Mum and I made the long drive over to Melbourne on Saturday, all excited about seeing the Blues play their next two matches & then having a week in between of holidaying in our favourite city of Melbourne. BUT the match didn’t quite turn out how we wanted or expected.......

We caught two trams from our apartment off Lygon Street in Carlton’s heartland - I liked having the job of scanning our weekly pass into the tram ticket box, which is something I’ll get to do more often during the next week.  While waiting for our second tram, down came the rain - Mum was pleased she’d taken her umbrella with us.  Little did we know that our day would become even damper - to our mood, anyway!

We had perfect seats inside Etihad Stadium which was dry with the roof shut - on the aisle, front row, ground level, right on Carlton’s 50m arc.  My #1 follower, Luke, who lives in Melbourne, came down to see us and Mum took a photo of us. It was good to see Luke again, although we did talk about the last time Mum took a photo of us together which was before the Bulldogs game about this time last year - when we were also hopeful of a win but ended up going down by 11 goals.  Perhaps we should have seen the warning signs!

It was good to have arrived at the game in plenty of time - we saw the Blues come out and warm up (a lot of our boys were very good at their goal-kicking) and then we saw both the Bulldog mascot and our own Captain Carlton coming around the boundary.  As they approached I waited patiently to ask Captain Carlton if I could have my photo taken with him.

Then Captain Carlton took on the Bulldog in a wrestle - they were really funny!  Captain Carlton did lots of flips and somersaulting through the air - he’s a great acrobat.

Chris Judd lost the coin toss against the 200 gamer Lindsay Gilbee, meaning the Blues would kick towards us in the first quarter. Early in the match there was some good fierce tackling by the Blues directly in front of us - first Waite, then Gibbs. Juddy had a set shot in front of us, from the same place where he had one during the warm up.  He got the goal in the warm up, but not now.  There was some good tackling by us, and Warnock did a fantastic big handpass, so the ball was coming down to our end at last. Kreuzer brought it to ground, and speedy Simmo outran two Bulldogs players to soccer a goal! Finally, our first one, after 16 minutes of play. Ellard had a set shot from around 50m, and Mum & I held hands & hoped while he lined up - goal! We kicked lots of points, though - first Hoops, then Eddie, and at quarter time we were ahead 2-4 (16) to 2-7 (19).  We have to kick GOALS, not points, boys!!!

In the second quarter there was lots of flooding happening. All 36 players were often forward of centre (down Carlton’s end). We’re not so keen on that as a spectacle these days!  Aaron Joseph got a 50m penalty - goal! Then Murphy - goal! And Gibbsy! 50m penalty - goal!! And Eddie - great running goal! What a pity those goals didn’t come in the first quarter when they were kicking to where we were sitting, but at least we were doing much better, now winning by almost five goals, 2-4 (16) to 6-7 (43).  Then Big Bad Bazza Hall pushed T-Bird out of the way to take a mark - “In the back!” we yelled, but a mark was paid. He kicked a point & I cheered. The Bulldogs got the next goal, though (their first for the quarter). We had plenty of chances to score more ourselves, before Bazza did a clever little kick along the ground from near the outside point post to dribble a beautiful goal. Just like the ones I practise at home. Then Judd in the centre handballed straight to Cooney and they got another goal from being kicked along the ground. Oh dear, they’re catching up. We got it out of our defence often enough, but had no one forward to take a mark! We were then sure Houlihan touched the ball in defence on the goal line but the umpires paid it a goal to the Bulldogs. So now they were only two points down! Oh No!!  And we’d lost Jarrad Waite - substituted out of the match after hurting himself in front of us during the first quarter. Not good for us. Half time had the scores at 6-7 (43) to 6-9 (45).

Luke came back to see me at half time while Mum was off buying me a hot dog & chips for tea. He agreed that we weren’t playing too well (we sure were missing Jamo, his favourite Carlton player). Near the start of the third quarter we kicked the ball through our goals but it was touched on the line. Then the Bulldogs got a goal to put them in front for the first time in ages. Then they got another! This is really terrible playing by the Blues all over the ground - constantly standing flat-footed & being out-marked by an incoming Bulldog player, doing all the things my Dad coaches my Under 9 footy side not to do.  Bower, who’d been up forward since Waite went off, was finally moved to the backline and swapped with Thornton.  T-Bird had been playing well back, but Mum had suggested much earlier than now he go forward as at least he can provide leads & take marks. We wondered if Houlihan made a pact with Simpson before the game, because he kicked to Simmo every time, even if he was on two players.  The umpires didn’t giving Murphy much of a go out on the boundary near us, paying a free against him, but Murphy wouldn’t give up, still going hell for leather. He got the ball to Mitch, who dodged and kicked a beauty goal! At last. Maybe there’s still hope for us, down by only 9 points. We’d had more scoring shots, but were losing. The Bulldogs got the next goal before Mitch gave me a reason to cheer by taking a strong mark - can he kick a goal from his set shot? No. 10-9 (69) to 7-11 (53). But then Gibbsy got a tap out to Simmo who ran in to score a goal! Phew. My relief didn’t last long, though, as the Bulldogs got the next. Their fans waved flags all over the place, and at the last break we were down 11-9 (75) to 8-11 (59).

The final quarter saw the ball go straight to our end but we still basically had no forward line whatsoever. No focal tall marking player, no crumbing smalls. Zilcho. Instead the Bulldogs took it away & scored a goal easily. 22 points down - I hoped this wasn’t going to turn into a thrashing!  Hoops then kicked accurately to Walker, who lined up for a set shot. He HAD to kick this for us to have any chance, and he nailed it. Exactly three goals down, with less than half a quarter to go. Could we do it? Mitch took a strong mark not far from us, but for some reason instead of kicking it to our forward line, he tried a little handball which was intercepted by his opponent, kicked to Bazza, who goals. That’s it - I reckon we’ve lost it now.  And sure enough, we did lose, 14-12 (96) to 9-15 (69).

I think it’s becoming obvious our team doesn’t much like Etihad Stadium! We’ve now lost to Geelong, West Coast & Western Bulldogs there. So I’m hoping that next week’s match, which will hopefully be the 200th match of our longest serving current player Houlihan, will bring in a win for us at the MCG. Yes, it’s against Collingwood, but stranger things have happened in this great game of ours. To beat my Grandpa Bomber’s beloved Magpies in front of a sell-out crowd next week would soften this week’s loss in a big way - and I’ll be there to see it.  Go BLUES!!

Until next week,
Keep cheering,
From Jesse (Jezza) Hanel