REGARDLESS of how things play out from here, Blake Acres will forever be a member of Navy Blue folklore.
Not just him. Weitering, Hollands, Docherty, Acres — in that specific order.
It was the play which secured rite of passage to Carlton’s first AFL preliminary final since 2000, and one which Bluebaggers everywhere have, are and will be replaying for years to come.
If a week’s a long time in football, then a season would’ve felt like an eternity. In his Carlton debut in Round 1, Acres was fingertips away from becoming the hero in a draw against Richmond: he said a week later after some big moments against Geelong that he felt he owed his new supporters.
The month of September ensured that Acres would go down as Carlton’s Iceman.
“To get those moments I had, to be in the Club’s first final after 10 years, it was great for me and the Club,” Acres told Carlton Media.
“It was great to have those moments and to have those wins with the boys. I wish we could’ve gone the whole way with it, it would’ve made it a bit more special.”
Even though the Blues didn’t achieve the ultimate success, nobody will ever forget the feeling of not only his major against Melbourne to win the game, but also his sealing goal against Sydney just the week earlier.
The noise and the emotion inside the MCG was unmatched that Friday night — even though, for one fleeting moment, thousands of people thought that Acres’ kick from point-blank range was bound for the post.
But the man himself wanted to quash that immediately: it was never in doubt.
“From where I kicked it, it was about half a metre or a metre in!
“It was a much easier kick than going back and trying to have a set shot potentially after the siren, that would’ve been a bit more nerve-wracking. I remember I had a set shot earlier in the game that went through the middle, but the way I dropped it, I wasn’t feeling good about my set shot at the time!
“I didn’t want to risk doing that. I know how to kick a dribbler through the goals but not so much going back with that pressure on. I just wanted to get it over and done with, the crowd probably had me a bit hyped up at the time as well.”
That quartet will be linked for a long time now. Once again: Weitering, Hollands, Docherty, Acres.
That’s despite one teammate in particular believing he should actually be the penultimate name in that passage of play.
Weitering, Hollands, Docherty, McGovern, Acres?
“Mitch will tell you he was the main guy.
“There’s a lot that happened that went right in that play. For ‘Weiters’ to go back and go for that kick, which we hadn’t gone for all game — he backed himself to hit Ollie. He came on as sub in his first year, his first big final, to hit the kick to ‘Doc’, who was sore with his shoulder, mark it and then have that composure to hit me instead of blazing away.
“Then there was ‘Gov’ playing his little, small part in the end! He says I owe him a beer for that.
“I probably had the easiest part of all of it, to be honest.”
