CARLTON 3.2 Â 7.4 Â 10.7 Â 14.9 (93)
PORT ADELAIDE 4.5 Â 8.9 Â 10.12 Â 13.13 (91)
Goals: Carlton: A Everitt 3 J Lamb 2 L Jones 2 M Kreuzer 2 B Gibbs L Sumner M Murphy S Rowe Z Tuohy. Port Adelaide: C Dixon 2 C Wingard 2 J Westhoff 2 A Young B Ebert H Hartlett J Trengove K Amon M Broadbent T Boak.
Best: Carlton: Gibbs, Kreuzer, Cripps, Docherty, Murphy, Rowe, Curnow, Simpson. Port Adelaide: Wines, Hartlett, Trengove, Young, Polec, Amon.
Umpires: Chris Donlon, Ray Chamberlain, Jordan Bannister.
Official Crowd: 26,924 at Etihad Stadium.
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Carlton seals win over Port Adelaide
Carlton snatches a two-point victory over Port Adelaide at Etihad Stadium.
In changerooms swelling fit to burst with people and their pride, Patrick Cripps wore a red welt on his neck, a guernsey frayed at the collar, an icepack of glacial proportions on his knee. For sheer illumination, none came close to the smile on his face.
"It's definitely the best one," he said of a win that came in the face of Carlton's most important personnel - himself included - dropping like felled trees. His sample size is small - this was only Cripps' seventh win in his 30th game - but it will take some topping.
"It just shows the character of the group. We're a collective - when one goes down everyone steps up."
One went down after just five minutes - Levi Casboult with what mercifully turned out to be a fractured leg and not a ruptured ACL. A quarter later Matthew Kreuzer was off with an ankle issue, and in the shadows of three-quarter time Cripps beat a familiar, miserable path to the rooms too, a trainer under each arm.
"I think my knee just went in a bit," he reported. "I'm not too worried, might be a bit of bone bruising." He gave the impression he'd take "a bit of bone bruising" every week if the pay-off is a win like this.
As if thumbing their noses as the eight-ball they found themselves behind magnified, the Casboult and Kreuzer setbacks were accompanied by Carlton goals. Even under the Docklands' closed roof this had the feel of raging against the dying of the light, but their doggedness - a precious trait in a developing team - endured.
"We're starting to really get some belief in the group," Cripps said. "When we started zero and four we knew we were doing a lot of things right but weren't getting the results."
Sporting the bandage of an old racehorse, Cripps played a mighty last quarter as his team came back from 17 points down with 10 minutes to play. He was in the thick of the action when the ball was flicked to Kreuzer with two-and-a-half minutes left, and wasn't so much ignored as not heard as the big man screwed home the matchwinning goal.
"I was about 15 metres away from him calling for the ball," said Cripps, staggered that less than 27,000 people could make such a din. "I've never heard the crowd that loud before, they just roared."
There were many heroes in navy, not least Bryce Gibbs who racked up 30 possessions and laid seven tackles that mapped a template his teammates followed eagerly. Captain Marc Murphy's desperation to earn a boundary stoppage in those frantic last seconds was telling; Kade Simpson was moved almost to tears in his 250th game, Michael Jamison humbled in his 150th.
Cripps noted that Port brought a "brutal mindset" from the start, led by Ollie Wines, with whom he is destined to have some wonderful battles. The Power's recent realignment had been built on intensity around the contest but the Blues were their match in this department, illustrated no better than Gibbs' second-effort tackle on a goalbound Jake Neade.Â
"Should be acknowledged," coach Brendon Bolton said of Gibbs' leadership over the past month. "He led the way, particularly on the inside."
Carlton's third quarter dominance of territory (16 inside 50s to eight) begged for greater scoreboard reward, yet when Denis Armfield scorched away to find Jed Lamb and Gibbs sunk a corker around his body from close to the boundary it was all square.
The Blues needed some luck, and a dropped Justin Westhoff mark and hacked clearing kick that might have gone anywhere yet landed in Gibbs' lap were happier omens at the start of the last term. Gibbs' titanic game continued with a kick to the hot spot that Sam Rowe marked.
Having started at full-back, pinch-hit in the ruck in Kreuzer's absence then gone to full-forward, Rowe kicked the goal that again gave his team the lead. This time, the roar began early - at the sight of Cripps returning to the fray.
Travis Boak, who had another worryingly quiet afternoon, put the Power back in front before Matthew Broadbent bounced one through with an off-break worthy of his name and Jared Polec got one to sit up, defy two Carlton defenders and land in Dixon's lap in the goalsquare.
That it wasn't all over then and there is testament to the unity and belief of a team on the rise.
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