Michael Voss, Adem Yze and Zac Williams speak after the Carlton Blues win a thriller over the Richmond Tigers in a Thursday night thriller at the MCG
A more detailed but more interesting story of the night was Jagga Smith. Playing only his second game, the young draftee made 16 touches in the first quarter. Sixteen, in the fifth quarter of AFL football! He attracted more attention from the opponents at the end of the quarter and finished the game with 32 touches; He is tied for the most strikes on the field with two-time Brownlow medalist Patrick Cripps.
Stats are valuable when they’re useful to a story, and even more valuable when they’re useful on the field. Smith’s were useful statistics on the field and a story of a true superstar coming into the game with the urgency of someone who had missed a year of football.
His impact on the game was as significant as any senior player on the night, given that Carlton’s win was built in that early period.
Carlton reacted to last week by changing players. Mitch McGovern stepped up and scored twice in the first term, but still spent time behind the ball as the Blues were under siege.
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Zac Williams was pushed behind the ball to give them more runs and better use of the ball, but in desperate need of someone – anyone – to score, Voss flicked him forward again. After 54 minutes without Carlton scoring, Williams finally scored a goal; It was the Blues’ only goal of the second half. But that was enough.
“Was it really that long between goals? I didn’t even realize it. Wow,” Williams said.
“I feel like I’ve taken on a lot of roles over the last few years, so I’m always ready to have my magnet floating around to do whatever the team needs role-wise.
“It was a bit of a surreal moment to score the goal, I didn’t think for a second it was going to go there and I celebrated prematurely and had to hold myself back because I thought it was going to hit the goal, but I’m thrilled we got the win after we really let ourselves down in the second half last week.
Tigers’ young gun Sam Lalor holds his own against Blues star Jacob Weitering.Credit: AFL Pictures
“We really wanted to finish the game strongly and wanted to thank our back row players who came up strong in the big moments.
“I think we need to go back and keep our role simple. Sometimes we deviate from that, but we need to get right back to work.”
“I think for the patches in the third quarter and the second half last week [tonight]”We’re back to playing for a long time and our coach has been really tough on our ball movement, our game plan and the way we want to play, so we’ll look at that.”
Williams, who doesn’t have a great injury history, appeared to suffer a bad injury when a tackle from Maurice Rioli Jr. went down from behind and got stuck under his foot. Although he appeared to suffer an ankle injury, he soon returned after escaping serious trouble.
This moment was pivotal in the game as it was Rioli’s second, quick, rundown challenge in as many minutes and reflected the Tigers’ escalation in pressure.
Zac Williams shoots towards goal.Credit: Paul Rovere
They felt they had to win the game and their wastefulness and the stupidity of Tom Lynch and Noah Balta in giving away freebies will say there is an argument for that. But they also know that the signs there are strong and that some of the other mistakes they made in rushing the ball were due to inexperience, not lack of talent.
On Monday morning, every Tigers fan will be reflecting on Sam Lalor’s pickpocket goal and the audacity of debutant Sam Grlj. Still a teenager, Grilj was so mature and calm with the ball that he was taking strikes and supporting himself with bold, searching runs in the first quarter of his debut. Nothing is missing except perhaps a vowel.
