The Preview | Round 17 V West Coast Eagles.
From prime time to the graveyard shift, the Carlton Football Club are made to pay for years of dreadful football by playing another 4:40 Sunday twilight match, hopefully, the last time for a long time. This time, they travel to WA to verse a West Coast Eagles side who have experienced their worst season in a long time.
Carlton, coming off the back of a very disappointing loss to St. Kilda, will be looking to bounce back after a horrendous kicking performance, with Charlie Curnow kicking 4 behinds, contributing to the 18 the team kicked overall. While this was one of many variables that contributed to the loss last Friday night, it was defiantly the major factor, especially considering the Blues kicked 1.6 in the third term. A quarter in which the Blues hit the front, before coughing up two goals in red time to head into the last change 2 goals down. The story of the night for the Blues was poor goal kicking, and they will be looking to bounce back in style.
Carlton, notoriously, doesn’t have the best of records against sides in the lower half of the table. From the years 2014-2021, Carlton was either the wooden spooners or lost to the team that was the eventual wooden spooners. This typified the Carlton Football Club for the longest time, however, under the regime, it has been a new football club. Not losing to a club positioned 12th or lower, and having an average winning margin of 26 points, shows that there is a new fabric that has swept the Carlton Football Club in 2022
Despite the constant ptsd that Carlton fans go through every time the opposition kick two or three goals in a row, Voss has been able to get this side to understand game-state better than they have before, as Carlton has shown time and time again that they have the ability to see games out, even when things aren’t going their way. This is the hallmark of a side that understands their abilities and when to use them.
Carlton has shown that they can pile on 6 goals in 10 minutes and completely turn the game on its head. Furthermore, they have also shown that they can kill a game and make it as boring as possible for a 10-minute period, in order to re-calibrate and find their feet again. Great sides don’t have only 3 gears, great sides have the ability to run over the top of teams in a hurry, and not allow the same to be done to them. Carlton is slowly developing that asset and that trait which will firmly establish them as an elite side.
However, West Coast isn’t just any other team that sits at the bottom of the ladder, they are a very interesting case of extremely unlucky circumstances forcing a team to sit in the dull drums, despite their supposed brilliance of paper.
The Eagles won the flag in stunning fashion only a mere 4 years ago, and only 2 years ago they were playing off in a home elimination final. However, under half a decade later, they sit in second last position and have been embarrassed on multiple occasions.
Despite all of this, they still have unbelievable quality at their disposal. Josh Kennedy is still kicking goals for fun despite his age, Luke Shuey has rolled back the year in recent weeks, Tim Kelly is finding that form that we knew he had when he came across from Geelong and Jamie Cripps has scored 8 goals in 3 weeks. The Eagles are still, despite their recent results and ladder position, very dangerous and should be taken very seriously. If the Blues expect to waltz over the Optus Stadium and walk over the Eagles at a canter, just like they did to Gold Coast in round 4, then they will be in for a very difficult afternoon and we could have an upset on our hands.
Michael Voss needs to have the boys in an ultimate mental condition to handle the expectations and pressure that this game will have. Carlton needs to win this to ensure that their finals hopes are still relatively easy, a loss and then the Blues will be dragged back down toward the bottom half of the top 8, and their place in September is far from confirmed.
Carlton will re-introduce spiritual leader Jacob Weitering into the side after several weeks on the sidelines, as well as Matt Owies after two weeks recovering from a calf injury. These two replace youngsters Brodie Kemp and Josh Honey.
West Coast will see the return of all-time leading goalkicker Josh Kennedy, as well as Harry Edwards. Which will see the omission of Connor West, Elliot Yeo and Josh Rotham.
This is a must-win match for the Blues; however, the Eagles do have the Blues’ number, especially over in Perth. The last time Carlton beat the Eagles in Perth was 2013, so West Coast will have confidence in their abilities to upset the apple cart and get the job done.
