Blues smash hapless Tigers

Carlton   141 defeated Richmond   106

A stunning four quarter performance from Carlton has given the Blues their first victory since Round Six, recording a 35-point victory over Richmond in a shoot-out at the Telstra Dome this afternoon.

The victory completed an amazing 120 point turnaround from the previous encounter in Round Seven, when the match turned out completely the opposite as the Tigers smashed the Blues by 85 points. The victory ended Carlton’s worst losing streak since 1901 as the Blues celebrated for the first time in three months.

Carlton had winners all over the field, especially up forward where they had seven multiple goal kickers. What made the forward performance even more impressive, that it was without Lance Whitnall (centre-halfback) and that it was the highest score for the Blues since Rd 21, 2001.

Key men for the Blues were Anthony Koutoufides (31 possessions, eight marks) and Nick Stevens (23 possessions, four goals) were brilliant all day for the winners, whilst Anthony Carrazzo and Heath Scotland were also very good.

For the Tigers, Shane Tuck (22 possessions) and Wayne Campbell (20 possessions) tried hard, but it was a performance from the Tigers that you would have expected to see last year, and not this year.

Both sides made late changes, and it seemed the Richmond defence would be under a little more pressure than usual with key defenders Mark Chaffey and Damien Gaspar pulling out late. Replacing the injured duo for the Tigers were youngsters Brett Hartigan and Kelvin Moore.

Richmond’s lack of talls down back was set to be exposed further, when it was revealed that the Carlton late change would be – Trent Sporn (out) and Chris Bryan (in). Bryan’s height and long kicking would be an advantage for the Blues, and give them further strength in the forward line.

The first term saw Carlton display some of that pre-season form which saw them win the Wizard Cup with the Blues slamming on seven goals to Richmond’s three. Carlton booted the first three goals of the game to give them the perfect start but the Tigers duly responded with the next two majors. Again it was the Blues with three un-answered goals as the home side were playing much more controlled football and not blazing away when the ball was near the forward line. This fact was demonstrated by the statistic that the first 6 entries into the forward 50 for the Blues all ended up in goals.

Midway through the first term, a sickening incident resulted in Tiger forward Matthew Richardson being concussed. Going for a mark on centre wing, Richardson flew for the ball awkwardly and on the way down, his head connected with the hip of Blue Brad Fisher. Without Richardson in attack, the Tigers made Troy Simmonds their key forward and the ex-Docker had two late opportunities to boot a goal, but he missed both shots which were quite gettable as the Blues took a 19-point lead into the first break.

Richmond needed to respond to the early onslaught from the bottom side, and they did with two early goals to cut the margin to just five points. The second term was very even, with both sides enjoying their share of the play, and both slotting five goals each. Carlton’s first behind of the afternoon came 11 minutes into the second quarter, which showed the Blues were very efficient in front of goals. A late goal to the Tigers cut the margin to 20 points at the long break.

After enjoying a very good first half, the second half had been Carlton’s downfall in recent matches and the Blues needed to come out firing and make sure they were on their game. On their game, they certainly were snagging six goals to Richmond’s three. Heath Scotland ran rampant in the third term, amassing 14 possessions and along with Nick Stevens continuously pumped the ball into the Carlton forward line.

With the Blues already having five multiple goal kickers at half-time, the Richmond defence was already stretched. To make things worse, Digby Morrell came off the bench to chip in with two goals in the third term as the Carlton forward line were having a day out. A late goal to Carlton extended the margin to 40 points at the final change.

The final term saw Carlton go into party mode, kicking great goals and dominating as they did for the first three terms. Despite Richmond kicking some late consolation goals, Brendan Fevola booted his fourth after the siren to send the Blues fans into a state of delirium as the navy blue theme song was belted out.

Next week sees the Tigers face a tough road-trip to Subiaco to take on the Fremantle Dockers, with both sides needing victories to keep them in the finals hunt. And for the Blues, they have a home match on Sunday at the MCG against Port Power.

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