Talk about Super Sunday! The day started with Sydney v North Melbourne, an exciting game and was great to see the Swans get over the line. Followed by the clash of the undefeated, St Kilda v Geelong. A very tough game as expected, but thankfully St Kilda won. I didn't watch the whole game, just flicked at intervals while watching the Swans game. One hour after the Swans game, the one match I was waiting for. Carlton. I was pumped, after last weeks effort against Essendon, I just wanted to see my boys recover and get a good win.
Yeah well, didn't it start off great. I was waiting for the game to pick up where we left off last week, crap. The boys did what they could, but Fremantle came out firing. Knowing they needed to get the jump on Carlton, if they didn't, it would've been a white wash I believe. The first quarter came to an end, thankfully. The score 34 Fremantle 10 Carlton. Do ya think I was pissed?
Second quarter, not much better than the first but the boys did show more fight. Thankfully. Fremantle, too their credit (unfortunately) played an impressive style throughout the whole game. Their young ones are really coming along, and without Pavlich, they stood tall. The score line got closer which was good, Fremantle 61 - Carlton 50. Half time, and I thought right here we go boys time to get the skates on and show them how to play real football.
Surely we couldn't lose to Fremantle. It was crucial for us to get those 4 points to keep us in the eight, to get that smell of September action. I want to be in the finals so bad I can almost taste. My mouth is watering at the thought of us being in the top 8 and getting some finals action after such a long and dark period the club has been through.
So here we go, third quarter. The boys gelled together, possessions were up, the boys were more fierce and they wanted that win. Fremantle however, weren't going to just lay down and let us walk over them. They too wanted to fight, they wanted the win. They needed the win. They aren't a threat to make the finals, but still need the win to have the season look better in the way of points won. So we go at it. We get in and get dirty, we get the scores, we get a score against us. We finish the quarter with a scoreline of 86 - 68. No matter what we did, Freo had a reply. When we were in our 50, instead of getting the six pointers we needed, we got behinds.. one pointers. Fremantle had 5 attempts at scoring for 4 goals and 1 behind. A total of 25 points. Carlton had 8 attempts for 2 goals and 6 behinds, a total of 18 points. We could've, we should've been in front. The siren sounds and we go into the fourth quarter.
The best quarter of the game, the Blue boys took on Freo and matched their ferocity. It was down to the last 30 minutes of the game, the most important 30 minutes for us. We were either going to turn into contenders or slip away as pretenders. I prefer contenders, but anything can happen on any given day in the world of football. There were way too many highlights in this quarter to outline them, but each and every player got in there and fought with their hearts. We weren't going to let this game go, we were going to win this game no matter what. Fremantle only managed 4 attempts at scoring points. Which ended up in 2 goals and 2 behinds, a total of 14 points. I call that beautiful. Carlton, in turn had 12 attempts at scoring, which ended up in 9 goals, 7 behinds. For a total of 61 points. Yeah it would've been nicer to have a few more of those behinds as goals but hey, every point counts right? Final score, Fremantle 100, Carlton 115. Beautiful, sweet victory. We score the points for winning the game and are in 7th spot on the ladder. Next week we have Richmond, it will be another hard fought game, I hope. With a favourable outcome. Unless it turns into the demoralizing win we had back in round 1. The score from that match was Carlton 150 - Richmond 67. Regardless of what happens I get to watch my boys and Ben Cousins at the same time.. oh how I wish he had of come to Carlton.
