| Venue: Western Oval | Date: Saturday August 27, 1977 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Result: Lose by 18 points | Umpires: J.Sutcliffe & N.Nash | Crowd: 22,426 Receipts: $25,350 Receipts:25,350 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Goalkickers: P.Jones 3, M.Maclure 3, T.Pickett 2, D.McKay 2, T.Keogh 1, R.Walls 1. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Best: B.Doull, G.Southby, D.McKay, M.Maclure, B.Armstrong. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Reports: Nil | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Injuries: Nil | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Replacements: A.Mangels by T.Pickett at three quarter time & P.Pinnell by J.Tresize in the last quarter. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Game Review 
''Carlton were a disgrace. If that's the performance of players who have their club's best interests at heart, then I'm amazed. Too many players showed too little dedication when they had to win to make the finals. Footscray played a great game and they played like a side that had the desire. Carlton had too many players who just didn't want to make a collision on the way to the ball. It seems to me they've had a number of players around the club a shade too long. I expect they'll be swinging the axe before next season. I recall Ian Thorogood gave his players a blast earlier in the season for the lack of desperation. I suppose it was frustrating to ultimately see the truth of those words cost his team a place in the finals. But let's face it - he was the coach! It is the job of the coach to demand and get that dedication or get rid of the players. It may well be that the failure to instill the stiffness in the players that was needed might cost him his job. That's what is being suggested and I suppose in these days of "coach-killing" it is more than a possibility.Carlton has its woes. It needs a genuine centre bounce ruckman for a start. David McKay isn't a ruckman, and Peter Jones is really a forward pocket relief ruckman. They need a ruckman like they had in the days of John Nicholls, and I'm a little reluctant to mention Mike Fitzpatrick. I've criticised the club for the lack of dedication in certain players. So how can I recommend Fitzpatrick? A player who prefers to holiday and relax when his side needs him isn't my idea of a dedicated footballer, and perhaps there was some rub off with the players that club officials spent so much time and money chasing the player. I feel a bit for Robert Walls. It is also a humiliation to be captain of a side that doesn't play desperately when the chips are down. I know Walls is among Carlton's most dedicated players so he must feel bitter about his inability to lift his team. Where Carlton go from here remains for the months ahead to decide. New coach, new players or simply a streamlining of what they've got. Who knows? - Gary Dempsey Inside Football. ''
The question of a new coach should one be raised at Carlton certainly does raise a problem. Alex Jesaulenko wants to coach, and much as I admire his knowledge and application to the game, I'd advise him to seek one of the other jobs on offer. He's a great bloke, and very much liked by his clubmates. That puts him behind the eight ball for the start. He would find it very difficult to crack a whip over the players he has been so closely associated with over so many years. He should head elsewhere and return to the Blues in two or three years with a brand new whip, and not so much association with players. As a player, who has played under John Nicholls as a coach, I just wonder if now he's had a break from the Blues he might be able to return. He is a fine coach, players liked him, but also respected him with that necessary tinge of fear. - Gary Dempsey Inside Football.
In blasting the lack of desperation of Carlton in a crisis game, I want to be well understood on two points. Footscray played magnificently and I dont want to detract one scrap from the merit of their win. Even had Carlton been more desperate we would have won. The one point I want to make clear is just how much I dissociate Bruce Doull from those criticisms. We would have won by a space but for this magnificent player. He is surely one of the finest players the game has produced. Footscray found it tremendously difficult to get past this player. He produces great form week in and week out. He seeks no kudos. He's probably the most modest and unassuming player in the League. And his football is worthy of being compared with the greatest in the game - Leigh Matthews. He is a player who is being overlooked year after year by umpires in Brownlow counts when his play warrants innumerable bests, and of course fairests. He probably escapes the umpires attention because he is the perfect team man. He is always covering, shepherding, running past and with a minimum of fuss taking the ball and disposing of it. He is certainly a great player. - Gary Dempsey Inside Football.
After 21 rounds in the five, Carlton was bundled out of the finals when it went down to Footscray at the Western Oval. The Bulldogs led all day and showed more desire than the Blues to win their match by 18 points. Ian Dunstan and Gary Dempsey did well for Footscray while Bruce Doull and Barry Armstrong were Carlton's best. - Football Record.
Although Carlton wre held to a solitary behind in the first quarter, they got to within one point of Footscray by half-time. However the Bulldogs showed Finals form and much more desire than the Blues to go on and record their 10th win of the season. The Blues loss helped South Melbourne into fifth position when they used the incentive and wind advantage in the last quarter of their game at Arden Street to come from 24 points behind nine minutes into the last quarter, to win by 10 points. - Football Record.
Team
| B: | 7 Graeme Whitnall | 21 Rod Austin | 18 Kevin Heath |
| HB: | 15 Phil Pinnell | 20 Geoff Southby | 11 Bruce Doull |
| C: | 19 Michael Young | 9 Greg Towns | 26 Ray Byrne |
| HF: | 36 Mark Maclure | 42 Robert Walls (c) | 8 Trevor Keogh |
| F: | 43 David McKay | 25 Alex Jesaulenko | 10 Alan Mangels |
| Ruck: | 28 Peter Jones (vc) | 12 Barry Armstrong | 16 Jim Buckley |
| Res: | 22 John Tresize | 30 Tony Pickett | |
| Coach: | Ian Thorogood | ||
Last game as a coach: Ian Thorogood
Round 21 | 1978