Round 13 – Carlton v Essendon: Winter of discontent

 

 

Rather than a conventional match report of Essendon’s comprehensive defeat of Carlton, I decided to offer a few random observations. Carlton’s winter of discontent actually began in autumn. The beginning of April was marked by unconvincing wins against GWS and North Melbourne followed by a series of heavy losses, interrupted only by the illusory win over the undermanned Eagles. Peering into the distance it’s difficult to find the sun (or son) of York who will usher in our glorious summer. Perhaps the Australian cricketers will break the cycle with their engagement in Leeds – not too far distant from York – in early July, but whether this (if it occurs) provides consolation to those of us in the Carlton camp is debatable.

 

In another sense the winter of discontent began at half-time, 15^th September 2001, when the mighty Kouta was slain, and Carlton succumbed to Richmond in the first semi-final. The air of unreality – if not the impending doom of the Carlton empire – surrounding that day at the MCG was emphasised in that it came just a few days after the terrorist attacks in USA etched into memory by the numbers 9/11.

 

My sense of Carlton’s woes is that the redoubtable sage Murphy has been haunting Princes Park in 2023, and I consider the most plausible inference for what subsequently transpired is that he infiltrated the Carlton rooms at the MCG last Sunday during the half-time interval. There are only infrequent references to Murphy’s Law in these times, but I think of it as a useful explanatory device in my personal life and in the wider world. Consider the minefield of US politics (or British, or European, or Australian) as an example.

 

As a refresher, I offer the three principles of Murphy’s Law:

 

• Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.
• If multiple things can go wrong, the one which will occur is that which will cause the greatest damage.
• If everything is going well, you’ve overlooked something.

 

There is of course the clinching element, that Murphy was an optimist.

 

So to last Sunday. Carlton scrapped earnestly, if not altogether convincingly in the first half. They led for quite some time and trailed by a bare two points in the interval, and this only because of two late Essendon goals. Until the break, the Blues had engaged in the contest with a will and had been competitive in a manner rarely visible in recent matches.
How then to explain then the transformation at the beginning of the 3^rd quarter, if not by Murphy’s intervention. Zach Merrett’s goal 45 seconds into the restart opened the floodgates, through which his teammates eagerly followed. The match was put to bed with a six goal burst in 15 minutes, so it didn’t even take a quarter – rather an eighth – for the Bombers to overwhelm the hapless Blues.

 

The galling aspect of this development was emphasised by the scoreboard advertisement for a function celebrating the great Carlton (and Hawthorn and Fitzroy) coach David Parkin who brought the terminology of the championship quarter into currency. This described Carlton teams’ characteristic of overcoming lacklustre opening halves with a dominating third term. Roles reversed and the Blues on the receiving end added salt to our wounds. I suspect that Parko would also have considered that the Blues were one tall short in Sunday’s match.

 

The scoreboard statistics also offered another mocking note with its reference to scores from set shots. At one point, this noted that Essendon had managed 11 goals 1 behind, which contrasted with Carlton’s 4-5. If I saw an update, it has mercifully passed from my memory.

 

So well played Essendon. I understand that this concludes a brief sequence of losses to the Blues by the Bombers (and we’ve had precious few of those recently);  I do remember with particular distress the 2019 match which ended Brendan Bolton’s coaching assignment, which I think was the previous occasion on which the Bombers took the honours. There is still a sense of occasion when the two rivals are pitted against each other in front of a near full MCG, even if in the big scheme of things, a middling team proves far too ground for a struggling opponent.

 

CARLTON         1.5    3.10     5.10     6.16 (52)
ESSENDON     2.4    4.6     11.7    13.8 (86)

 

GOALS
Carlton: C.Curnow 2, Cincotta, Martin, McKay, Owies
Essendon: Wright 5, Menzie 2, Langford, Snelling, Merrett, Guelfi, Phillips, Caldwell

 

BEST
Carlton: Cerra, Saad, C.Curnow, Walsh, Motlop
Essendon: Wright, Martin, Stringer, Ridley, Hobbs, Redman, Caldwell

 

INJURIES
Carlton: Nil
Essendon: Nil

 

LATE CHANGES
Carlton: Nil
Essendon: Andrew Phillips comes into the selected side for Massimo D’Ambrosio

 

SUBSTITUTES
Carlton: Paddy Dow (replaced Jack Martin at three-quarter time)
Essendon: Massimo D’Ambrosio (replaced Sam Draper in the fourth quarter)

 

Crowd: 83,638 at MCG

 

To return to the www.footyalmanac.com.au  home page click HERE

 

Our writers are independent contributors. The opinions expressed in their articles are their own. They are not the views, nor do they reflect the views, of Malarkey Publications.

 

Do you enjoy the Almanac concept?
And want to ensure it continues in its current form, and better? To help keep things ticking over please consider making your own contribution.

 

Become an Almanac (annual) member – CLICK HERE