Judd loses his cool as Eagles beat Blues
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Carlton skipper Chris Judd endured a torrid outing on his former stomping ground as West Coast posted a fighting 10-point AFL victory at a slippery Patersons Stadium on Thursday night.
Judd tallied just 12 possessions and lost his cool late in the match as the Eagles overcame a valiant Blues fightback to post the 10.19 (79) to 10.9 (69) triumph in front of 34,224 fans.
West Coast shot out to a 26-point lead late in the second quarter, but their wayward kicking for goal came back to haunt them as Carlton slammed through the next five goals to take the lead.
The Blues led by three points at the final change, but two quick goals to Eagles forward Jack Darling in the last quarter turned the match on its head.
Judd endured a frustrating night opposed to Scott Selwood, and the former West Coast star lost his cool late in the match after giving away a free kick to Dean Cox in a marking contest.
The two-time Brownlow medallist exchanged harsh words with Matt Priddis amidst some push-and-shove.
And Judd was left stunned seconds later when he gave away a 50m penalty for a soft elbow nudge on Priddis.
Carlton’s fifth loss from their past six games leaves them outside the top-eight with a worrying 6-6 record ahead of their bye week.
And it doesn’t get any easier for Brett Ratten’s charges, with tough games against Hawthorn and Collingwood to come after that.
The Eagles’ ninth win of the year was enough to lift them back to the top of the table in what was a perfect way to celebrate their 600th game in the competition.
West Coast ruckman Nic Naitanui was best afield with 25 possessions, seven tackles and 31 hit-outs, and the high-leaping Fijian almost kicked a contender for goal of the year after embarking on a dazzling run from the middle.
Priddis, Scott Selwood and Darling (three goals) were also crucial in West Coast’s 17th straight win at Patersons Stadium.
Blues tagger Andrew Carrazzo, playing his first match since injuring his shoulder in round four, was brilliant in restricting Daniel Kerr after quarter-time, while Heath Scotland was also impressive in his return from a calf injury.
The Eagles were dealt a blow late in the match when in-form defender Will Schofield appeared to injure his hamstring.
Darling is likely to be given a reprimand for staging after throwing his head back theatrically following a hard but fair tackle from Scotland around the chest.
After the match, Carlton coach Brett Ratten revealed Judd had been carrying a minor niggle in recent weeks.
“Chris has battled through this period with a fair bit of duress in regards to his own body,” Ratten said.
“He’s done a fabulous job to get up and play.
“It wasn’t his day today. He got beaten. There’s not too many games where you say Chris Judd got beaten for four quarters, and today was just one of them.”
West Coast coach John Worsfold praised Scott Selwood’s job on Judd.
“He played a good, hard-running game. He’s grown again as a footballer this year,” Worsfold said.
© AAP 2013The Crowd Says (6) | Page 1 of Comments
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June 15th 2012 @ 9:12am
Macca said | June 15th 2012 @ 9:12am | Report comment
Tough couple of weeks for the blues, fighting hard but not getting the reward. Just shows that in this season you cna’t drop games to teams outside the 8 becuase it’s not easy to beat the teams in there.
Positives wree Carrazzo’s great return, Watson seems to be coming along nicely and Duigan & Robinson keep doing the team things.
June 15th 2012 @ 10:20am
The Cattery said | June 15th 2012 @ 10:20am | Report comment
Some of the frees tonight which favoured the Eagles were a disgrace.
Judd has one or two players hanging on to him for two hours every game, and he cops a 50m penalty for the softest backlash, while every second Eagles player is throwing their head back every time they’re touched.
The whole Eagles team needs to be sanctioned – not rewarded.
June 15th 2012 @ 10:33am
Macca said | June 15th 2012 @ 10:33am | Report comment
I don’t want to sound like I am blaming the umpires but the Eagles definitely get an advantage in Perth form them, it’s not like the free kicks aren’t technically there but all the 50/50′s seem to go there way, Judd’s 50m, the 50m against Carrazzo in the first quarter and then there wqere a few that probably should of been paid in the blues forward line that didn’t get called.
But in the end if the blues wer that bit cleaner and didn’t make a couple of crucial mistakes they could of won so they really only have themselves to blame.
June 15th 2012 @ 1:25pm
DanMan said | June 15th 2012 @ 1:25pm | Report comment
Same could be said about WCE though – bit cleaner with the shots at goal and it would’ve been a blowout.
June 15th 2012 @ 1:32pm
Macca said | June 15th 2012 @ 1:32pm | Report comment
True DanMan – I was only saying that despite what could be perceived as a raw deal from the umpires the blues should only blame themselves for the loss, ie not being clean and making some critical errors.
June 15th 2012 @ 10:26pm
The Cattery said | June 15th 2012 @ 10:26pm | Report comment
NicNat kicks the point of the season: