Fevola's nine stuns the stuttering Tigers
Rohan Connolly
July 12, 2009
IF YOU were a Richmond supporter looking for early omens yesterday, you might have packed up and gone home 16 seconds after the first bounce.
That was all it took for Carlton ruckman Matthew Kreuzer to win the first tap, Chris Judd to pounce on the hit-out and dash forward, Jordan Russell to hand off to Brad Fisher, and the Blues' forward to pop through the first goal of the game.
Tiger fans still have nightmares about that opening night of this season against the same opponent, when a summer's worth of dreams and expectations were blown to bits within minutes. Already you could feel the deja vu.
But that blistering opening wasn't to be the start of an avalanche, more an arm wrestle in difficult, blustery conditions that made football fundamentals, let alone finesse, pretty tricky. Carlton ultimately won that joust because it had the superior skills, the better conversion, and because it had Brendan Fevola.
It was classic Fevola yesterday. A first quarter in which he was held to just three kicks, one behind, and looked likely to blow a gasket any second, and three quarters in which he was a maestro, marking strongly, kicking beautifully, pulling rabbits out of the hat, and ending with a career-best nine goals.
Not that any of that magic looked likely to unfold early, as both sides traded goals and errors in equal measure. Seven minutes after the Blues' opening volley, Brett Deledio ran on to a big ruck thump to put the Tigers on level terms.
Carlton livewire Eddie Betts nailed Kelvin Moore in a tackle and put through the spoils, then Jack Riewoldt tied things up again, cleverly intercepting a dangerous handball attempt from Aaron Joseph.
Carlton kicked again through Bryce Gibbs, but Ben Cousins dished off to Mitch Morton, the Tiger key forward curling one around over his left shoulder in trademark fashion.
And so the back and forward stuff continued for a while. Morton and Riewoldt occasionally threatened for Richmond, Tyrone Vickery and debutant Jayden Post did some nice things, Daniel Jackson kept plugging away on Judd, but the one constant Tiger thorn in the Blues' side, perhaps not surprisingly, remained Cousins.
He won more disposals, 35, than any other Tiger. He pumped the ball inside 50 more often. And won as many clearances as any. More importantly, when he had the ball in hand, you knew, rather than hoped, that despite the difficult environment, the Tigers were going to be put to advantage. But Cousins isn't a goalkicker. And on a day when Richmond cruelled its chance once and for all in the third term with a game-costing 1.8, Fevola's 9.1 was a huge difference between the sides.
There was a bit of everything in there. The mark-and-lead stuff. The push-off-the-opponent stuff. The "lucky to be on the end of someone else's good work" stuff. And the requisite Fevola miracle goal, which came moments before half-time when he turned opponent Will Thursfield inside out, then bounced one through from 45 metres out, hard up against the boundary.
That goal gave the Blues a 20-point lead, a margin which remained about the difference between the two for the rest of the game.
Richmond was going to have to make every chance count to haul back the deficit, and it made a meal of it, dominating large chunks of the third quarter but kicking point after point, Vickery, Richard Tambling, Luke McGuane, even Cousins managing to miss the target at various stages.
At the other end, meanwhile, Fevola kept splitting the middle, and pulling pieces of inventiveness out of his you-know-where, like his mid-air hoik to finish off the third term.
Richmond finally found the mark again in the last quarter, but despite getting within 14 points with five or so minutes still to play, you never truly felt the Tigers were a chance of getting there.
Fevola, fittingly, finished it all off with his ninth, a "Joe the goose" handball over the top from Betts.
It was a very necessary if not spectacular win by the Blues, Fevola the star, Judd doing more than his bit as usual, Shaun Grigg and Andrew Carrazzo solid. Not as thumping as that famous round-one game, mind you, but perhaps a bit more important.
Carlton is well on track for that elusive finals appearance, a path it first trod back against the Tigers in March.
Richmond may eventually get there, too, but like yesterday, the Tigers do have a tendency to make life hard for themselves.
CARLTON 3.3 9.8 13.9 16.13 (109)
RICHMOND 3.4 6.6 7.14 12.17 (89)
GOALS
Carlton: Fevola 9, Carrazzo, Fisher, Gibbs, Betts, Bentley, Kreuzer, Murphy.
Richmond: Riewoldt 3, Deledio 2, Nahas 2, Vickery 2, Newman, King, Morton.
BEST Carlton:
Fevola, Judd, Carrazzo, Grigg, Gibbs, Murphy.
Richmond: Cousins, Deledio, Jackson, Cotchin, Riewoldt, Tuck.
INJURIES Carlton: O'hAilpin (soreness) replaced in selected side by Anderson. Richmond: K Moore (calf).
UMPIRES: Kennedy, Dalgleish, S McInerney.
CROWD: 50,784 at MCG.
TURNING POINT It was an even and scrappy contest in old-fashioned football conditions, and Brendan Fevola's two goals on the eve of half-time ? four for the quarter ? gave the Blues a handy 20-point lead. From there, the Blues were never really challenged as Richmond wasted plenty of scoring opportunities in the third quarter. Jack Riewoldt had a chance to bring the game back to eight points late in the final quarter but missed, and by then the game was all but over.
MAIN MEN The enigmatic Fevola had an ordinary start, scoring just one point in the first quarter, but sprung to life from the second quarter to kick four goals before the main break and five after it, giving him a career-best nine-goal haul. Ben Cousins was a ball magnet for the Tigers, racking up 35 possessions for the game.
THE UPSHOT Carlton will go into Saturday's game against Sydney at Etihad Stadium with confidence while Richmond will try to make the most of its opportunities in front of goal in its next clash against North Melbourne at the MCG on Sunday.
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/sport/fevolas-nine-stuns-the-stuttering-tigers-20090712-dgvf.html?page=-1
