Hopefully ...
Shiiiiiiiithouse
Interstate wins are hard to get and happy to take the win, make finals and move on. Not a great game but Charlie and Nick Newman held us together at opposite ends of the ground.
Im starting to push for Nic Newman to be AA.....had a blinder of a year imho.
Be a hard marker that has him at less than sensational.
Cripps seemed to have padding on his ribs
Yes, Newman has been our best player in the backline this year. In our best year in years and years. Not fast at all, in a faster game these days. But geez he's as hard as a rock, tackles with brutal, but fair intent, knows when to defend and defend extremely well, gets plenty of the ball, runs hard into space and has great kicking skills. Also the real organiser in the backline, the general, the man.
The boys enjoyed belting out the song again, I want to hear them rip it out in September, several times !!!
That quarter was the loss we had to have. This is such a good squad - Fish and Dow were particularly good.
Home final!
Well, not the right thread…
Its early in the game… but
We are going to need to be switched on next week against GWS.
So pleased for them, finally getting to the finals!
I couldn’t handle watching the last quarter and checked online sporadically, lost hope when 13 down then held my breath when up with 5 mins to go. What a rollercoaster of a game and a year!!
Huge effort to drag ourselves back twice. First from 40ts down, then 13pts down in the last qtr.
Now, an Adelaide win tonight will officially stitch up a home final in case any interstate side gets in.
Not yet. Need an Adelaide win tonight to make sure. St.Kilda and Sydney can still jump us, although the Swans will need to bridge 4% still.
We’d b frigging unlucky to not get it from here.
Saints, swans would have to pull off crazy upsets
I suspect we'll have a shed load of changes next week with some big outs, quite a few looked sore at times today, can sometimes get in your head when finals are in the mix.
Harry needed the run, thankfully we gave him the run and he got a confidence booster at the end.
We would be unlucky. Like to stitch that part up though officially.
I may have gone a tad early 😬
Im back from the hospital, my anurism wasn't severe, only minor. So that's it? I can sleep easy tonight? No more missing finals by 0.6%? The demons have been exorcised?
🥵
In transit for the game. Could only follow intermittently. My gosh. That was stressful. My mouth was as dry as a cockys cage watching the minutes tick down with under a kick in it.
Congratulations to Vossy, the boys, and the support crew.
So glad for all of us to have got over the 'final hurdle' 😉
Good enough. Just.
We will all sleep well tonight - and we can RELAX now! I was really not looking forward to a week of pressure then another last game of the season storyline. Been there done that didn’t want a repeat!
10 years in the making enjoy the moment!
Im rightly getting stuck into the reds!
(and watching the scum get belted)
Crikey 🤯
Watched the last 2 minutes.
GC had a couple of chances to steal it.
That's our last 2 wins that could have gone either way.
Great effort to hold them off under what looked like high pressure.
Yes, that was harder than last week and that goaless last 18 min when less than a kick in front was bad enough. I was confident though because we were playing well during the game. This week though we struggled from the outset, dragged back 40pts, kicked like pricks when we could have stitched it up in the 3rd qtr, letting them back in, fell 13pts behind again half way through the last, got back in front then made tough work of holding on. I was more worried as we weren't playing well, unlike last week. Could see us finding a "Carlton way"to lose. Fortunately this is a different Carlton and we find ways to win ugly.
A lot of people were telling us two or three weeks back that GC wouldn't be easy, they bettered the Lions, and pushed Adelaide and Sydney away, we looked slow and in holiday mode early, and it nearly cost us the chocolates.
Maybe this was the scare we needed before finals to see how easy it could be to lose a game. Fortunately we didn’t need to lose to get that experience. 4 points is 4 points so take it however you get the result.
We are definitely playing finals aren't we?
FINAL-LY
Corny. I know, but this long suffering Bluebagger is .... ecstatic, thrilled, relieved, proud, bouyed, grateful, and may have even shed a tear of joy 😊
Go Blues.
Celebrate, recover, and reset.
It's nice to be having some good luck for a change. Last week with Marchbank, this week in the last with Lukosius out on the full, Anderson just missing and kicking a behind, and of course Charlie's super mark.
As a 40+ year member very proud of the boys and ecstatic at playing finals again. Could have rolled over today but hung in there. Bring on the finals, everything starts again.
It’s a good thing the boys practised a scenario with Charlie going back into defence to protect a lead. Charlie may not be the best player in the competition but he’s not far off.
We had some lapses in defence but all of our defenders stood up when it counted. Weitering was outstanding again and he was ably supported by Newman and Kemp. Fish had another good game as a defender.
I thought that we lacked energy in the first quarter and didn’t get reward for effort in the second. Despite that, it seems that the playing group now has confidence in its ability to overcome any opposition.
Finals at long last … go Blues!!
And a cheeky Spanish 🍾 to celebrate 🙂
Me and my best mate have been on the beers and reds all day watching the game. That was as stressful as I have experienced. All the horrid memories from last years end to the season came flashing back. Thank fark for Charlie!
More to gain coming into a finals campaign in a win like that than a comfortable soft win.
Boys will gain real belief that we can win multiple ways which is a good trait to have leading into finals.
Cripps was noticeably hurt and had minimum impact add in no cerra and no Walsh we had a second string midfield which makes the win considering the start and playing interstate all the better.
Be rapt if we get thru next week with no injures and get a few soldiers back - will be very hard to beat in the first final.
We've been on the other side of this too many times. I wasn't going to lift the proverbial a second before it was set in stone.
It's set in stone GIT 🍾 Enjoy.
It's out with the old and in with the new Carlton.
Go Blues
Some may consider Drugcheats abysmal 20 goal shellacking as the cherry on top!
What a fine day
...and the cherry is beautifully ripe, full sized and surrounded by fresh whipped cream, then washed down with the finest of reds... maybe even a Penfolds Grange Shiraz. 2016, of course - better vintages are reserved for Blue Bagger victories!
Charlie did a good imitation of Kouta, setting up a goal then going back and saving the day in the last line of defence with a great mark. What a player.
Yep good today, but great would have been knocking them out in a final...
Incredible! Something I never thought I'd see.
Now, all we have to do is beat the team that did that.
I couldn’t watch / my kid was telling me to leave the Loungeroom as I was so frustrated! I sat at the MCG holding it together last week, including sitting behind Melb goals when THAT touched behind occurred. Just didn’t have it in me to watch it unfold today unfortunately and had to leave the house 😂 ridiculous but that’s what it means, especially for Cripps to get the taste of finals he desperately wants.
In separate glasses I hope! One must maintain standards!🥃😀
Yes, but it's now 19 years without a finals win all but assured. That equals their last streak before this one without winning a flag (1965-1984)!!!
Now, we wouldn't want that to stop, if they beat us, would we?
From the pre-game thread....
Yes, there is no way Vossy and co wouldn't pick Harry.
My preference is to pick him and 1 ruck only, which has the same effect of not picking him and playing 2 rucks, that is pressure would remain equivalent.
I'm just worried that us messing with the side too much going into finals could hurt us. Going away from the players, the positions and the pressure that got us on the streak could be a hard lesson to learn.
Harry wasn't great today, and our pressure was definitely down from what it was. Some of that is to be expected, some of that could be coincidence, but i'll be keeping a strong eye on it.
Harry didn't rack up lots of possessions but he kept Collins well away from helping out Ballard against Charlie; this alone was massive.
Didn't turn up to play, missed opportunities to seal the game in the third quarter, then let them kick away at the start of the last, almost a typical Carlton game of the past, but fortunately we didn't blow it this time. Hopefully the attitude at the club is not satisfaction of making the eight but disappointment at not making the top four. We have won nine on the trot and have five to go. We are just starting to meet our potential but we have just got to keep working on our mindset and keep developing a winning culture.
Gold Coast have a lot of talent after all the draft help they have received and they would have been smarting after how we embarrassed them last time so it should not have been a surprise at how hard they came out of the blocks this time. The third quarter was typical of Carlton's fear of failure fear of success conundrum we have lived through over the past few years. However we did not drop our heads this time when Gold Coast kicked away but found a way to get back to the front and we managed to hold on.
Walsh, Cerra and maybe McGovern to come back and then a week off. Need to win next week and set up ourselves for a real tilt at the finals.
Go Blues.
With our injuries to key personnel a number of blokes have risen to embrace increased responsibility and effort over the past 2 months, impressively... but it does take a toll on some.
We looked 'off'/tired at the start and the Suns were sure 'on'. But we found a way to win. A 44 pt turnaround is impressive in anyone's book... especially against a side that grows extra legs and brims with confidence on their home dung heap. Culture, discipline and leadership on display after qtr time.
I think we missed Fog's forward line pressure and support for others, and I wonder if we weren't a little top heavy with adjusting to H being there taking a little time. H will be better for the run.
Nice comeback inspired by an epic performance from Charlie but overall we were poor and would have lost to most other sides.
Had it on pretty good authority that Cripps was lucky to play. Copped the knee from Petracca in the ribs/sternum late in the game last week and clearly played very sore.
An ugly win....but we only needed the 4 points and we got them.
Another huge game from Newman and Fisher also really good again.
Not sold on Ed as the sub going forward....he turned it over quite a few times in the last quarter. And Marchbank still looks a bit shaky and a bit slow at times. Maybe it's just because he's missed so much footy but he'll need to be a lot sharper if he's going to hold his spot in the next few weeks.
I heard a similar thing, except it didn't mention Petracca but a rather dog act from a Melbourne player inside a stoppage. I won't mention names in case the rumour is bogus, but hopefully someone finds some footage.
Don't know about any dog acts to cripps, but it was pretty clear that he went to tackle someone against melbourne who planted their shoulder directly into his sternum, and he stayed down a bit after wards.
Not sure if that was THE incidicent, but it stood out to me at the time.
It was definitely Petracca....
So cracked small ribs or ligaments, if it's ligaments that will hang around for the rest of the season.
Cripps shouldn't have played and definitely should have been subbed off. We have been great at backing our depth for the last couple of months, hope we font get silly now playing injured players.
In the old days a half fit champion could still play but not anymore.
I was about to post the same thing. The most Kouta-like performance since '99 Prelim. Charlie was incredible - aside from his defensive mark and individual goals, many are forgetting the goals he set up with the kicks to H and Owies probably some of the best field kicks I've seen.
And to top it off the fact we are playing finals and Essenscum copped a belting! Couldn't be happier!