Blues v Giants Review: Styles make fights.

Blues v Giants Review: Styles make fights.

GuyWhoLikesSport

In fighting, as in football, styles make fights.

We saw that play out twice over the space of two days on what was a weird weekend in my two favourite sports, Aussie Rules and boxing.

In the squared circle on Sunday we saw newly minted Infowards maniac and openly raging alcoholic Ryan Garcia beat up the well-conditioned professional, Devin Haney, in a classic matchup of puncher versus boxer.

In that fight, the more explosive guy had the bigger moments and it was enough to beat the more metronomic, grinding boxer who won more rounds by less of a margin.

In the footy on Saturday, the game between Carlton and GWS had a similar feel, but in that game the grinders showed they had enough explosiveness to win, unlike Haney.

While it probably didnā€™t have the finish that would let it be considered the game of the year, it was probably my favourite of the season because of how it ebbed and flowed as each team took turns in stamping their authority on it.

It was a bit like The Place Beyond the Pines where it felt like two or three movies all at once, but not in a muddled way.

The Blues utterly dominated the clearance game and in general were the bigger and stronger side.

Each of Cripps, McKay, and Curnow took turns to bully GWS every time the game was in a contested situation either in the middle or as the ball went forward.

When the game was slow or in contest, or the ball was in the air going toward the Bluesā€™ tall timber, the comportment of the game suited Carlton and Carlton only.

When the ball was on the move and GWS were able to force turnover, pressure the ball and explode, or get their transition game going. When it was a GWS game they made Carlton look slow and plodding. They ran from the bully, tired him out, then beat him up. It was like Mayweather vs McGregor.

In the first quarter, that dynamic played out perfectly with Blues scoring almost exclusively out of the middle and relying on McKay being simply bigger than Leek Aleem.

The Blues had each of the first five centre clearances, but the Giants were only down by a goal because, where the Blues relied on McKayā€™s physical dominance, GWS showed that they are the best team in the AFL at hitting a target when they have the ball 70m out from their goal.

Their method of entry goes further to show the different personalities of these two teams. Both teams average over 11 marks inside 50, in the top half of the league.

However, GWS are second in footy for marks inside 50 averaging nearly 15.5 compared to Carlton who are eighth with 11.3 despite having the leagueā€™s most dominant key forward combination.

The difference is the system.

If I had the stat, which I donā€™t because Champion Data is like P. Diddy except they randomly force dumber football discourse down our throats, I bet it would show that Carlton take about the fewest uncontested marks inside 50 of any team. They bang the ball inside 50 and bet on their talent.

GWS, on the other hand, will bang it into Hogan occasionally but have the two best forward flankers in the AFL (Greene and Daniels) and some of the gameā€™s most creative kickers to punish the many turnovers they create. I

bet theyā€™d be near the top for uncontested marks per game inside 50 as a result.

In the second term it was more of the same, but GWS was able to make it look like a GWS game, and they flipped the score by 14. With 10 minutes left in the second term, GWS had 10 forward-half intercepts and had scored 37 of their 38 points off turnover. GWS was the matador and Carlton the bull. The Giants stuck the knife in at every opportunity.

However, even if the Giants pressure, turnover and transition were killing Carlton, the Bluesā€™ never lost their physical edge.

Marc Pittonet specifically was exceptional in setting up Walsh and Cripps.

 

Heā€™s perfectly emblematic of the Bluesā€™ strengths. They need to make the games grinding slogs where power beats speed, and Pittonetā€™s game and skillset is perfectly suited to that. Iā€™d play him every week.

Early in the third quarter, it felt to me like GWS were about to blow the game away. They were the only team that could take an uncontested mark, the only team that could force a turnover and the only team that could chain handballs together.

The only thing that kept the Blues in it was pure clearance dominance, but GWS were up by 20 and the game felt over.

All of a sudden, however, the game turned on its head on the back of a genuine superstar: Charlie Curnow.

Curnow is getting the treatment that the really good players get where, when heā€™s having a bad game heā€™s not out of touch, heā€™s due

He kicked his first goal after having kicked 4 behinds, but then he kicked a second immediately and the game had irrevocably changed. By the time he kicked his third of the quarter, the game was almost won.

The Blues were emboldened behind their talisman and started to beat GWS at their own game.

Carlton kept dominating clearances through Pittonet, Walsh and Cripps but they added the pressure game to their bow. The size started to tell as Curnow and McKay clunked marks on the wing. Their undermanned defence was suddenly under less pressure because GWS just couldnā€™t get their hands on it.

When they did, they were under so much pressure that they didnā€™t know what to do.

The game was done at Ā¾ time even though the Giants were only down by 15. They were cooked physically as Carlton cranked the pressure up and added it to their physical dominance in general.

The Blues were walking through Giant tackles, hurting them around the ball, and beating them in the air.

The puncher’s hard shots had slowed the boxer down enough that he was just out of juice.

For what felt like the first time this year, Carlton matched their physical dominance around the ball and in the air with a forward half-turnover game and they took the game away from the most explosive team in the AFL.

If they can do that and keep getting solid games from guys underneath the A-listers like Matt Cottrell, who was exceptional, and the Hollands brothers, Carlton is a threat.

What a grim reality.

 

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