I don’t know about everyone else, but I was and still am pretty emotional right now for all the good and rather frustrating reasons. I know that there are voices around regarding how Carlton had the game in their hands and lost it in the last seconds. How it was a game; they should have won but didn’t. How for some, including Carlton supporters, that the match against Brisbane Lions will be a loss of epic kind. Here is my view.
I have always believed that the season is not just one, but three in one. The proof is simply in the physical evidence of season 2024.
From the start of the season to the main Bye rounds, Rounds 12 to 15, the ladder showed that Carlton was second. Sydney had won 13 of its 14 games. Carlton—10, Essendon—9, Collingwood, Fremantle, GWS, Geelong, and Port Adelaide had all won 8. At the bottom of the ladder, Melbourne—8, Brisbane Lions, Bulldogs, Gold Coast, and Hawthorn—7.
Now, after all the team’s main bye rounds, things changed. It was not until Round 19 that things went pear-shaped for a few teams (Carlton being one of them), and things blossomed for others. We saw Carlton drop to 4th. Brisbane Lions rose to 2nd after being 8th. GWS rose one spot. Western Bulldogs and Hawthorn began their rise. While Essendon dropped down. At round 21, Carlton had dropped to 8th spot. Western Bulldogs rose to 7th, and Hawthorn hovered around. Essendon dropped down to 9th. Sydney, who had been the outright favourite, began to lose games. Instead of being two to three games ahead of everyone, they were now only one. Collingwood, touted as the red-hot favourite, was now 11th.
Carlton had their fair share of major players out with injury. It meant that the rest of the season rested on those players who, for some, had either not played any senior AFL games or just a few. It meant that for the game on Sunday, the team was up against the very team that had beaten Geelong and was now determined to seal the fate of their opponents – Carlton. They wanted to inflict disappointment of chances lost and conclude their season on a high note. They were up against a depleted and inexperienced side (for some) who did not have the luxury of time and experience to furnish themselves with how to combat the pressure that St Kilda plied the team with. In the end, it came down to a game that we all could only watch and hope. An opposition team that we didn’t particularly like, but for a brief moment, we all were Port Adelaide supporters.
As the final siren went for the Fremantle/Port Adelaide game, Carlton said a big, hearty thanks; our chances and hopes were back in play again. Now we have a week off to regroup and hopefully get some of our injured players back, who had, before the major bye, got the team to be in a position to be in the top four.
What I am alluding to is that with each bye that a team has, it is a way of re-setting the game. It is a way to give those with injuries the chance to recover and return. It is a way to literally start again. This season has shown that there is no way anyone can comfortably state with certainty what will happen in every match. The way some clubs began at the beginning of the season, has not given them a sure-fired path into the finals. We have seen losses from clubs that should not have lost. We have witnessed wins from clubs that took us all by surprise.
Either way, in every scenario, it is not what transpired in the past but what a team must and should be looking for in the future. What they can control now will ensure that when the time comes, they will have the opportunity to erase past mistakes and, hopefully, achieve success.
I am and always will be a firm believer in the power of positivity. I do not and never will subscribe to the notion that what was terrible in the past will be the same moving forward. It achieves and does nothing. I believe the team will reset and regroup, and with some of its major players back into the team, it will give the opposition a sense of fear. The season has now reset itself, and the Finals campaigns for all teams involved have begun.
I know that Brisbane Lions will be fearful for the simple reason that Carlton will be out for redemption. We’ve done it before, and we will do it again. But win, lose, or draw, we have to and need to support the team and the club and know that they will be doing everything in their power and ability to ensure success.
#GOBLUES!
P.S. Said I would. Each week we are in the finals, another flag goes up outside my home!
SPORTZ 