I usually go to the football alone, equipped to take detailed notes. This is intended to conceal my ignorance of the contemporary game behind a plethora of irrelevant detail. I feel that if I have my recorded impressions, I will have some chance of disguising my limited knowledge.
Last Sunday I was accompanied by a friend who has barely a casual interest in football, so I spent quite a bit of the afternoon explaining aspects of the game to him. This fact, and the obligations of manners, precluded me from taking notes in my customary fashion. As a result, this report is (barely) informed by recollections some days after the event, supported by stats on afl.com and some match reports in the media.
This means that I am even more than usually conscious of my limitations in recounting the events for the highly-informed Almanac community. However, I have shaken off my reservations since Wednesday evening has arrived and there is no report of the match on the site. The Almanac does seem to be afflicted with a bye round, with fewer than usual match reports, even allowing for the six matches played rather than the customary nine.
Predictably the Magpie army is out in force; the controversy surrounding Sydney v Richmond has generated several reports. Yvette, as reliable as Bruce Doull, has penned her usual riveting account of her trip to the Saints-Bulldogs encounter and Yoshi has offered his impressions. There have been a couple of accounts – fewer than usual – of Adelaide’s unmethodical struggle to overcome Brisbane, and Hawthorn-Essendon has been noted; but nary a word on the Blues: (Barb) Smith has been silent, (Tony) Reed is resting, Tony Robb has relocated his allegiances, and (John) Butler is has been bashful; the People’s Elbow has been …well elbowed.
The Gold Coast Suns seem to lack regular Almanac representation; in any case it is understandable that Suns’ partisans would be feeling bruised at the moment- injuries, the saga of the inactive captain, and the recent controversy generated by the Karmichael Hunt revelations.
I do find comfort in the fact that most observers reacted to this game both in prospect and retrospect as a regulation win. That suggests that the Blues might have already turned the corner, even if there is a long road ahead to attain respectability, let alone a measure of success.
The game began with Carlton nailing the first two goals through Menzel and Casboult. However, the Blues on-field seemed to be seduced by the prospect of a regulation victory, and the Suns settled, scoring three goals – Lynch 2 and Dixon – in just four minutes to take the lead. They exploited a couple of careless cross-field defensive passes and the the two big blokes were troubling the under-sized defence. Gold Coast sustained their effort until the first change, when they led by 14 points.
Carlton approached the second term in a different fashion: after an early arm-wrestle, the Blues used their runners off half-back – Tuohy, Yarran, Buckley – and managed three goals in less than four minutes, with another soon afterwards. This saw them take a lead which they didn’t relinquish for the remainder of the game. Five goals to one for the quarter gave the home team a two goal break at the long interval, and the pattern of the match was now established.
Carlton continued in this vein at the resumption and extended the lead to 20 points in the first few minutes. Then Gold Coast challenged again when immediately after Dixon’s third goal, Lynch also scored when he was awarded a free without the ball returning to the centre for the bounce. This proved to be the last hurrah for the Suns. This was confirmed when Dixon’s ankle injury saw him subbed out midway through the term. Perhaps he had been injured earlier, and the GC bench saw no point in risking aggravation of the injury, with the game already effectively gone. Despite a rash of behinds the Blues extended their lead as the quarter progressed. Menzel also left the field a few minutes after Dixon, but this change had much the lesser impact. In fact, first gamer Holman as sub, showed with a few neat passes that he may have a greater mastery of the art of kicking than many of his more celebrated team mates. His task is of course to reproduce such precision against more demanding opposition than that offered by the setting Suns.
The final quarter played out in prosaic fashion. Lynch scored his fourth goal to round out a useful performance. Henderson with an early goal and Everitt and Casboult later joined the ranks of the multiple goal-scorers, as Carlton progressed to a comfortable victory. The desultory nature of this quarter was evidenced by the 11 behinds for the quarter, only two of which were rushed.
Carlton 3.3 8.7 11.14 14.19.103
Gold Coast 5.5 6.7 8.9 9.15.69
Best Players:
Carlton: Murphy, Bell, Cripps, Tuohy, Yarran, Carrazzo
Gold Coast: Lynch, Rischitelli, May, Dixon
Goals:
Carlton: Casboult 3, Everitt 3, Armfield 2, Henderson 2, Buckley, Menzel, Tuohy, Yarran.
Gold Coast: Lynch 4, Dixon 3, Bennell, Boston.
Substitutes:
Gold Coast: Malceski replaced Dixon (ankle), 3rd quarter.
Carlton: Holman replaced Menzel (knee) 3rd quarter.
Also injured Docherty (Carlton) (back/hamstring).
Report: Raines (Gold Coast) striking Cripps, final quarter.
Umpires: Farmer, Ryan, Harris.
Attendance: 30,207 at Etihad Stadium
Malarkey Medal: 3 Murphy (Carlton), 2 Bell (Carlton), 1 Rischitelli (GC).
It appears there has been a lack of Almanacker comment-makers as well as match reporters. Good to see you’re flying the flag for your team Peter.
I must confess I did a similar thing when no-one else was writing about the Bulldog- Brisbane game recently.
It’s interesting about your usual methodology of reporting by taking notes when you sit alone at the match and writing it up later. I usually do that when the match is televised. But on Saturday when I’m sitting with you and a couple of other supporters, I think I’ll just watch the game (and hopefully enjoy it). I’ll ask my son to record it for note-taking purposes back home.
I think sitting at the event and taking notes is a bit like taking photographs continually. You are so busy concentrating on the task at hand you can miss the actual event.
See you on Saturday.