Round 15 – Carlton v Fremantle: Rock and Roll Football

 

 

Carlton v Fremantle

1:45pm, Saturday June 25

Docklands

 

 

Saturday was sunny and still. Perfect winter weather. Yet Carlton fans happily spent it indoors.

 

 

Winter blue must be the most calming colour our retina perceives. A bright blue sky was once part of the perfect ritual for a Blues fan: a morning wander through Royal Park; a kick in Princes Park; and, a wave from the terraces for curtain-raising peanuts as a weak sun hovered above.

 

 

But whatever the weather conditions, its fanciful to pretend that a full day on Royal Parade could remain tranquil. As the shadows lengthened, noise would ratchet up. The first part of the ground to be shaded was the Heatley Stand and the Social Club, with these twin enclaves of racket actively swinging momentum to the home team. Past players have said that kicking to that end in the last quarter was equivalent to a stiff breeze.

 

 

Though as fun as nostalgia can be, games of yore live in a different category to those at Docklands Stadium. Winter sunshine, whilst idyllic on suburban terraces, instead creates ant-melting reflections from the new-millennium compound’s neighbouring high-rises. In part to mitigate this, the dome now attempts a matchday impersonation of an indoor concert venue.

 

 

In recent years, Saturday’s matinee timeslot against Fremantle was a fixture better befitting a boutique setting. But this season Carlton fans are turning out in droves, bucking competition trends. The acoustics of any venue are improved by the density of attendance, and the sound generated by the Carlton faithful must be a gut-punch for visiting players. In round fifteen more than 35,000 patrons played an active role in turning the ground into Festival Hall’s big brother.

 

 

One of the tired Americanisms our game has adopted is the introduction of players to the crowd according to their jumper number. At the top of the list the Silvagni name always evokes an enthusiastic response, but in a sport with so many participants, role players are lucky to receive a polite clap. However, after the ground announcer’s voice has strained all the way to number 30, Charlie Curnow’s name brings out a guttural roar from spectators across the lifespan. Flags wave, kids pogo up and down and seasoned veterans smile. This energy sustains until the ball is bounced.

 

 

Carlton approach each game like a young rock band would a gig. Season 2022 is their tour of a popular debut album, with a new front man helping some local lads with promise break through onto the national stage. Sometimes (if Charlie’s in the mood), they start with bluster, energy and hits. Other weeks they wait until the middle numbers to bring out their best stuff. This group know that they have twenty-minutes of solid stuff, and have reliably brought that for thirteen of their fourteen appearances this year (they’re not the first group to lack vigour on a lazy Sunday on the Gold Coast). Most encouraging is their ability to finish each set with a flourish, a quality that is yet to see a home crowd leave without four points.

 

 

Since moving away from home, Brendan Fevola, Chris Judd and Patrick Cripps goals have generated decibels higher than any other player wearing navy. Even so, Fevola played in front of moderate crowds during the club’s noughties slump and Cripps’ signature performance at Docklands was a fight against the dual opponents of Brisbane and sun glare.

 

 

When Judd had the ball in hand and crossed the fifty metre arc, the crowd would recoil like a spring before exploding together when the kick was true. Charlie Curnow engenders the same volume of rapture, the same timbre of frenzy and, perhaps, the same glimmer of hope. How can someone miss so much football yet be playing with such command? No performance is taken for granted.

 

 

The pale blue skies of winter football are now absent from league football, though Carlton fans aren’t fussed. For them, Rock and Roll football will do just fine. Sometimes I wonder what springtime skies in Jolimont might look like?

 

 

CARLTON            1.3       6.5       8.5       12.9 (81)
FREMANTLE        3.0       4.2       7.6        7.8 (50)

 

GOALS  
Carlton: Curnow 4, Cottrell, McKay, O’Brien 2, Newnes, Silvagni
Fremantle: Taberner 2, Banfield, Colyer, Lobb, Schulz, Henry

 

BEST  
Carlton: Walsh, Curnow, Hewett, Fisher, Saad, Docherty, Newnes
Fremantle:  Brodie, Young, Pearce, Aish, Brayshaw, Darcy

 

 

 

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