AFLW Round 6 – Carlton v Melbourne: Dominant Dees Keep Season on Track

Carlton v Melbourne
4:35pm March 11th
Ikon Park, Melbourne
Alyce Collett

 

After seeing the rest of the results from this weekend, I was a little bit nervous before today’s game. I was fairly confident that the Dees were going to get the win today, but last time there was a round like this, the Dees were the favourites and lost.

 

Pregame, I was a little bit confused when the Dees had no banner to run through. I’m not quite sure why that was? If someone knows what the go was here, I’d love to hear from you.

 

But I didnt have to wait long for my nerves to ease. The Dees were dominant in the first quarter scoring unanswered six goals to become the first AFLW team to kick that many in a term, much to my delight. The Blues only came close to scoring once, maybe twice, and in the end only scored one behind for the entire quarter.

 

The second quarter did not quite start as well the first for the Dees. Carlton were able to get the first two goals of the quarter, before Melbourne were able to wrangle back the momentum. By the end of the quarter the Dees were back to dominating again, and had a healthy 34 point lead at the main break.

 

The third term was a bit odd, to say the least. There were no goals scored by either side for the entire quarter. It was a frustrating quarter to watch as a Dees fan. They had plenty of inside 50s, they just could not convert on to the scoreboard, only scoring a couple of points for the entire quarter. This needed to be rectified in the final term.

 

The first ten minutes of the last term was quite a tight tussle. The first goal, which was unfortunately a Carlton goal, did not come until almost the 11 minutes in. The Dees did get a goal late in the quarter through Teagan Cunningham, but by that point it was just icing on the cake. In the end, it was a comfortable 35 point win to the mighty Dees.

 

There was however a sour note for the Dees – injuries to two key players in Mel Hickey and Aliesha Newman. Personally, I hope neither injury is serious that they can both play next week. I am particularly worried about Hickey. There have been suggestions that she may have done her ACL, which would be disaster for the Dees. Newman’s injury doesn’t seem to be a a major concern to the club from what I have heard, so the focus is all on Hickey now as we anxiously await scans to confirm the extent of it.

 

So, the equation for next week is simple. Beat the Dogs and the mighty Dees are in the Grand Final.

Lose and results have to go their way to make the big dance.

 

Personally, I am praying for option one. If the Dees play like they did in the first quarter today, there is no reason they cannot beat the Dogs.

 

Carlton           0.1  2.1  2.2  3.4 (22)
Melbourne    6.3  7.5  7.8  8.9 (57)

Goals
Melbourne: O’Dea 3, Cunningham 3, Hore 2
Carlton: Harris, Vescio, Gee

Umpires: Simmonds, Guy, Johansen
Crowd: 6,300

 

Comments

  1. Fantastic report. I too can’t calculate the ways Melbourne might mess this up next week. I just hope it’s not like last year, where we had to wait on the results of other teams (and I ended up barracking for Collingwood) to see if they’d get in.
    Fingers crossed this year will be different.
    (And that first quarter! How awesome was that first quarter?? Brilliant!)

  2. Yvette Wroby says

    Hi Alyse,
    nice report. I can see nerves are your company for every game! I hope they settled after the 6 goals. Terrible about Melissa Hickey’s injury, awful for her and the team definitely deflated after she hobbled up. That first quarter set them up. That’s the key, who can take the lead early and get the job done.

    Next week, the games will all be so important. And exciting. And heartbreaking for some.

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