Harry McKay marked everything; won free kicks, where on other days the free would go against him; and kicked a goal that safeguarded victory over Geelong on Sunday with a confident, regulation drop punt.
A player who has wrestled with being the one key-forward target, he played like it was his natural domain. He made himself the prime target when the Blues’ lead had to be preserved. He was commanding. McKay made you wonder what might have been in the first six games if he played this way.
A resurgent Harry McKay would spell trouble for key defenders competition-wide.Credit: AFL Photos
Elijah Hollands was dynamic and crafty, with 25 touches, four tackles and a goal. He had desire, pressure and class. He made you wonder what might have been in the first six games if he played this way.
If two players can be held as emblematic of Carlton’s year, it is these two. They are not the reason for Carlton’s listless season, but each of their years so far is a reason for Carlton’s year. This is said as an observation, not as blame.
Now is not the time to be churlish about the Blues, for a victory like this in front of nearly 70,000 at the MCG against a top-six team is a moment to enjoy and speculate how good the Blues can be when they play like that.
It was their third win in a row, by far the best of those wins, and they are flying, but against this opponent the symmetry is too great for it not to carry a warning to reserve judgment.
When Carlton and Geelong last met, in round 15 last year, the Blues beat the Cats by 10 goals in what felt like a changing-of-the-guard romp. The Blues were second on the ladder and the game was agreed to have franked their premiership credentials. Now, that can be a comment on the pontificators on football getting it wrong, but what happened next for Carlton also cannot blithely be ignored.
In the 16 games between wins over Geelong, Carlton beat Richmond (once last year, though memorably not in round one this year), and West Coast and North twice each. And that’s it.
So, several things arise from that. One: what is it about Geelong that Carlton matches up with so well? And two: is this change real? Is Carlton back?
These questions will naturally only be answered by the Blues’ month leading into the bye. They have Adelaide away next week, then St Kilda, Sydney away, and then GWS. The way each of those opponents its travelling, there is no reason the Blues can’t win at least two or three of the four.
The experience of last year is not to jump to conclusions either way. Enjoy the victory and the good things about Carlton’s play, one of which was that pieces that have been missing this season were back, and in form – McKay and Elijah Hollands. The second is that their contested-possession, clearance game can win matches.
The Blues are still not a quick team. But the way they frustrated Geelong moving the ball out of Carlton’s forward line and forced them into turnovers, kicking the ball in hope forward, suggested a better synergy and confidence in their game.
Tom De Koning was excellent, but this is not new. Jacob Weitering was outstanding, but this, too, is not new. The one-on-one contest between Weitering and Patrick Dangerfield late in the last quarter, when they were grappling all the way to the boundary and puling each other’s jumper when fans of both teams were pleading for free kicks and so none was paid, was brilliant contested footy (incidentally it was good no free was paid, as they each molested the other in equal measure).
The Blues lost Zac Williams to a calf in the game, which cannot come as a surprise given his injury history. They seemed to also lose Adam Cerra to a groin injury suffered in the kick that sent a ball sideways out of bounds. Carlton’s injury list is short, but those on it would make the Blues better – Jagga Smith and Nic Newman, in particular.
Bevo can’t just be judged on team performance alone
How do you measure Luke Beveridge? This is his 11th season in charge, he has one flag, one runner-upand only missed finals twice in 10 years, but his teams have never ended the season in the top four and in the past two finals they have made, they’ve gone out in the elimination final.
Right now, his team sits in the eight with four wins from seven games played, with their two best players – Marcus Bontempelli and Sam Darcy – playing in just a single game together this year.
Beveridge is out of contract as senior coach at year’s end, and while he would like to be re-signed, that won’t happen in a hurry, if at all. Coaches are largely judged on team performance, but it is not all they’re judged on. Occasionally groups tire of the same voice, occasionally coaches tire of the same environment.
Beveridge has a bravery in his coaching. On Saturday, he dropped the safe choice Liam Jones – whose form admittedly was patchy – and gave a start to highly rated kid, Jedd Busslinger, who, with a name like that, sounds like he would be played by John Wayne in a movie.
Beveridge trusted James O’Donnell in defence. He has been inventive in the way he has used Rory Lobb. Last year he jettisoned Jack Macrae and Caleb Daniel because he recognised the limitations in their games for what he wanted for the Dogs. Some of the alternatives he has used in those roles have not been great, but he has backed in a long-term talent in Joel Freijah.
Joel Freijah has blossomed under Luke Beveridge’s coaching.Credit: Getty Images
The 19-year-old midfielder, who stands 191 centimetres and played just his 20th game this week, looks a long-term quality option as a midfielder. With good leg speed and strength over the ball, he has good upside.
He was taken at pick No.45 two years ago, which is huge credit to talented but under-rated recruiter Dom Milesi, who just left the Dogs. Jagging a player like that at No.45 is proof of where recruiters do their best work.
Picking in the top 10 shouldn’t be that hard for recruiters. At the Dogs, matching a bid on Sam Darcy as a father-son pick required no second thoughts. Academy player Jamarra Ugle-Hagan would create second thoughts now, given how derailed his career has been, but at the time he was a similarly simple choice, given the talent he possessed.
Like with Darcy, deciding to match a bid on father-son player Jordan Croft when he stands at 201cms and has talent is not that difficult a job. Seeing something in Freijah and taking him at 45 is where the money is in recruiting.
Seeing something in Freijah, and preferring him to players who had won a premiership with you, cultivating him on the back line, and moving him into the midfield and backing him in is where the money is in coaching.
Yes, there is an argument to start talking now with Beveridge about a new contract – the Bulldogs know they have a good coach. But how would that re-signing look if they bowed out in another elimination final?
Zach Reid and Dan Houston clash in front of more than 90,000 at the MCG on Anzac Day.Credit: AFL Photos
The 23-year-old who’s just had a breakout game
If you can have a breakout game in a loss, when you are a defender, then Zach Reid did against Collingwood.
Reid is 23 now, but this was still only his 15th game, so to say it was his best game yet is not exactly the boldest of statements. It is more recognition that, at 23, the moment – or the sign – the Bombers have been waiting and hoping for has come.
Essendon lost the game and gave up more than 100 points on a wet day, which is not typically a stat line that would point to a defender having a good game, but Reid was very good on Anzac Day. Seven marks, several most importantly being one-on-one contests, on a wet day when the Bombers had to defend 16 more inside 50s than Collingwood did was a measure of the game.
Bracketed with Nik Cox and Archie Perkins in the top 10 of their draft year, the trio have been emblematic of why Essendon’s rebuild had not yet progressed. Essendon have wondered if the trio were Godot and would never arrive.
Reid delivered the sort of encouraging performance that will go a step to suggesting that heavy draft hand is salvageable yet.
Cox, to date, is a bust. But Perkins has already proven himself a capable, if not outstanding, AFL player. His trouble is that he was taken in the top 10. Were he a player drafted in the late 20s you would think him a reasonable pick-up. Being taken in the top 10 was a little heavy for him (albeit in a COVID-compromised draft), but if you put aside the draft pick he is a solid AFL-standard player, if not one you would build a team around – which is what you hope for from a top-10 pick.
Essendon have looked far better defensively since Jordan Ridley and Reid came back in to support Ben McKay.
When a Long shot becomes a bullseye
When Damien Hardwick’s Suns traded talented forward Jack Lukosius out, the assumption was he was, given the size of his contract, slightly superfluous to needs, given the emerging Jed Walter and Ethan Read. To an extent that was right.
What is equally accurate is that, as a player in a third tall-forward role, Ben Long is a Hardwick player. The triple-premiership coach has never been a big fan of third talls, believing they are often the worst of both worlds – not tall enough to be a key, and not small enough to be quick and nimble. The exception is if they are combative.
Ben Long is combative. He is a Josh Caddy-type, who will get a game every week for Hardwick because he has that edge about his play.
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