CARLTON continued to shine in the midfield on Saturday night.
The Blues had another impressive on-ball performance when they faced North on Saturday night, besting the Roos in clearances (45-34), especially in the centre (22-8).
Matt Kennedy had a game-high 11 clearances on the night, along with 24 disposals, 14 contested possessions and five tackles, putting his strength on display against a contested North outfit.
Producing a strong second half to run away with a convincing victory, Kennedy - speaking on ABC Grandstand - said that Carlton was proud of the way it was able to stand up and play out the game on its terms.
“I think it was a good and more complete performance: we’ve been struggling in recent weeks to string a consistent game together so to play four quarters was quite pleasing,” Kennedy said.
“[There's] still a bit to work on, but it was a very strong second half from a lot of the boys and it was a really good response from last week.”
Carlton’s midfield group has been turning heads since Round 1, proving to be the team's heartbeat in its 5-2 start to the season.
Currently sitting first in the league for total centre clearances, the combination of Kennedy, Adam Cerra, captain Patrick Cripps, George Hewett and Sam Walsh has been surging the Blues forward resulting in more scoreboard opportunities.
Kennedy attributed the line's strong performance to midfield coach Tim Clarke, who has been very clear on what role he wants his midfielders to play.
“It’s really quite enjoyable and we’re pretty fortunate to have Tim Clarke as our midfield coach,” Kennedy said.
“He’s really supportive of us boys and he pushes us all very hard to work on our individual games and to complement each other.
"It comes back to the body of work we’ve been doing, putting in all over the summer: to finally come out and start playing games and showcasing that is really good.”
After half time, Carlton ran away with the contest, after North Melbourne responded with a strong second quarter of its own.
Kennedy disclosed that the team leaders and Michael Voss were very encouraging at the break, willing the team to go about their business and stop focusing on the negatives.
“There was a little bit of frustration but I think it was great leadership from our leaders and ‘Vossy’ who recognised that and said there’s nothing to be too frustrated about,” he said.
“We were doing a lot right and I think you can get bogged down looking at the scoreboard seeing it was even. They reiterated that we were doing a lot right and keep playing our way and not be too concerned about the scoreboard.
“Fortunately for us in that third quarter, we were able to kick away and really hurt them on the turnover. It was all pretty positive really and if we keep playing our way and the game in our front half, it certainly makes it easier.”
Despite kicking their highest score of the season, it was the defensive acts which resonated most with the 23 Carlton players in action at Marvel Stadium.
For Kennedy and his teammates, their focus was to celebrate the small efforts that the players were applying to get the best out of themselves.
“You can’t go out there every week and have your best performance so we had a real big focus on how we can help others in the team get the best out of themselves,” he said.
“It’s easy to celebrate the goals but I think it was the little things we really went over the top on. Chase-down tackles, smothers, Jack Martin’s effort: he kicks a point then spoils and we get a forward-50 throw in — little things like that as a playing group, we really wanted to highlight.
“Even blocks, shepherds, all the little things that you probably don’t see as much, we wanted to make sure that we celebrated those acts, they’re really valued in our footy club.”
