Carlton will be looking to secure its second win away from home when the Blues take on bottom-placed Brisbane at the Gabba on Saturday night.
With both teams experiencing disappointing seasons, the match is being touted as the bottom-of-the-table clash, with the loser potentially locked into last spot on the AFL ladder with three rounds to go.
Speaking during the week, Carlton defender Kade Simpson said the Blues are “looking forward” to playing the Lions on their home turf.
“It will give us a chance to get out of Melbourne as a group and hopefully we can put in a good performance and get the result we want,” Simpson said.
“We’ll go up there, we have a game plan set in and if the boys stick to that … we should come away with the result.”
Carlton is ranked second in the league for centre clearances in 2015 with an average of 13.6 a game, while Brisbane is ranked 11th. One player who has been leading the charge in the middle is Carlton’s Rising Star nominee, Patrick Cripps, who last weekend racked up a whopping 11 clearances.
“He’s going to be a superstar,” Simpson said of his young teammate.
“He’s got a good head on his shoulders and he works hard … the future looks pretty good.”
Carlton and Brisbane have played each other on 45 occasions, with Carlton holding the ledger 27 wins to 18. However, Brisbane has narrowly won the last two matches by margins of less than 10 points.
When the two teams met earlier this year, in Round 6 at Etihad Stadium, the Lions secured their first win of the 2015 season by defeating the Blues – 12.12 (84) to 11.9 (75).
In that clash Carlton’s Tom Bell had 27 disposals and kicked two goals, while Brisbane’s Dayne Beams had 29 touches and Daniel McStay booted four goals.
Beams will miss this weekend’s clash and the remainder of the season, after undergoing surgery to repair a shoulder injury on Monday.
The Blues and the Lions have been riddled with injuries in 2015, with Carlton currently having 14 players on its injury list, while Brisbane has 15.
Those injuries have once again played a part in this week’s team selection. Carlton will be without big-forward Levi Casboult and key defender Simon White who have suffered knee injuries, while Cameron Wood has been omitted. Kristian Jaksch, David Ellard and Matthew Dick come into the side.
In the lead up to the match Brisbane Lions coach Justin Leppitsch said winning the four points comes down to minimising Carlton’s clearance work and seeing who will “take their opportunities”.
“Both teams are going about the same, but I think the way we’ve moved the ball over the last few weeks, and in particular last week, we’ve given ourselves the opportunity to score 100 points,” he said.
“If we can continue to do that, tighten up some things in our defense stuff and match them in the stoppages, that will give us our opportunity.”
Carlton takes on the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba on Saturday night, with the game kicking off at 7.20pm AEST.
