CARLTON has ended a month of misery and beaten Collingwood for the second time this season, stunning the ladder-leaders by 23 points at the MCG on Friday night.
The Blues, who lost Kade Simpson with concussion and Shaun Hampson to a knee injury throughout the match, led at every change to record a 12.13 (85) to 8.14 (62) victory, snapping a four-game losing streak to improve their record to 7-7.
Collingwood's 10-game winning run was broken with the shock loss, and the defeat was the Magpies' first since Carlton beat them by 60 points in round three.
Carlton responded to a week of intense scrutiny on the future of coach Brett Ratten with their most competitive effort in months.
The win was the ideal finish to a tense week for Ratten - a victory over the top team in the competition that also happens to be one of its fiercest rivals.
After the match, Ratten chose quiet celebration rather than any great jubilation at knocking off the Magpies.
"Let's take away the opposition, I think it was the way we played the game. I thought it was outstanding, I thought our effort and our intensity to maintain that over four quarters was brilliant," Ratten said.
"It's always nice against the arch-enemy, but at the end of the day that's how we want to play football and that was very pleasing."
His counterpart Nathan Buckley said he believed the Blues had a knack of finding something special when matched with the Magpies.
"Clearly they've got some confidence coming in against us," Buckley said.
"They've got some things they believe in that they're doing, that their players [bought] into over the course of this evening and clearly in round three.
"We understood that, we knew that, we spoke about that. We obviously reviewed that round three game pretty heavily. We tried to execute the lessons of that into this evening but we were unable to and … we just weren't able to play the type of footy we wanted to."
Much of the game seemed to hinge on injuries and at varying stages, both teams looked vulnerable.
Carlton seemed to be in a heap of trouble when Michael Jamison looked to have injured his troublesome shoulder in the opening minute. He stayed on the field and did a good job on Travis Cloke, keeping him to two goals for the night. Ratten later said that Jamison was merely winded in that early contest.
The Blues lost Hampson early in the night with a right knee injury after crashing into Dane Swan, while the Magpies had their share of walking wounded.
Marley Williams injured his shoulder before coming from the ground just minutes after Jackson Paine was substituted off.
Magpie Dale Thomas was dominant in the second quarter but appeared to injure his leg early in the second half. He came back on the field but appeared incapacitated and his influence waned.
The injury that is sure to be replayed plenty of times in the coming days was Kade Simpson's concussion from a heavy hit from Sharrod Wellingham.
Wellingham collided with Simpson late in the marking contest without looking at the ball in an action sure to warrant analysis from the Match Review Panel.
Hampson's early departure looked to be devastating for the Blues, who lacked tall options up forward.
His absence turned out to be a blessing in disguise on several fronts - their forward line became unpredictable and had unlikely marking targets in Eddie Betts, who kicked four goals from set shots, and Nick Duigan, who chipped in with three goals while also keeping free-wheeling defender Nick Maxwell accountable.
The early injury to Hampson also gave an opportunity to substitute Brock McLean into the game, with McLean shutting out a forgettable couple of weeks off the field with a 28-possession game on it.
Matthew Kreuzer relished the responsibility of being the team's lone big man, starring in the ruck and presenting up forward.
Carlton had a narrow lead at half-time but kept the door ajar for Collingwood with several basic errors in front of goal resulting in 1.7 for the term.
The Blues had seven shots at goal in the third quarter without any of them going through the middle until Chris Yarran twisted, turned and kicked an unlikely major.
Yarran's electrifying pace and deadly disposal were key factors in Carlton rediscovering its famous swagger after lacking confidence for much of the past two months.
Andrew Carrazzo continued his good form since returning from a collarbone injury, curtailing the influence of in-form midfielder Dayne Beams while gathering 26 touches himself. It was reminiscent to the shutdown job he did on star Pie Scott Pendlebury in round three.
COLLINGWOOD 1.5 4.9 6.12 8.14 (62)
CARLTON 3.1 7.4 8.11 12.13 (85)
GOALS
Collingwood: Cloke 2, Paine 2, Goldsack, Sidebottom, Thomas, Wellingham
Carlton: Betts 4, Duigan 3, Walker 2, Armfield, Collins, Yarran
BEST
Collingwood: Swan, Sidebottom, Thomas, Fasolo, Wellingham, Blair
Carlton: Judd, Carrazzo, Robinson, McLean, Yarran, Gibbs, Duigan, Betts
INJURIES
Collingwood: Thomas (right ankle), Williams (left shoulder)
Carlton: Hampson (right knee), Simpson (concussion)
SUBSTITUTES
Collingwood: Jackson Paine replaced by Ben Sinclair in third quarter
Carlton: Shaun Hampson replaced by Brock McLean in the first quarter
Reports: TBC
Umpires: Donlon, Findlay, McInerney
Official crowd: 75,755 at the MCG
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the club.
