the bottom five for the past four years, including third from the bottom last year.
What they have done in making the finals this year is rip the fig leaf from these other teams and reveal their blushes. These teams that have been puddling around the lower reaches of the ladder or even the occasionally sneaking into the eight. But they have been overtaken in half a season by the excitable Hawks.
No, their job is not done. It is true they have not won a final yet. But they have taken the first and biggest step. They are entrenched in the lower-half of the eight, and are the form side of the competition. They are playing an exciting brand of football, and they have reshaped themselves quickly as a desirable destination club.
Meanwhile, North Melbourne. Meanwhile, Essendon.
North Melbourne sat one place below Hawthorn on the ladder this time last year, and are still sitting in that same position. Yes, they had nothing to play for in the final round, but, realistically, North have not had much to play for but pride for at least half of this season.
How is it that in the space of one season Hawthorn have become the better team by 20 goals and managed to jump 10 rungs on the ladder while North stayed where they were? North should be better than this.
Essendon have rung changes, but still their on-field narrative remains the same. They should be better than this.
Gold Coast won the most games they ever have in a season, and sure they did deliver in part on coach Damien Hardwick’s urging at the start of the year to just “win some f---ing games”. But, seriously, when Hardwick made that challenge he was saying, “win the games and play finals”. They should be playing finals.
A water bottle is seen being thrown at the goal umpire.Credit: Seven
Ban bottle-thrower
The AFL will, without question or a moment’s pause, impose a life-time ban on the moron who threw the bottle at the umpire. They should do more and would if they could, but what more can they do?
Hopefully, the police lay a criminal charge.
The umpire, Steve Piperno, did nothing wrong. He was simply standing in the goal square in green, making correct calls when he was struck in the back of the head. The hit drew blood and forced the umpire to be replaced by the emergency umpire. Pity the emergency umpire, Chelsea Roffey, who had to go and stand where her colleague had just been hit from behind.
It cannot be definitively said at the time of writing who the person barracked for. The area the bottle was thrown from was populated by the Carlton cheer squad, but the person was not believed to be a cheer squad member.
Carlton fans had loudly felt aggrieved at the umpiring decisions in a tense match, and, yes, the free kick count was against them (12-1 at one stage in the second quarter and 12-3 at half-time), with all the half decisions or debatable moments seeming to go St Kilda’s way. But seriously, you’re a special kind of gherkin to do that.
Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter.