The Wrap Up - Round 16 V Fremantle
Written by Ari Stamatakos
Each week, Blue Abroad’s “The Wrap Up” takes a different perspective on Carlton’s post-match review. “The Wrap Up” provides insights and stats supporting the key trends, moments and patterns of the game that held the most influence over the final result. This is your Round 16 Wrap Up following a thrilling win against Fremantle
Match Summary
On a freezing cold Saturday night, the Blues played the Fremantle Dockers away at the MCG, seems the current bizarre keeps getting more and more bizarre as the weeks progress. Both sides still, somehow in the hunt for September action and it will be massively bolstered with a win here.
The Blues got off to a red-hot start through Matt Kennedy, got the holding the ball decision 40m out from goal and slotted the Blues first. Not long after the Blues got their second through Eddie Betts, he marks and goals to give the Blues a 13-point lead. Then, a scramble just outside 50 got the ball in the hands of Paddy Dow who laced out Jack Silvagni and he kicked purely to give the Blues their 3rd. The ruckman turned rover got the Blues next as Tom De Koning crumbed the fall of the ball and snapped to give the Blues a 4 goal to nil first quarter. The first term saw a career-best quarter from Dow as his 11 disposals, 9 contested touches and 6 clearances proved a massive ‘I told you so’ to all the haters.
The second term started where we left off as Matt Owies with a clean take, strolls to 20 out and slots his first. The Dockers got their first as a good lead and goal from Josh Treacy gave the Dockers something to cheer about. Those cheers were silenced quickly as Dow got himself in a bit of space and snapped around the body to get a well-deserved goal. A soft free-kick gave Sam Swintkowski a chance to capitalise, which he took. Harry McKay finally got himself free to take a good mark and just about sneak in his first. The Dockers finished off the term very strongly, two unanswered goals cut the margin back to 12 points, the game was well and truly on.
The third quarter started much better than the second finished for the Blues, Harry gets front position and takes a good mark to kick his second of the game. The Dockers, however, answered right back through Andrew Brayshaw and showed they still had fight in them left. Harry got one right back as he decided to snap from directly in front to get his second for the term. Before JSOS took a strong mark and kicked a very beautiful goal to get the Blues the breathing space they deserved. However, just like always, the Blues fell away and allowed the Dockers to get back in the game. First, through an Andy Brayshaw wonder snap from the pocket, then a Rory Lobb kick from the pocket again before Michael Walters got some space from Lachie Plowman for the first time on the night and rolled through to level the scores heading into the last stanza, setting up a thrilling contest.
The last quarter was by far the cagiest of them all. It was full of inspirational efforts. From Jacob Weitering unreal one-handed mark in a one on one against Lobb to Liam Stocker inspirational spoil which sent the Olympic stand into a frenzy. The damn wall busted through Betts who provided a cool head to give the Blues the lead. Before the comparatively quiet Sam Walsh, bobbed up in the pocket and snapped home the sealer which had 12 thousand people feeling like 30 thousand as that sent the entire MCG into chaos. The last quarter was full of unbelievable individual efforts. Walsh had 9 disposals and kicked a goal, Kennedy had 11 touches and was unreal in the contest and Sam Petrevski-Seton had 7 disposals and reliably went at 86%.
Breaking it Down: Key Match Insights
Brutally Efficient:
This feels weird to say as a Carlton supporter, but the Blues were brutally efficient on Saturday night, which they had to be considering the major loss in nearly every KPI. Most notably, clearances. Despite Paddy Dow’s brilliance, the Dockers had a field day at the contest. Winning the clearances 45-26 which considering the result, is arguably equally as embarrassing for the Blues as it was for the Dockers. The Blues efficiency got them over the line, going at 76% disposals efficiency which is 4.7% above their average this year and going at 52% efficiency inside 50 is also drastically above their average this season. As Well as this, the Blues 104 marks on Saturday night shows the Blues ability to hit targets when necessary and control the tempo of the game. This is also above their league averages.
FINAL SCORES
Fremantle: 0.4 (4), 4.8 (32), 8.15 (63), 8.16 (64)
Carlton: 4.2 (26), 7.2 (44), 10.3 (63), 12.8 (80)
Carlton Goals: McKay (3), Betts (2), Silvagni (2), Owies, De Koning, Dow, Kennedy, Walsh
Carlton Best: Newman, Walsh, Kennedy, Saad, Weitering, Cripps, Saad, Dow
