A game in the English mold, crap passing and end-to-end play. But the most exciting game of the season. The True Blues congregate at the Charles Dickens and even the Sat night punters were getting excited towards the end!
Brisbane played very well in the first 30 minutes, but Carlton dominated the last hour. I've said it before but Brisbane's organisation at set pieces is quality stuff, both offensive and defensive.
Their delivery on crosses as well was excellent and I have no trouble in seeing why Foster and Dwyer have done well. I have trouble in seeing why Foster was released by Spirit...
Harris headed just wide from an excellent Hews? cross and Foster had a lob just touched onto the crossbar by Deano. Deano made it look far harder when slapping one handed from a line drive.
Carlton'd get a setpiece in the Brisbane half, bang it over, where it would get cleared straight to a yellow shirt, who would trigger a usually effective counterattack. From one of them, they scored after our defence slipped and missed enough tackles to allow Foster a free shot at goal.
As in our first season, we're beginning to dominate after half time, but we were already back into the game before it. An alleged push on Archie saw the great man lineup and his shot came off every player in the wall before going wide.
The followup corner was headed out but the next was Marth's. In a pack of players his head got there first but the ball flashed wide of the far post. Conroy could do nothing but fall on his arse as the ball went by him. The whole play looked terrific on TV (and as an aside, the quality of the coverage has improved drastically, IMHO).
Conroy just holds it up too long, a couple of times last week he would've done better turning in a flash and belting for goal, ditto last night. Whilst his offensive contributions are adequate, he needs to start banging in the odd goal. I'd keep him in the lineup for the moment as we're playing quite well.
We scored after Conroy bravely got his head under a huge punt that Archie ran onto and with the most delicate of lobs coming off the crossbar, you can't get a much better strike than that. I will have chats with both Stuart Munro and Raul Blanco if Archie gets dropped/ not picked.
We had opportunities to win the game - the shot count was about 15-5 in our favour, we must've had about 15 corners as well. One from Jonesy had Bolton nearly beaten but it was probably going out anyway.
We probably should have one it right at the death when Lubo's freekick caught Bolton out of position (Bolton is surely the worst player to win the Grand Final). Marth's followup header was straight goalwards.
Colosimo is now odds on to return before the end of the year, but we're playing our rich neighbours around christmas and I doubt he'll be risked in either of those games. You simply would not get past Simon, Slim and Sean/Deans.
When he does return, you're all playing for second place. And when you consider Slater is yet to make his mark...
I saw the highlights on ABC yes and it looked great....