Gun duo Max Gawn and Christian Petracca have fired Melbourne to a 38-point win over Carlton of their AFL group collection match, as Clayton Oliver pressed his case for a gap spherical call-up via the reserves.
The Demons overpowered Carlton at Ikon Park on Wednesday evening, successful 15.11 (101) to 10.3 (63), with Gawn (24 disposals, two objectives) and Petracca (23 touches) excellent within the engine room.
No.7 draft choose Caleb Windsor put his hand up for an early debut with two eye-catching objectives on the run, Jack Viney (23 disposals, eight clearances) labored laborious all day and Christian Salem did nicely on his return.
Carlton captain Patrick Cripps (26 disposals, seven clearances, one objective) and defender Adam Saad (26 touches) had been busy, however the Blues’ defence struggled with out injured chief Jacob Weitering (calf).
There was loads of deal with the sooner reserves fixture, by which Oliver took one other step in direction of a return at senior stage with a robust midfield show.
The 26-year-old four-time best-and-fairest winner showcased his trademark qualities across the ball, brushing previous opponents with ease and successful a collection of clearances.
Oliver’s spectacular exhibiting got here after an interrupted summer time when he handled private well being points and frolicked away from the membership.
It gave Melbourne’s teaching workers lots to consider forward of an opening-round assembly with Sydney on the SCG on Thursday subsequent week (March 7).
“He went really well. The last two weeks he’s performed really strongly,” Demons coach Simon Goodwin informed Fox Footy.
“It’s just great to see him happy and loving his footy and training really hard.
“It’s simply nice to have him again on the footy membership and actually connecting along with his teammates. What occurs subsequent week we’ll simply have to attend and see.”
Goodwin said Oliver is physically ready to play against Sydney but wouldn’t commit to selecting the star onballer in the season opener.
“We wish to set him up for the 12 months and ensure he is able to hit the 12 months totally able to go,” Goodwin stated.
“We’ll decide (on opening-round choice) all through the week.
“I want to have a chat with our leaders and want to have a chat with everyone.
“He’s bodily ready and getting going, so we’ll simply take a look at how he pulls up.”
Melbourne took plenty of positives out of their convincing win over Carlton, controlling the first half and pulling away during the final term.
They were cleaner with the ball, dominated the inside-50 count (63-45) and took 20 marks inside 50m.
Carlton talls Harry McKay and Charlie Curnow finished with three goals each but fellow forward Jesse Motlop suffered a jarred toe during the first quarter and was put on ice as a precaution.
“It was powerful early however I believed we received higher as the sport went on, which was encouraging,” Blues assistant coach Ash Hansen said.
“Our strain received higher and our capability to make use of the footy was actually inconsistent within the first half however I believed we began capitalising on a number of extra performs within the second, so we progressed.”
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
