Carlton – 16.15 (111)
West Coast –10.10 (70)
In a largely unforgettable game the Blues have beaten an inefficient West Coast outfit.
It was a much needed win to keep the media at bay after a few questions were asked this week. For West Coast, this game has seemingly relegated them to a likely bottom-four spot.
Turning points of the match
Carlton did well to create a nice 41 point buffer in the second quarter which set up the game. West Coast at various times looked to have glimmer of hopes with nice plays but, the lead was never in doubt.
Key Players for Carlton
• Nick Stevens – Played with higher intensity, specifically in the first half to help set up the game for Carlton.
• Chris Judd – Not a total domination from Judd but with 29 possessions and 9 inside-50’s, it was a good night out.
• Matthew Kreuzer – Excellent work-ethic from the athletic big man. He probably just got beaten by Cox overall but that’s a pretty good outcome for him and Carlton.
• Marc Murphy – Did his job gathering and using the ball quite well around the ground. 32 possessions with 84% efficiency, 10%-above his average.
• Brendan Fevola – Back in the forward-50 where he belongs and it showed with 6.4.
Key Players for West Coast
• Daniel Kerr – Battled away to finish with 23 possessions and 9 clearances. All of them under pressure.
• Mark Le Cras – West Coast’s only consistent forward option who genuinely provided Carlton with a problem finishing with 6 goals straight’. Some of them were beauties.
• Adam Selwood – In true Selwood fashion, always putting his head over the ball whilst getting the ball 29 times.
• Mitch Brown – Always willing to take the game on’ in the backline whilst not afraid to support the Eagles when running forward. He put the ball inside-50 four times showing his willingness to run.
Musings from the match
• That was a pretty uneventful game.
• The reason why the margin ended that size? West Coast. Kicking. Efficiency.
• Admittedly, Carltons pressure on the ball carrier was really good.
• They finished the game with a 70% disposal efficiency compared to 78% from the Blues.
• Only one player in the Eagle top-10 disposal getters had efficiency over 80% as opposed to 4 from Carlton.
• Bryce Gibbs, Kade Simpson and Brad Fisher were also very good for the Blue’s.
• Gibb’s disposal efficiency of 91% was especially noteworthy.
• Daniel Kerr was harassed at every turn by Joseph. He did well to not lose his cool. 19 handballs and 16 contested possessions shows as much.
• The umpire’s interpretation of holding the ball changed during the game which was frustrating.
• West Coast lack of quality forward-50 entries, which was a problem last week continued.
• Mark Le Cras showed the importance of his presence in the team. You have to wonder how they would have gone last week against Collingwood if he played.
SuperCoach news
• As expected, the Blues had a number of high scoring players with 6 players scoring over 100pt’s.
• Kade ‘yo-yo’ Simpson finished as the highest scorer on the ground with 150pt’s. Bank on him scoring a sub-70pt score next week.
• Thanks to the Eagles poor kicking, they didn’t have any big point’s scorers – Dean Cox was the highest with 116pt’s.
• Tom Swift had a bit of a shocker in his first game scoring 20pt’s. He got the ball 16 times but his kicking wasn’t up to the tempo of AFL footy. With more time, he’ll be better for it.
SuperCoach scores and game stats from the Herald Sun game page
Tags: Adam Selwood, Brendan Fevola, Chris Judd, Daniel Kerr, Marc Murphy, Mark LeCras, Matthew Kreuzer, Mitch Brown, Nick Stevens
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