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Opinion

The teetering Blues are not gone yet

Roar Rookie
9th February, 2021
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Madison Prespakis of the Blues (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
Roar Rookie
9th February, 2021
2

Merely mention process and cliché-weary AFL fans roll their eyes, but behind the four walls – okay, I’ll stop now – process has its place.

And Carlton having the courage to back in the process despite being 0-2 will determine if they can figure in 2021.

On the verge of back-to-back grand final appearances before the 2020 season was cut short due to an outbreak of COVID, Carlton have played like a side just expecting to be near the top and at times they have been outworked while showing glimpses of brilliance.

Most concerning for the Blues is that against the Bulldogs they seemed to be overcome with a strong sense of anxiety. While it’s all hypothetical, how would Carlton players have responded if they won on Friday night? I get the feeling it would have been more relief than joy.

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Post-game, Carlton coach Daniel Harford described the Blues as being awful and while he was at pains to point out that the Bulldogs deserved to win, what he was really saying is ‘how the hell did that happen?’

And that’s problem with making bullish motherhood statements like ‘we can win the premiership’. Early hiccups affect the reviewing of and response to such performances.

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While Carlton butchered the game on Friday night, they weren’t awful. The AFLW is a short season, but it’s still long enough for peaks and troughs in performance.

In Harford’s first season at the Blues, Carlton led Adelaide for the most part of three quarters in their Round 2 clash only for the Crows to overpower the highly unfancied Blues in the final term. Fast forward three weeks and Adelaide comprehensively defeated North Melbourne and just four weeks later the Crows beat Carlton in the grand final.

Even allowing for the fluky nature of the conference system, Carlton outperformed external expectations and Adelaide under Matthew Clark took the AFLW to a new level.

Tayla Harris

(Photo by Michael Dodge/Getty Images)

Structurally the Blues are struggling to move the ball out of the back half and look sluggish through the middle of the ground.

At some stage Gab Pound, Vaomua Laloifi and Lucy McEvoy will become available but with a list of only 30 to choose from, Carlton will have to work with much the same squad that lost the opening two games.

Without access to behind-the-goals vision it’s difficult to decipher the work rate of individual forwards and midfielders when the ball is in the back half. However it does appear that the higher forwards are having trouble with the notion of being hit-up targets when the ball is camped deep in the opposition forward half.

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The deeper the ball gets into defence, the further up the ground forwards need to be, otherwise the opposition will win it back with ease.

That’s what has happened to Carlton in the early stages of both games, with several players kicking to an outnumbered situation or trying to use an excessive number of forward handballs that left the Blues vulnerable to front-on pressure.

Of course, if Carlton can get better at winning field position then they won’t be as exposed. For that to happen they need a lift in intensity from all bar Madison Prespakis and Bri Moody.

The former has clearly been the Blues’ best to date. The symbolism of Prespakis wrestling Bri Davey can’t be underestimated in the context of the Blues’ Round 1 second-half comeback.

Moments earlier Davey celebrated with teammates after putting the Magpies in the lead by 26 points. This was Prespakis saying to her teammates that enough is enough.

Madison Prespakis

(Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

Moody is another that is a great competitor and is on the verge of being the premier around-the-ground ruck of the competition. Throw in seasoned recruit Elise O’Dea and Lucy McEvoy and all is not lost for the Blues.

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Recruited from Melbourne, O’Dea has been solid rather than spectacular in her opening two games for Carlton and it will be interesting to see how she fits into a new group as O’Dea is renowned for her vocal on-field appraisals of teammates.

The Brendon Goddard approach is okay if you’re getting a kick and you’re entrenched in the group but can be problematic when external noise can’t be drowned out due to a lack of internal cohesion.

Co-captains Kerryn Harrington and Katie Loynes are battling to recapture their best form with the latter no certainty to hold her spot going forward. As a member of the 2020 All Australian team, Harrington has runs on the board and did start to work her way into the game in the dying minutes of the Bulldogs game but her numbers are well down on 2019 and 2020.

Loynes is a much more sensitive case. At 34 she is closer to the end than the start of her career and while her basic numbers are comparative to previous seasons, she hasn’t taken a mark or had a rebound 50, and her inside-50 numbers are down. This all indicates Loynes is finding it harder to cover the ground and that many of her possessions are under pressure.

Forward of the ball, the Blues have been mixed, but the presence of Tayla Harris crashing packs and clunking marks is the biggest positive to take out of the Bulldogs game.

It’s easy to forget that Harris is only 23 and has played 31 games at the top level. In the men’s game key forwards often take at least five years to have breakout seasons. While it’s not comparing apples with apples, Harris is often maligned when she is trying to master the hardest role in women’s AFL, which involves marking and creating a physical contest forward of the ball.

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Questioning whether Harris is a genuine competitor is reasonable and no doubt the likes of Chelsea Randall and Stacey Livingstone have worked this out. But life isn’t stagnant and Harris will either grow from those experiences or drop away. Friday went a long way to suggest that she can work her way into a game when everything isn’t in her favour, which suggests she can grow.

St Kilda await in what shapes as one of better games of Round 3. The Blues are teetering but are not gone yet. The Saints are forever competitive and some will give them a chance, which is probably the best thing for the Blues. This is a moment to forget about winning premierships, reset and rebound from early-season disappointment.

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