Carlton’s decade-long look ahead to an AFL finals berth is over and Blues coach Michael Voss is difficult his group to take advantage of their September look.
Inspired by spearhead Charlie Curnow, the Blues locked in a top-eight place on Saturday with a come-from-behind 13.13 (91) to 13.9 (87) victory over Gold Coast at Heritage Bank Stadium.
Curnow kicked 4 second-quarter objectives on his strategy to a bag of 5 for the match because the Blues overcame a surprising begin which had them down by 40 factors early within the second time period to seal a four-point win and a primary finals look since 2013.
Knowing the lengthy look ahead to the finals had come to an finish was clearly a reduction for Voss.
“Since I started, that goal has been clear about what our direction needed to look like,” he mentioned.
“That was just a great moment for the club, to be able to have that sort of confirmation that we’re playing finals footy.
“It hasn’t been mentioned for some time at this membership and I’m happy that I’m saying it.”
Having sparked the Blues back to within just two points at halftime, Curnow again stood up tallest in the final term just as it looked like the Suns might hold on for a 10th win of their season.
The Coleman Medallist’s thunderous goal from the boundary outside 50 off just a couple of steps and then a long pass to find fellow key forward Harry McKay put the Blues into a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
Fittingly it was Curnow who claimed a defensive mark in the goal square to have the ball in his hands when the final siren sounded.
Carlton’s winning run now stands at nine games but having made finals, Voss is urging his team to seize the opportunity in front of them.
“This wasn’t about making finals, it was about impacting them and I really feel just like the job is not accomplished,” Voss mentioned.
“We’ve acquired extra in us … we really feel like we have type of acquired that momentum.
“We’ve had lots of questions asked about us, as you would expect playing against some really high level competition, and we’ve been able to work our way through some of those.”
Apart from Curnow’s 5, Matthew Owies, Jesse Motlop and former Sun Jack Martin all kicked two objectives for the Blues.
Veteran Sun David Swallow kicked a career-best 4 objectives for the hosts with Alex Sexton and Ben Ainsworth chipping in with two apiece.
Ahead of a probably momentous week within the membership’s historical past and the seemingly affirmation triple-premiership winner Damien Hardwick will likely be unveiled because the Suns’ new head coach, interim head coach Steven King was happy with his group’s capability to stay with the in-form Blues regardless of the frustration of letting their good begin slip away.
“They’ve got something to play for for the rest of the year and I think they showed that today,” King mentioned.
“We wanted to finish strongly and win as many games as possible.
“Unfortunately we could not get that accomplished at the moment however that’ll be a spotlight once more in seven days’ time.”
Voss confirmed Sam Walsh and Adam Cerra can be pushing for a return for subsequent week’s last common season fixture in opposition to GWS at Marvel Stadium.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
