Carlton break round one drought against Richmond with ‘signature win’Peter Ryan
The Age
March 17, 2022 — 10.18pmIn the traditional season opener played the night after the season opened Carlton have ended the Tigers’ winning streak in round one with a five-goal burst in the last quarter dragging them from the edge of oblivion to glory as they ran away with a 25-point win to finally start their season celebrating a victory.
New coach Michael Voss declared the victory “a signature win for the club” as they finally jumped the season’s hurdle to give them four points after round one.
“The belief has been slowly building ... but you don’t get to the next level until you win games like that. We had to own that part of the story about what has happened in the past and I feel like when you own it and accept it that is where your lessons are learned,” Voss said.
“It’s one win but it is a really important one for us.”
The game looked to be following a pattern every supporter has become used to since 2013, with the Tigers in control and 20 points in front when Shai Bolton kicked his third goal at the start of the final quarter and Carlton defender Jacob Weitering left the ground with a rolled ankle.
But anyone who went the early crow regretted it immediately as Carlton, inspired by refreshed captain Patrick Cripps, went on a goalscoring rampage with successive goals to Corey Durdin, George Hewett, Cripps, Jack Martin and Zac Fisher turning the 20-point margin into a 10-point lead and the entire night changed.
It was a devastating patch with Richmond throwing in three 50-metre penalties, for good measure to gift Hewett then Adam Cerra goals for the Blues, as they charged away with seven final quarter goals.
Cripps, who has played in seven round one losses, was inspirational with Matt Kennedy riding beside him as the Blues won eight consecutive centre clearances to put Richmond’s unfamiliar looking defence under too much pressure to cope.
Voss said Kennedy has demanded to be picked after a series of impressive performances in the pre-season with Tigers’ coach Damien Hardwick saying the injection of Cerra and Hewett made Carlton’s midfield formidable.
“[Kennedy’s] been one of the guys who have jumped out,” Voss said.
No-one could have predicted such a night at quarter-time when the margin was also 20 points Richmond’s way, Bolton was playing with flair and dare, and Tom Lynch was taking Oscar McDonald apart.
This wasn’t the Blues of recent times which would compound quickly when their defence was pulled apart. They regrouped despite the ordinary kicking that defined their first term turning the momentum of the game through pressure in the midfield in what appears to be a feature under new coach Michael Voss.
It was the much-maligned Mitch McGovern who started the fire in the second quarter when he marked spectacularly over Richmond ruckman Ivan Soldo then kicked into the corridor allowing Cripps a path to convert a long goal from the 50-metre mark.
McGovern has been a permanent disappointment to Blues supporters as a forward who arrived at the club in 2019 a fair way back, but the penny has dropped for the 27-year-old as he resurrects his career as a defender.
After spending pre-season up forward Noah Balta returned to defence to support Robbie Tarrant and Josh Gibcus who were both playing their first games for Richmond, albeit at opposite ends of their careers.
He picked up Charlie Curnow in the first quarter and a half before Hardwick decided he liked what was happening in pre-season more and pushed Balta forward. This appeared a winning move in the third quarter when he kicked two goals in the third quarter to wrench the game back Richmond’s way but his absence from defence was felt in the last when the Tigers’ weakness was exposed.
The spate of 50-metre penalties, which led to three goals, will upset Hardwick.
Even new captain Dylan Grimes gave one away when he missed his target by foot when attempting to give it back to his Carlton opponent. Occasionally, it rears its head as an issue for the Tigers - most famously in their 2020 qualifying loss to the Brisbane Lions.
The habit deflated Richmond at times they appeared to be on top and gave Carlton, who had appeared uncertain although determined hope. When that hope became scores the Tigers looked like a team whose time had ended while Carlton became a team whose time has well and truly arrived with Voss’s renewed coaching career starting with a win over Richmond having finished nine years earlier with a loss against the Tigers.
Dion Prestia’s soft tissues strikeThe best and fairest winner has been dynamic during the pre-season after a series of soft tissues restricted him to just 18 games in the past two seasons. He began round one brilliantly, his hunting of the ball and good use seeing him rack up 10 touches in quick time. But then his cursed hamstrings struck again and he was subbed out of the game, continuing the star’s unlucky run.
Sam Docherty’s return lifts crowdWhen the former Carlton co-captain took a regulation chest mark early in the first quarter the crowd burst into spontaneous, sustained applause to celebrate his triumphant return from testicular cancer. But that moment was just the preamble as Docherty accepted a 50-metre penalty in the middle of the ground which led him to within goalscoring range. The crowd’s roar signalled he had kicked straight as he bent his knees and clenched his fists as though he had hit a cross court winner in the Australian Open. “It’s a great story of resilience and determination and persistence and all those things we admire in people and that’s what we want to continue to be able to grow within our group,” Voss said.
CARLTON 1.3 5.9 7.12 14.17 (101)
RICHMOND 4.5 4.7 10.9 11.10 (71)
Best
Carlton: Cripps, Kennedy, Docherty, Hewett, Durdin.
Richmond: Bolton, Martin, Pickett, Grimes
Goals:
Carlton: Cripps 3, Durdin 2, Kennedy, Martin, Docherty, McKay, Silvagni, Hewett, O’Brien, Cerra.
Richmond: Bolton 3, Lynch 2, Balta 2 Baker, Aarts, Riewoldt, Martin
https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/carlton-break-round-one-drought-against-richmond-with-last-quarter-blitz-20220317-p5a5o5.html
