Carlton v Geelong MCG
The defending premiers were lacklustre in the opening round and were beaten in an old fashioned “shoot out” by Collingwood. After starting ok and having a solid first half, injuries along with work rate saw them capitulate in an 8 goal Collingwood swing The Cats simply couldn’t stop conceding goals and that in itself is a “wake up call”. It was VERY unlike Geelong and resulted in what we determine a “SIGNIFICANT TROUGH” performance.
Carlton was involved in a first round scrap. Both sides bombed inside 50, then played possession to try to get decent forward entries and neither work in a 58-58 draw. The skills were wobbly from both sides but the pressure was on and both Richmond and Carlton will improve from this effort. HOWEVER for Carlton (even though the draw created a “peak” effort from our ratings perspective) it was more of the same. In a winning position and in the chaos of the last few minutes lose composure. It was this very thing for thre games in a row that cost them a spot in the 8 last year and after all summer working on it they got the same result.
Geelong generally takes care of the Blues pretty comfortably. They have won 5 of the last 6 by an average of 44 points. The last 2 matches have been played at tonight’s venue (MCG) with the average margin sitting at 28 points. Recent total game scores have been on the low side last 5 head to head average 143.5 points per game. 100+ points has only been kicked once in that period. Weve had one blow out by 68 points and one 2 point game. Note the last two have been at the MCG the three prior at Geelong. We have the blow out high scoring game team last week (Geelong) versus the low scoring drawn game (Carlton).
Expect the Cats to have done some soul searching through the week whilst the Blues looking to come off a draw that should have been a win.
