Carlton's VFL affiliate, the Northern Bullants, had a disappointing day out against Port Melbourne at NAB Oval on Sunday. They went down by 51 points to level their win-loss ratio at 6-6, and drop down to eighth on the ladder.
Assistant coach Matthew Lappin shares his thoughts on the match and how some of the Carlton-listed players performed.
WE HAD what we thought was a reasonable side in. We had some good Carlton-listed players in, Andrew Walker came back and we thought we had an OK side in, but Port Melbourne are one of the top sides in the competition and they gave us a bit of a lesson.
It was one of those games where we had to play the 12-10 rule (12 AFL listed players to 10 non-listed players) and we've got a few of our Bullants players out injured.
We weren't at our strongest from the Bullants' side of things, but we were definitely strong from our Carlton players.
It was disappointing but it's a long season and we just need to make sure we win enough games to make the finals.
We didn't bring our best game with us and they certainly did, so we were never really going to be a chance.
We started kicking into the wind so Port Melbourne had first use of the breeze, and they dominated the first quarter and then we were pretty much playing catch up from then on.
They were a bit more physical over the ball, they used the ball better than us, and basically it just showed they are five or six spots above us on the ladder because they gave us a bit of a lesson.
But, we get a chance to seek revenge against them because we play them again in the last round of the year, so hopefully we can play much better than we did on Sunday.
It was good to get Andrew back, and he played really well for a guy who has missed so much footy. He was a bit rusty with his disposal but he was a bundle of energy and he was running around the ground and looked really fit and strong.
Jason Saddington was really good for us again, Darren Pfeiffer won plenty of the ball and put his head over it, as he always does, and Luke Blackwell won his fair share of the ball and we just need to get him penetrating a little bit better.
Cain Ackland marked strongly up forward and couldn't quite convert on the scoreboard. Mark Austin also put in a strong game at full-back on one of their dangerous forwards, and young Aaron Joseph from our rookie list was our best player on the day.
He has a really big job on a dangerous half-forward and he did a terrific job.
Physically we got through OK, we didn't cop any injuries out of that one so that's pleasing, and I think this week we might get one or two senior players back because Carlton has a bye.
Joe Anderson might be playing with us because he played in the seniors last week, so he might drop back and play with us to get some match fitness.
We're off to Tasmania this week, and we'll take with us the lesson we were given last week against Port Melbourne. We played pretty poorly against some good opposition, so hopefully we can bounce back this week on our road trip.
We played Tasmania earlier in the year and we won by about 10 points. They're a very even side that fought all afternoon when we played them here, but we managed to get the points.
It's going to be tough down there on their home ground and we'll have to play better than we did on Sunday.
NORTHERN BULLANTS 1.1 4.4 4.9 7.10 (52)
PORT MELBOURNE 4.5 8.8 10.10 15.13 (103)
GOALS
Northern Bullants: M. Lappin 2, C. Ackland 2, J. Saddington, A. Walker, D. Ellard
Port Melbourne: D Pitt 4, R McMahon 3, L Cotchett 3, A Bonaddio 2, R Thomas 2, C Cain
BEST
Northern Bullants: A Joseph, M Austin, J Vansittart, A Walker, D Pfeiffer, J Saddington
Port Melbourne: R Thomas, J Baird, R McMahon, D Pitt, C McGrath, S Pleming
