Can the Blues’ encouraging run of recent performances continue? With injury again impacting on numbers it won’t be easy, in what is truly one of football’s most hostile environments.
In Port, the Carlton players confront an outfit fourth in the comp for disposals, equal second for inside 50s and second for marks inside 50. The Power also sits equal-second for goals scored, third in clearances and second for bounces, best reflecting the Ken Hinkley-inspired attacking, hard running and sharing game style.
Two players warranting close attention are Robbie Gray and Matthew Broadbent.
Gray, after overcoming a succession of injury setbacks, is now finally beginning to show how good a player he is, and his confidence in his body has resulted in a consistency of output. At Port he features third for handballs and contested possessions; equal-second for marks inside 50 (to go with his 28 goals for the season so far); and remarkably tops the charts for his club in both overall clearances and centre clearances.
Broadbent is a serious contributor out of defence, either as the distributor out of the backline or the link through the middle going forward. If allowed space and time, he executes a lethal, long kick which has sliced apart many an opposition defences through the course of this season.
The Power’s No. 5 leads the Powerites for kicks and is sixth overall for disposals (the first non-midfield player to feature in this stat). He also rates fourth for marks and fifth for uncontested possessions; and he sits at numero uno for rebound 50s.
But Gray and Broadbent are but two of 22, and if Carlton is to get up in this one Marc Murphy and his men cannot afford to allow the likes of Boak, Westhoff, Wines and co. free rein.
