Patrick Cripps of the Blues gets away from Nathan Jones on Sunday. Photo: Getty Images
CARLTON 6.2 10.2 11.3 12.6 (78) MELBOURNE 1.2 2.3 6.9 7.13 (55)
Goals: Carlton: A Walker 4, M Kreuzer 3, A Everitt 2, P Cripps 2, M Watson. Melbourne: B Newton, C Dawes, J Garlett, J Grimes, J Watts, M Gawn, N Jones.
BEST: Carlton: Cripps, Kreuzer, Walker, Docherty, Tutt, Bell, Curnow. Melbourne: McDonald, Grimes, Watts, Michie, Newton.
Umpires: Sam Hay, Heath Ryan, Nicholas Foot.
Official Crowd: 33,962 at MCG.
The main storyline going into this otherwise meaningless match – at least in terms of positions at the business end of the ladder – was the battle of the two favourites for this year's Rising Star award: Carlton young gun Patrick Cripps and Melbourne blue chipper Jesse Hogan.
The rising midfield star versus the powerhouse forward of the future.
Melbourne was so bad for half of this game that they barely gave Hogan a chance to show his stuff. The 20-year-old Demon wasn't at his best, but he can at least take comfort in the knowledge that the Rising Star selectors will not base their decision on this Sunday afternoon alone.
Cripps, however, would be more than happy if they did so.
With skipper Marc Murphy going down early in the third quarter with a shoulder injury, Cripps showed why he is viewed as a leader in the making with one of his finest outings in an already stellar year.
The former No.13 draft pick was not only influential when the Blues blew the game open in the first half – he had 13 disposals, five clearances and a goal – but he also held firm when the Demons mounted their second-half charge.
Fittingly, he took a telling mark deep inside 50 midway through the last quarter and kicked a goal that proved to be the match-winner for the Blues. Earlier, he dribbled through a miraculous soccer goal as he was being knocked to the ground - the highlight reel moment of his brilliant 26-disposal (16 contested possessions), eight-clearance game.
That Cripps outplayed Demons' key shutdown man Bernie Vince and came on strong when his team really needed him in the final term was significant for stand-in coach John Barker.
If he was handing out the Rising Star award, there would be no debate. Sunday's performance made it official.
"He was tagged today by one of the preeminent run-with players in the competition and put a nice gap on him," Barker said, adding that Cripps had now done enough to earn the top accolade for the game's emerging talent.
"He's very, very good. His dominance in the contest, and then today we started to see a little bit of burst into space, which we probably haven't seen much of in his career yet, but it's ominous," he said.
"I don't know if I can say much more about him. My wife might start getting concerned."
Another high point of Cripps' first half was a classy shake-and-bake move in the centre square that allowed him to burn Vince and then hand off to Matthew Kreuzer for a crowd-pleasing goal.
The sight of the blue-collar ruckman running to the 50-metre arc and then launching must have brought a smile to every Carlton's supporters' face - the club's future star teaming with the popular, heart and soul warrior.
This was a timely reminder of how important Kreuzer is to the fabric at Carlton and why the Blues will sign him up as quickly as possible, maybe by the end of the season.
He stepped up big in the first half with three crucial goals and his typical around-the-ground hustle which ignited the Blues.
"What you see with Matty is the game conditioning starting to build. He is getting that mobility back to where it was before those injuries that we all know about," Barker said of Kreuzer.
On Kreuzer's contract status, Barker said this of re-signing the former No.1 draft pick: "He's a Carlton man. Our fans know that, the club knows that, Matty knows that."
Kreuzer finished the game with soreness, but Barker did not believe it was serious and expected him to play next week.
The match took a dramatic turn when Murphy went down early in the third quarter.
He had been one of the team's best players with 14 disposals and five inside 50s up until then, but his departure coincided with a massive momentum swing in which the Blues nearly surrendered the 53-point lead they built with such excitment earlier on.
In the first half, the Blues' attacking method was described as "scintillating", a word not used in connection with Carlton since the height of the Brett Ratten era, and in patches under Barker more recently.
But a mixture of brave ball movement through the corridor – notably from Jason Tutt and Sam Docherty - aggressive intercept defending and poor Melbourne defence (Paul Roos' chargers had just five tackles in the first quarter) allowed the Blues to explode into a 10 goals-to-one run that lasted until Chris Dawes broke the deadlock just before half-time.
Discussion about Carlton's forward line usually involves lamenting the past. And again it was pointed out before this game that between a group of forwards Carlton have lost over the past few years – Eddie Betts, Jeff Garlett and Jarrad Waite, and one who is leaving, Lachie Henderson – that foursome had kicked more goals this year than the entire Blues' team combined.
And yet Carlton got a result on Sunday by going back to the future. Moving veteran Andrew Walker ahead of the ball paid huge dividends for Barker, with the 29-year-old booting three goals before half-time and one just after - as well as perfectly setting up one of Kreuzer's.
It prompted questions as to why someone who once kicked 51 goals in a season – back in 2011 – has not played up that end of the ground more often.
It all seemed to be happening for the Blues early, as they played with an intensity that only highlighted just how ridiculous it was that the "tanking" debate surfaced again last week.
Even Matthew Watson – a late inclusion for Levi Casboult – was getting involved.
He had the energy of a man playing for his career and much like he did when he kicked four goals in round 23 last year, the former first-round pick turned in a performance that should at least give him another chance next week to prove why he should not be a part of the club's expected list cull.
