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CARLTON is back in town after taking the Western Bulldogs apart to the tune of 43 points at Docklands on Sunday.
Coming off back-to-back losses, the Blues out-played the speedy Dogs at their own game under the roof and ran out the match superbly to set up the 21.7 (133) to 13.12 (90) result.
The Dogs were still in with a chance at 27 points down entering the final term, but Carlton outscored them six goals to three to emphatically claim the premiership points.
Chris Judd was right on song for the Blues with 23 classy touches, but he had plenty of help with Ryan Houlihan (29), Kade Simpson (29), Bryce Gibbs (25) and Marc Murphy (25) all important.
Matthew Kreuzer took the honours in the battle of the big men with 17 possessions, 14 hitouts and two goals, while Andrew Carrazzo played an effective negating role on Bulldogs playmaker Lindsay Gilbee in his first game of the season.
The Dogs looked to be feeling the effects of two trips to Perth in the first month of the season and didn't get the usual service from their classy band of runners, but Shaun Higgins (27 possessions), Matthew Boyd (26) and Brad Johnson (23 touches and four goals) fought hard.
The Blues did it one man down as well after losing Chris Johnson to a quad injury before half-time.
Both sides took their time working into the contest with errors aplenty in the early going.
It took until the 12th minute for the first goal to come after Jordan Russell marked 45 m out, but despite a nice snap from Josh Hill, the Dogs were unable to convert several chances after gaining the upper hand around the stoppages.
The Blues had no such concerns and finished the quarter off the stronger side with goals to Brendan Fevola, Cameron Cloke and Eddie Betts putting them up by 13 points at the first break.
Jarrad Waite booted the first of the second, but the Bulldogs threatened to break the game wide open with a four-goal volley that had Carlton reeling.
Boyd, Ryan Griffen and Liam Picken had the Doggies' home crowd barking before Daniel Giansiracusa's goal after a Setanta O'hAilpin 50 m penalty set up a seven-point advantage.
But where the Blues of recent years may have surrendered, this lot dug in.
Murphy's running major stopped the rot before Simpson got on the end of a nice pass from Gibbs to kick his first.
He created the opportunity for his second with an excellent tackle that caught Tom Williams holding the ball and when Houlihan threaded the eye of the needle from long range the Blues were up and about and 17 points in front.
O'hAilpin redeemed himself with a nice soccered effort to and even shared a celebratory hug with Cloke as a surging Carlton took a 24-point lead into half-time.
Two goals to start the third quarter – including a brilliant overhead effort from Fev to crack 500 career majors – put the blowtorch to the Dogs, but they managed to steady the ship and stop the Blues run.
They didn't launch a counter-attack as such, but they kept chipping away and when Johnson capitalised on an errant Nick Stevens kick out, the deficit was a manageable 27 points at the last change.
But despite Mitch Hahn's early long goal, the Bullies didn't look to have it in them and when Kreuzer booted successive goals the only thing left to determine was the final margin.
The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs.
MATCH DETAILS
Western Bulldogs 1.6 6.9 10.10 13.12 (90)
Carlton 4.1 11.3 15.7 21.7 (133)
GOALS
Western Bulldogs: Johnson 4, Giansiracusa 2, Boyd 2, Hill, Griffen, Picken, Higgins, Hahn
Carlton: Fevola 3, Betts 3, Kreuzer 2, Simpson 2, Russell 2, Cloke 2, Houlihan 2, Waite, Murphy, O'hAilpin, Carrazzo, Gibbs
BEST
Western Bulldogs: Higgins, Boyd, Giansiracusa, Hill
Carlton: Judd, Simpson, Kreuzer, Murphy, Gibbs, Houlihan, Carrazzo, Waite
INJURIES
Western Bulldogs: Nil
Carlton: Johnson (quad)
Reports: Nil
Umpires: Vozzo, Ryan, Nicholls
Official crowd: 44,268 at Docklands
