Round 14, 2007

Carlton 3.4 22 8.7 55 10.14 74 14.17 101 Melbourne 4.1 25 9.4 58 14.6 90 19.10 124	Venue: MCG
Date: Sun 8 July 2007, 2:10pm	Result: Loss by 23 points
Umpires: Fila, Goldspink, Hendrie	Crowd: 33,085
Goalkickers: Murphy, Ó hAilpín, Fisher, Simpson, Kennedy 2; Betts, Waite, Koutoufides, Gibbs
Reports: Nil	Injuries: Lappin, Gibbs (ankle)

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Game Review

This bottom-of-the-table clash between the 14th and 15th placed clubs, saw both teams enter the game with youthful teams in the face of injury or poor form of Senior players (and in Carlton's respect without Fevola due to a Club Suspension). Indeed, it was a young Blues team with an average age of just over 23 and with 9 players with less than 30 games experience. On the other side, the Demons appeared just as young, if not younger, with the loss of Neitz, Green and Johnstone from last week and Bruce just before the game. It would be a clash of 2 young teams who were struggling in 2007.

The Blues went in without a recognised ruckman, with Setanta and Kennedy to share the duties against Demon Jeff White. The resting ruck would play up forward. Ryan Houlihan would take Demon dangerman Aaron Davey whilst Bret Thornton would have Russell Robertson.

Both teams began well, in an open style game. Andrew Carrazzo was on fire with 17 stats in the opening quarter, but 2 late goals to the Demons would see them take the lead.

In the quarters that followed, the Demons would edge ahead and the Blues would have to keep fighting to bridge the gap. Each time Melbourne would get 2-3 goals up, Carlton would fight back. Robertson would seemingly break open the game with 3 goals in the third, but again the Blues would follow up but were let down by inaccurate kicking.

A rollicking last quarter, where the inspired Kade Simpson would bring us back to near parity through hard-running and a Captains goal all of his own, was not enough to take the game as the Blues fell short by 23 points, despite having 2 more scoring shots.

Best players for the Blues were Kade Simpson, Andrew Carrazzo and Marc Murphy with 29, 34 and 24 stats respectively, plus Ryan Houlihan in his 150th game, who thrashed Davey, keeping him to just 4 possessions, while picking up 20 himself. Setanta and Kennedy would kick 2 each, with Brad Fisher again reliable for 2 goals.

Team

B:	23 Adam Hartlett	32 Bret Thornton	33 Ryan Houlihan
HB:	29 Heath Scotland	18 Paul Bower	4 Bryce Gibbs
C:	2 Jordan Russell	7 Adam Bentick	6 Kade Simpson (a/c)
HF:	1 Andrew Walker	14 Brad Fisher	3 Marc Murphy
F:	34 Simon Wiggins	30 Jarrad Waite	19 Eddie Betts
Ruck:	17 Setanta Ó hAilpín	43 Anthony Koutoufides	44 Andrew Carrazzo
Interchange:	5 Josh Kennedy	12 Matthew Lappin	16 Shaun Grigg
	41 Ross Young
Coach:	Denis Pagan
Emg:	11 Cain Ackland, 31 Jordan Bannister, 9 Jason Saddington
In:	Paul Bower, Shaun Grigg, Josh Kennedy, Andrew Walker,
Out:	Cain Ackland, Jordan Bannister, Jason Saddington & Brendan Fevola (all omitted)

Milestones

Stand-in Skipper: Kade Simpson would take the reins as part of a Captaincy rotation in the absence of Lance Whitnall.
150 Games: Ryan Houlihan, the third youngest Blue to ever achieve this feat
50 Games: Eddie Betts
Debut: Shaun Grigg

Brownlow Votes

3. James McDonald, Melbourne
2. Paul Wheatley, Melbourne
1. Kade Simpson, Carlton

Best and Fairest Votes

Kade Simpson 24, Ryan Houlihan 21, Marc Murphy, Anthony Koutoufides 10, Andrew Carrazzo 6, Adam Bentick 3, Setanta 1

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Round 13 | Round 15