Round 19 – Carlton V Melbourne – Just Pipped Again

Liam Chambers

Some good Melbourne moments

After some very close loses to the Blues in recent times, Melbourne would be hoping for another win after last’s weeks victory over the Roos.

It wasn’t the ideal start for us when Charlie Curnow was able to get a snap away, 20m out, and score his first goal in a month. I’m not sure how to explain our effect on opposition players who are going through a dry scoring patch; we always seem to enable them to raise their game.

Up the other end, Jacob Weitering made his intentions clear, very early on, that the Demons would have to work extremely hard to get past the seemingly one man defence. Weitering was unable to do much about Kozzy Pickett though, when the high scoring forward quickly recovered from an initial fumble to snap Melbourne’s first goal from 20m in the pocket.

Curnow had well and truly put his goal kicking jitters behind him when he marked near the top of the square, then kicked the around the corner set shot to claim his second major in less than seven minutes. Carlton appeared to have decided to keep kicking towards goal, hoping that eventually the sherrin would go through the uprights. After Matthew Carroll’s initial inaccurate 50m set shot didn’t make the distance, two other Carlton players had an attempt, before Ashton Moir’s snap from the goal square went through.

High scoring Jake Melksham pulled one back for the Dees when he was impeded in the pocket and drew the free. His calmly taken shot was perfectly executed, and it was back to a one goal game. Kozzy managed to place himself in the perfect position to received Cabel Windsor’s kick from the wing. The conversion from 35m easily hit the target and it three goals apiece.

The game continued to stay very close until a minute before quarter time when Adam Cerra was awarded a 50m penalty under the highly confusing rules about protected areas. The result was a point blank set shot and unmissable goal for Cerra.

Carlton have the best of the quarter

After the break, Ashton Moir extended Carlton’s lead to fourteen points when he successfully kicked a 50m set shot, after an intercepted mark just inside the arc.  The margin continued to hover around the fifteen point mark for the majority of the quarter, with Melbourne having few chances to build on their first term score.

The best chance of a goal was denied when Christian Petracca’s kick to Jacob van Rooyen was deemed to not be 15m, immediately putting both van Rooyen and Caleb Windsor under unexpected pressure, and resulting in a miss by Windsor. The 15m rule is laughable at times. Kicks that evidently don’t meet the required distance are allowed, while sometimes kicks of 10m are waived through.

Then just before half time, Ashton Moir kicked his third of the game for the Blues when he ran out to mark the ball inside 50, before converting the 45m set shot.

Melbourne storm back, before Blues regroup

Trailing by twenty one points at half time is never ideal, but Carlton’s Achilles heel seems to be the third quarter, and we didn’t want them to rectify that particular blemish on our watch.

It didn’t take long for Melbourne to give the Blues something to think about, when Jacob van Rooyen took a contested mark in the pocket, then went back to make sure with the set shot. Five minutes later Bailey Fritsch took a diving mark, just inside the arc, and showed that he’s lost none of his goal scoring capabilities with a perfectly taken 50m set shot.

Kozzy Pickett made it a one point game when his 45m round the corner kick from the boundary line went through. Few players would have attempted that goal, but Kozzy is currently full of self belief. Pickett made it back to back goals, and showed he can kick from any angle, when his 45m from deep in the opposite pocket spun through the uprights.

Francis Evans ensured that it wasn’t all one way traffic when he ran out to mark the ball in the pocket, before slotting the 45m shot. Unfortunately, a few minutes later, Evans was collected by Stephen May in a horrible collision that was unavoidable but looked bad in the slow motion replay. It looks like May will have to sit out the next three games. Not ideal, when Stephen is the soul of our defence.

Ashton Moir took the resulting free kick and slotted his fourth goal of the evening. Flynn Young increased Carlton’s lead to ten points when he scored his first AFL goal with a 50m set shot.

Demons win quarter, but not by enough

Bailey Fritsch gave the Demons their perfect start to the fourth quarter, when he ran out to mark Kozzy Pickett’s perfectly placed kick. Fritsch’s form is improving with every game and the 45m set shot was never going to miss.

Sam Docherty was determined not to let Melbourne get a run of goals like they did in the previous term, when he secured a free kick 30m from home. The goal stretched Carlton’s lead back out to eleven. Then Matthew Carroll made the Dees’ job just a little more difficult when he launched a kick from just inside the arc to push the margin out to seventeen points.

After a few almost there attempts, Melbourne finally got their second goal of the quarter, when Kozzy inserted himself into the middle of the pack and got boot to ball at the top of the square. His kick sent the sherrin across the line, claiming his fifth goal in the process.

Matthew Jefferson is increasingly becoming an important player for Melbourne. His efforts on goal are hit and miss, so to speak, but his set shot effort from 40m, though a tad low, got there in the end, and that’s all that matters.

It was gearing up to be another extremely close result, with just two points separating the sides.  It could have been a different result and in Melbourne’s favour, if 200th gamer Clayton Oliver’s tackle inside 50 was paid. It wasn’t, and the Blues were able to regroup and make their way up the ground. Then Charlie Curnow kicked a 55m set shot, and that was all she wrote.

Next up it’s away at St Kilda. Again, we’ll be playing against a side who have won only six games this year and who have lost all of their last six contests. Coincidentally, their last win was against us in Round 12.

Go the Mighty Dees!!!