Carlton has surged to second spot on the ladder and underlined its premiership credentials with a 26-point conquer conventional rivals Essendon.
The Blues’ effectivity in assault — and their opponents’ wastefulness — informed the story of a 15.6 (96) to 9.16 (70) victory on the MCG on Sunday night time.
Tom De Koning shone within the ruck and Elijah Hollands kicked a career-best three targets as Carlton (9-4) banked a 3rd straight win and leapfrogged the Bombers (8-4-1) on the ladder.
The essential end result might have come at some value after Harry McKay (left shoulder) and Mitch McGovern (groin) had been handled for accidents through the remaining quarter.
De Koning (23 disposals), George Hewett (23), Sam Walsh (22) and Nic Newman (21) had been all busy for Carlton, who unfold the workload in a powerful group show.
Charlie Curnow, Zac Williams and Alex Cincotta kicked two targets every.
The Blues had been victorious regardless of Essendon’s territorial dominance, which gave the Bombers a 60-40 benefit in ahead entries.
Nic Martin (26 disposals), Zach Merrett (21) and Archie Perkins (21) fought laborious for Essendon, with Martin and Matt Guelfi kicking two targets every.
However Will Setterfield was subbed off with a knee harm and the Bombers didn’t money in on the burden of provide in assault.
With the match billed as the most important Essendon-Carlton conflict in additional than a decade, an enormous build-up ensured a monster crowd of 88,510 spectators was available.
It was the second-highest attendance in historical past for a home-and-away match between the 2 previous enemies.
However the contest didn’t stay as much as the hype as Carlton took management early and had been solely briefly challenged when the Bombers pressed through the third quarter.
There was a way of theatre when Essendon defender Ben McKay went on to mark Carlton spearhead Harry McKay on the opening bounce within the brothers’ first head-to-head assembly at AFL degree.
Harry McKay took the early factors as he and Curnow prompted points, each hitting the scoreboard because the Blues kicked the primary three targets.
That led to a 16-point benefit on the first change, which ballooned to 32 by the primary break — 9.3 to three.6.
The Blues’ effectivity was a characteristic from the beginning as they scored 12 occasions from 17 ahead entries within the first half, in comparison with the Bombers’ 9 from 29.
Essendon peppered the targets within the third quarter, including 3.6 to 1.1 for the time period, as a pair of Martin majors trimmed the margin to fifteen factors on the remaining change.
However Carlton shut the gate with 4 fast targets within the opening 10 minutes of the final quarter, sending Essendon followers in the direction of the exits.
AAP
