Geelong has further enhanced its premiership credentials, downing Carlton for its eighth straight win in a commanding performance at the MCG.
The contest was billed as the match of the round in the lead-up, but the Blues proved to be no match for the ladder-leaders, who ran out comfortable 12. 13. (85) to 8. 7. (55) winners.
Carlton came out of the gates well, leading by three points at quarter-time, but was outscored seven goals to two in the following two quarters, with the match effectively over at three-quarter time.
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Despite winning the overall clearance count 35-32, Geelong dominated 11-6 in centre clearances, and the engine room was identified as an issue for the Blues.
“They got strangled tonight. There’s more experience in Geelong’s team across the board, no doubt about it,” Lions great Jonathan Brown told Fox Footy.
“They’ll go back to work and have a look at it. They have to win centre bounce, they have to dominate you at centre bounce and at clearance.
“Tonight they were beaten in that area of the game and that’s their one-wood, they’ve got the big bulls in the middle … they need to be able to win those contests.”
The Blues had the three leading possession-winners on the ground, with Sam Walsh topping all players after finishing with 33 touches, but it was the Cats’ experience that won out in the end.
The match-up between the two tall forwards at either end, Carlton’s Charlie Curnow and Harry McKay and Geelong’s Tom Hawkins and Jeremy Cameron, was hyped up in the lead-up to the contest, and it was the Cats duo that prevailed, kicking a combined five goals to three between Carlton’s forward pair.
Geelong young gun Sam De Koning further enhanced his growing reputation as one of the better young key defenders in the game, holding McKay to just six kicks for the evening, with the Coleman Medal winner also going goalless.
The Cats sit on top of the AFL ladder with 52 points and a percentage of 137, with Melbourne the only team with a chance to draw level at the end of this round when it faces Port Adelaide on Sunday.
Carlton’s top-four hopes took a major hit, with the Blues slipping down to seventh spot on the ladder after being passed by both Collingwood and Sydney, who secured wins.
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