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| Venue: | Etihad Stadium | ||||||||||||||||||
| Date: | Saturday March 31, 2018 (1.45 pm) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Result: | Lost by 34 points | ||||||||||||||||||
| Crowd: | 28,025 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Goalkickers: | C. Cunow 2, M. Wright 2, P. Cripps, Z. Fisher, J. Lamb, M. Murphy, J. Weitering 1. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Reports: | Nil | ||||||||||||||||||
| Umpires: | D. Harris, S. Meredith, A. Mitchell | ||||||||||||||||||
| Injuries: | C. Byrne (quad), M. Kreuzer (groin) replaced by C. Polson in the selected team. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Ladder: | 17th | ||||||||||||||||||
Game Review
The Blues went in favourites but surrendered in a torrent of turnovers and fumbles in this home game against the Suns. In a game we needed to win, the Blues were no match for the hard working Suns and began the season with a second consecutive loss.At selection the Blues lost Kennedy and Kreuzer to injury, and omitted Silvagni; we chose to bring in Cam O'Shea for his debut, plus David Cuningham and Cam Polson. The Kreuzer selection was a last minute selection and he was replaced by a small, requiring Casboult (and later Jones) to play in the ruck. In a game where we couldn't score one wonders whether this was a prudent choice but it's always easier in hindsight.
The Suns shot out of the blocks with the first 3 before we majored. We were fumbling through the lines and our forwards were crowded other than the truly emerging Charlie Curnow. At the other end young gun Tom Lynch was making a mockery of our defence, given too much space and often marking unattended.
We fought back in each of the second and third quarters to bring the margin back to the teens before the Suns again finished the quarters the better way. In fact a mark to Jed Lamb could have seen us back to single figure deficits, but he missed to the far side, and a goal was quickly scored at the other end. And another, as the Suns were too good for the Blues pushing the margin out beyond 50 before some consolation Blue goals to end the last, including 2 to Matthew Wright, and one from some lovely run from defence from Cuningham which saw Murphy score. Alas, consolation goals count in the history books alone.
Other than Charlie who slightly had the edge on gun defender Steven May, there was little to like about the Navy Blues here.
Team
| B: | 22 Caleb Marchbank | 14 Liam Jones | 38 Ciaran 'Casey' Byrne |
| HB: | 6 Kade Simpson | 20 Lachie Plowman | 28 David Cuningham |
| C: | 18 Aaron Mullett | 35 Ed Curnow | 21 Jarrod Garlett |
| HF: | 25 Zach Fisher | 30 Charlie Curnow | 5 Sam Petrevski-Seton |
| F: | 46 Matthew Wright | 23 Jacob Weitering | 39 Dale Thomas |
| Ruck: | 41 Levi Casboult | 9 Patrick Cripps (vc) | 3 Marc Murphy (c) |
| Interchange: | 2 Paddy Dow | 13 Jed Lamb | 24 Cam O'Shea |
| 29 Cameron Polson | |||
| Coach: | Brendon Bolton | ||
| Emg: | 1 Jack Silvagni, , 10 Harry McKay*, 11 Sam Kerridge, 8 Matthew Kreuzer* | ||
- 12 Tom De Koning was selected as an emergency, but was replaced by Harry McKay on Friday and Cam Polson replaced Matthew Kreuzer (groin) in selected side before the game on Saturday
Milestones
Debut (Carlton): Cam O'Shea50th League Game: Jed Lamb
100th Game as Carlton Captain: Marc Murphy
AFLCA Votes
10 – T. Lynch (GCS)8 – J. Lyons (GCS)
4 – J. Martin (GCS)
3 – D. Swallow (GCS)
2 – N. Holman (GCS)
2 – J. Witts (GCS)
1 – Ed Curnow (Carl)
Brownlow Votes
3 - T. Lynch (GCS)2 - J. Lyons (GCS)
1 - Ed Curnow (Carl)
Best & Fairest Votes
Ed Curnow 8, Charlie Curnow 7, Aaron Mullett 5, Sam Petrevski-Seton 5, Patrick Cripps 4, Zac Fisher 4, Jed Lamb 4, Kade Simpson 3, Levi Casboult 1, Lachie Plowman 1.Round 1 | Round 3