It is still only January but football has started for the Blues with the first intra-club practice match for 2011 at Visy Park. And it didn’t take long for the first highlight of the New Year with Andrew Walker taking a huge grab early in the first quarter to remind everyone why we miss football.

The players were split into two teams for the intra-club match - navy v white. The navy team included Murphy, Gibbs, Scotland, Simpson, Waite, Bower and Betts while Carrazzo, Houlihan, Jamison, Russell, Walker, McLean and Yarran were some of the players in the white team.

Much of the interest from the crowd centred on the new players who joined Carlton after the 2010 season. Matthew Watson, Andrew McInnes, Nick Duigan, Wade Twomey and Jeremy Laidler were all in action for Carlton for the first time.

In addition the new members of the coaching panel were also in the ‘Carlton Camp’ for a match day for the first time. Alan Richardson, Gavin Brown, John Barker and Luke Webster were all involved during the breaks, working with the players.

A crowd of over 2,000 was on hand to see the first game of the New Year with the Carlton Shop and Carlton Café kept very busy during the morning as supporters enjoyed the fantastic weather and made sure they had their 2011 Carlton Memberships.

Already over 25,000 people have joined as Members in 2011 as Carlton strives to reach 50,000 members for the year.

As for the match Brett Ratten said after the game he was pleased with the ‘hit out’ and was very happy with the performance of Nick Duigan, Jarrad Waite and Brock McLean. Ratten said Duigan, a 26 year-old recruit from Adelaide was doing everything right during his first pre-season at Carlton and said his disposal was excellent.

“At 26 he knows this is an opportunity to change his life and he is certainly doing everything possible in his bid to be an AFL player,” Ratten said.

Ratten said after a slower pre-season, in which McLean was deliberately held back, he was very impressed with McLean’s game in the first game for the New Year, particular his work inside where he was ‘spitting the ball out’.

The Blues will have another intra-club match at Visy Park next Saturday, February 5 at 9.30am.