From: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/carlton-leads-adelaide-by-37-points-at-half-time/story-e6frf9jf-1225854910496

IT TOOK all of 15 seconds to take the AAMI Stadium crowd out of the Adelaide-Carlton clash.

The Blues broke out of the middle and put on a behind. The next three scoring shots were Carlton’s – a magnificent burst and snap from little Chris Yarran, a Chris Judd goal from a 50m penalty and then another one from Yarran after he crumbed a fruitless contest between Graham Johncock and Jeff Garlett.

In six minutes, Carlton had kicked as many as the Crows would until Taylor Walker kicked one on the three-quarter siren.

Not surprisingly, Adelaide’s season is sinking like a pebble in the pond after the humiliating 48-point loss to a revived Judd-led Carlton.

As haunted by injury as the Crows have been, there will be a searching analysis before they can come up with mitigating reasons for one of their most hurtful losses under coach Neil Craig.

Winless from four matches, it will take a mighty effort to make the finals from here – and the odds are stacked heavily against them with most of the top liners to play from here, most of them twice.

The ground was as quiet as one of the churches in the city for the first three quarters as the Crows put on an ultra-defensive display when it could not win the contested ball or make the tackles stick as Carlton ran away with it.

The Crows’ biggest concern, and it was a grave one, was their inability to kick goals. Again.

Five goals against Melbourne last week was followed by just three from the first three quarters against the Blues, who were invigorated by the return of Judd and played with zip and grunt to have the game under lock and key by half-time.

It wasn’t until the last quarter that the Crows showed some of the spunk that had them a contender for a flag last year and a perennial finalist under Craig. But even then they couldn’t slot them.

Throughout, it cost them, because even though Carlton had them covered in most aspects, Kurt Tippett and Brett Burton missed some sitters that would have changed the complexion of the match.

There had been talk beforehand about Carlton’s shoddy kicking and turnover count but the Crows outdid anything the Blues dished up the previous week.

Brett Burton missed his first three shots and nobody looked comfortable with the ball in their hands.

Then there was the turnovers. Adelaide was bullied by the Blues, led by a masterful Judd, and coughed the ball in a sea of confusion.

The Blues had their match-ups right: Ryan Houlihan limited the damage of Simon Goodwin while Bryce Gibbs alternated to keep Patrick Dangerfield and Jason Porplyzia in check.

The only bright lights ahead of the long adjournment were Andrew McLeod, who hit his forwards with lace-out kicks, and the nippy Johncock who chased them down from behind and showed a bit of dash and adventure.

The talk of Adelaide being an adventurous and risk taking team was plain rubbish yesterday – the Crows were anything but in one of their sorriest days.

If they were any more negative and defensive they would be playing in crash helmets. The Crows shifted players behind the ball but the obvious happened when they found it by weight of numbers: going forward, there was nobody to kick to.

Carlton, by contrast, played with dash, their inexperience on paper notwithstanding. They looked to intercept, tackle (and out-tackled the Crows), and were quick with the handball whereas the Crows handballed under immense pressure.

Matthew Kreuzer and Robbie Warnock gave the littlemen silver service in the middle, Irishman Setanta O’hAilpin presented forward and small and zippy forwards Yarran, Garlett and Eddie Betts ran circles around the Adelaide defence, which didn’t have enough quick defenders.

And what about Judd. When the game was still to be decided in the second quarter, he again laid claims to being the best man in the competition. He dominated with pace, muscle, vision and skill.

At the other end, Michael Jamison held Tippett, who’s either in a form slump or struggling worse than we thought with calf soreness and knee tendinitis, and youngster Simon White belied his age to at least break even with Burton.


SCOREBOARDCARLTON 5.1 10.4 12.5 16.7 (103)
ADELAIDE 2.7 3.9 4.15 6.19 (55)

Goals: Carlton: C Yarran 3 J Garlett 3 R Houlihan 3 K Simpson 2 C Judd E Betts H Scotland L Henderson S O’hAilpin. Adelaide: S Thompson 2 B Burton C Knights R Douglas T Walker.

Best: Carlton: A Walker C Judd M Murphy C Yarran R Houlihan J Garlett B Gibbs. Adelaide: A McLeod B Vince D Mackay T Edwards.

Injuries: Nil.

Reports: Nil.

Umpires: Stuart Wenn, Jacob Mollison, Michael Avon.

Venue: AAMI Stadium.