Absolute belter of a second half there between Hawthorn and GWS in a proper old school Saturday arvo footy atmosphere in a shithole venue down in Launceston.
Hawthorn win 85-79 after trailing by 19 points at half time and make it five wins out of six after starting the season 0-5 and looking about 50/50 with North Melbourne to get the wooden spoon. They look a very happy camp at the moment under Sam Mitchell and could even make an unexpected run at the finals.
Mitch McGovern with the first goal of the game to put Carlton ahead in the their 74th ever MCG clash with Essendon. Not a seat to be had in the house tonight. It’s the first time since 2013 the teams have played each other with both in a finals spot.
A lot of tension out there. Essendon’s shooting radar is well off. Alex Cincotta is nullifying Zach Merrett.
Blues lead 27-11 after the first quarter. Goals to McGovern, McKay, Curnow and Fogarty. Cox with Essendon’s lone goal so far.
Huge implications for the result of this game beyond the four points at stake. Things have been coming together for Carlton over the last couple of rounds and you feel if they win this by a bit they can push on and take a top two finish in the table.
Sydney already look uncatchable for the Minor Premiership, they brushed Geelong aside earlier after conceding the first six goals to them.
Carlton 64 Essendon 49 with one quarter left. First two quarters was a beat 'em up by the Baggers to lead by 32 at half time. Essendon have improved in Q3 but could have made more of their upper hand.
Alex Cincotta and Zac Williams punish the Bombers’ profligacy in the third quarter with two goals in the first three minutes of the final term.
Free kick to Curnow and that’s a third goal. 84-49 and that’s the game.
Williams is providing a real small forward outlet over the last few rounds similar to how Bobby Hill does for Collingwood. He’s not as good as Hill but he’s given Carlton another dimension. Very good distribution and can score off either foot.
15.6 beats 9.16. The scoreline tells its own story.
Essendon 5.8 from set shots, Carlton 9.2.
Carlton jump above Essendon into second place on the ladder. Cincotta’s man marking job on Zach Merrett was reminiscent of Lee Keegan on Ciaran Kilkenny. As well as obliterating the Essendon captain, he got two goals in the last quarter. You always need an Italian on a good Carlton team, and preferably a couple of Greeks too.
At the other end of the table, house private, no flowers for @GMan’s West Coast Eagles, who lost at home to winless North Melbourne yesterday.
That was a bad loss. I was just about toswitch it off in the fourth when they went down by 9.7 or to 2.15. Awful shooting and just not in it. And then got right back in it and got ahead. An awful call on Elliot Yeo then handed norf back the lead for the win.
A strange game. Pretty poor quality all told, and Eagles should have won it.
the most interesting thing from the game was this photo.
I saw this live yesterday morning. The incident happened right at the end of the first quarter. Petracca was obviously in serious pain but played on until half time. It was obvious at the time he should been pulled by the coach and medical team. It’s far from the first incidence of negligence as regards a player’s well being this season either. Tom Liberatore of Footscray collapsed in a match earlier this season and was left on. Even the commentators were imploring that he needed to be attended to immediately, but he wasn’t, and he played the remaining four or five minutes of the match despite being clearly not fit to continue. That was scary to look at. AFL teams and the organisation have a way to catch up in terms of protecting their players when they suffer on-field injuries.
Curnow hit 10 against the eagles last year. Tex Walker did the same the year before. Riewoldt, Franklin and Kennedy defo did it in the years before that too
One of my favourites was when Mark leCras kicked 12 against Essendon 14 years ago.
