In the first 11 minutes Carlton booted five unanswered goals and were surging. It was a new Blues. It was a Brendon Bolton side hitherto unseen. Regardless of the outcome, it was a statement of intent that this year they would run at the game.
The eventual 26-point losing margin was probably about roughly what Carlton would have lost games such as this by last year, but unlike last year this time it felt like they gave themselves a chance to win.
Carlton did not play pessimistically as they have done. Previously Carlton has played games like this to limit the size of the loss without seriously ever giving themselves a chance to win. This time they lost too, but it at last felt like they could win. They had about them finally some adventure and daring. And they had Charlie Curnow. There is a lot to get excited about Charlie Curnow.
The Blues lacked the manpower to capitalise on it, but at least they wanted to be involved in the contest.
Richmond felt they played a messy game. Their ball movement was not as they like it and their forward entries – they ended up with 71 inside fifties – were not as deep as they want. They took time to settle and tighten their kicking. Their hunting of the player was good, but caught slightly off-guard by Carlton’s urgency to play on and only care what was ahead of them afterwards.
What Carlton lacked was depth of midfielders or mature-bodied midfielders to run the ball. The recruit Matthew Kennedy was good before going down injured. Petrevski-Seton was creatively excellent at times and Paddy Dow got his introduction to football against the best team in it.
Paddy Cripps and Mark Murphy had help from Ciarin Byrne, Dale Thomas and Kade Simpson of course. Zac Fisher was good but they comparatively lacked the volume of runners.
Carlton’s problem was that for all their daring they could manage only 47 inside 50s though pleasingly they converted that to 15 goals.
Richmond tightened up after the early assault. Damien Hardwick threw two players behind the ball when they fell four goals behind in the opening minutes Then he had yet another when they went five goals down. Carlton had already structured with two of their forwards high up the ground so after that fifth goal there was two Richmond players for each Carlton forward at the bounce.
Dustin Martin has the ability to find the ball in those critical moments. Richmond needed a clearance and he got his hands on it. Richmond needed a goal. He kicked it.
Richmond found a gear that Carlton didn’t have.
It didn’t take long for celebrating Richmond fans to find their inner anger. Just 35 minutes. It was the umpires. But to be fair it was an officious first quarter.
The first look at the new season was the first glimpse, or wince, at a new rule. Or maybe it’s a tightening of an old rule to stop players moving into the ‘'protected zone'' around the player with the free kick. Twice in a row Curnow goaled from the 50s offered by players dozily wandering too close to him. Clubs and players were warned of the change.
Richmond had a balance to their side that was absent from Carlton’s. Richmond’s defenders complement each other while Carlton’s seemed to get in the way. Jacob Weitering had no influence and lacked for a true opponent. With Liam Jones and Caleb Marchbank there they had no real use for three tall defenders. Another runner would have been preferable against Richmond’s spread of forwards. In contrast Carlton had too few players forward of the ball. They got nothing from Levi Casboult and Jack Silvagni.
What was also familiar about the Tigers this year to last was that they did the damage in the second half. Their pressure and run overwhelms teams. Richmond were unabated.
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Michael Gleeson is a senior AFL football writer and Fairfax Media's athletics writer. He also covers tennis, cricket and other sports. He won the AFL Players Association Grant Hattam Trophy for excellence in journalism for the second time in 2014 and was a finalist in the 2014 Quill Awards for best sports feature writer. He was also a finalist in the 2014 Australian Sports Commission awards for his work on ‘Boots for Kids’. He is a winner of the AFL Media Association award for best news reporter and a two-time winner of Cricket Victoria’s cricket writer of the year award. Michael has covered multiple Olympics, Commonwealth Games and world championships and 15 seasons of AFL, He has also written seven books – five sports books and two true crime books.
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