At 1-8 from nine games, and with Michael Voss gone, the notion that Carlton could, or would, play Geelong in an elimination final was as preposterous as a Bulldogs’ premiership before the 2016 finals.
Carlton’s chief executive Graham Wright had not contemplated such an ascension from near the bottom.
“Well, not really no,” Wright said in the rooms, after the Blues wore down the Demons on Saturday night, when asked if he ever imagined this team reaching the top eight this year.
“The wildcard gave us the opportunity, and it’s just week to week … you’ve won seven in a row, and then I suppose it becomes a little bit of a reality, but we still had to do a fair bit in the back seven [games].”
The team that Josh Fraser has reassembled or redefined has a different method to that of the Voss Blues. In overcoming Melbourne’s 21-point early lead and restricting the Demons to just three goals after quarter-time, the Blues defended superbly, and they held possession of the footy – using it nearly 100 times more than the opposition.
At the height of the Voss era, when Carlton stormed from the bottom four to a preliminary final, they were defined by Charlie Curnow and Harry McKay in attack, Jacob Weitering in defence, and Patrick Cripps and Sam Walsh in the midfield.
They did not bat deep.
This version, however, is less top-heavy or reliant on those four remaining guns; the faces of the Fraser team, if there are any, are the super-mature young guns Harry Dean and Jagga Smith, both of whom were exceptional against Melbourne and have changed the team DNA.
“They’re just mature beyond their years,” Fraser said of the pair.
If Walsh was best afield on Saturday night, winning 39 disposals, and Smith was his support act in the midfield, ex-Sun Ben Ainsworth was no less impactful, booting three goals from 21 touches and reiterating how the Blues sought to reshape their forward line into a multidimensional one.
McKay’s role seems more about providing a contest – and not being outmarked – than producing the kind of bags that won him the Coleman Medal in 2021 when Curnow was grounded.
Wright, who had brought Fraser over from Collingwood, described Ainsworth’s game as “outstanding.” But the CEO saw a team in which every player played a part. “I thought they were all pretty good … overall, it was a great team performance, which they pretty much have been the whole way through.”
Ollie Hollands had found space and plenty of the footy on the wing. Weitering and Dean were cornerstones of a backline that held the Demons to 55 points in a wildcard final that was intense and high pressure and not always pretty viewing – each side took turns at butchering their chances.
Melbourne had squandered scoring prospects repeatedly – Kysaiah Pickett had missed three times, his output curtailed, too, by Cooper Lord’s attention. “Young player, big task,” was how Fraser summed up Lord’s game.
Fraser and the coaches had not been perturbed when the Demons booted the match’s first four goals. “In the coach’s box, we didn’t feel flustered,” he explained.
Marc Pittonet was another critical player, pitted against Melbourne’s peerless ruckman and skipper Max Gawn, who, while among the better red-and-blue performers, had been reduced to merely a good game when his team probably needed a bravura one from he and Pickett to prevail.
The Blues have only six days’ respite and preparation before they meet the Cats, against whom they have fared well lately – winning the past three encounters.
Their eclipse of Geelong back in round 12 was the beginning of a genuine surge under Fraser, the moment perhaps when it became possible for Carlton folk to dream, and for the coach to be considered a possibility to take the job next year and beyond.
For this opportunity, the Blues can extend gratitude to the AFL for creating the wildcard, without which they were Powerball odds to make the finals.
Did Carlton president Rob Priestley support the wildcard system?
“I do now,” he quipped with a grin, barely an hour after his team had slain the Demons.
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Jake Niall is a Walkley award-winning sports journalist and chief AFL writer for The Age.Connect via X or email.
