SugarShane
C12 H22 O11
AFL 2017 Premiership Season
Round 15:
Carlton
Vs
Adelaide
Where & When: MCG. Saturday, July 1, 2:10pm Local (1:40pm ACST)
Sportsbet Odds: Adelaide $1.30, Carlton $3.55. Line is 23.5 points Adelaide’s way. Gamble responsibly. Unless you’ve got a sure thing. Then load up.
Weather:
Outlook: Sunny
Maximum: 14°C
Minimum: 3°C
Chance of Rain: 5%
Rain Amount: <1mm
UV Index: Low
Frost Risk: Moderate
Wind Speed: 12km/h
Wind Direction: NNE
Relative Humidity: 52%
Dew Point: 3°C
Sunrise: 7:36am
Sunset: 5:11pm
Moonrise: 12:24pm
Moon Phase: First Quarter
Head to Head: 18-17 Carlton’s way (Last 5: 3-2 Adelaide’s way)
History:
Welcome to the latest installment of the Kerridge-Wright-Menzel-Betts-Jacobs-Curnow-Bond-Eccles-Massie-Gallagher-Nelson-Turner-Camporeale-Teague-Craig-Trigg Cup*. That name is a bit of a mouthful so henceforth the cup will simply be referred to as the far easier to remember KWMBJCBEMGNTCTCT Cup.
*I am aware the name is probably missing some other Adelaide/Carlton players/officials, but adding more would make for a comically long and silly name, and would involve far more research than I am interested in undertaking (ie. Finding more than one source article for Carlton/Adelaide links).
In 26 seasons we’ve met 35 times, 24 of those in Victoria, for a ledger of 18-17. If we can win this week we would finally tie it up.
For two teams who’ve shared so much talent, we’ve never developed that much of a serious rivalry with the Blues. The most heated exchange between the two clubs was by far 2016’s Armchair List Managers Debate over Bryce Gibbs, where weeks and weeks of BigFooty posters doing imaginary deals to satisfy the other club’s imaginary demands resulted in, well, nothing, as it came to light that AFL trades are actually done by club employed officials and not people posting and posturing on BigFooty in between filing TPS reports.
That’s not to say there hasn’t been highlights and lowlights for both sides. Modra kicking 13, Burton’s screamer, Tex doing his knee, Fevola’s goal after the siren, Roo dragging us home at Princess Park, van Berlo getting 40 touches, and many more that can be found in the Memory Lane thread.
Recent History:
Weirdly enough, our recent history only involves games in Victoria. As a matter of fact, last time we played Carlton in Adelaide:
In the 5 most recent games since then, we went 1-2 under Sando, including a real shocker. Under Walsh and Pyke we’ve won both games against the Blues, one in ugly fashion and one relatively comfortably.
2017 has been a strange tale for both sides. After round 6 we were looking unbeatable, as evidenced by the fact we were yet to be beaten. Then the aberrations started.
First we s**t the bed against North Melbourne. Although s**t the bed doesn’t even begin to describe that game. Really, we s**t the bed, grabbed some nuggets and proceeded to paint the walls with said excrement before vomiting in the pillowcase for added measure. Then we really dropped the ball against Melbourne at home (pictured below).
Following that we had some easy teams to beat up on before another couple of disturbingly similar aberrations against Geelong and Hawthorn. We can, however, take solace in the fact that all four of these losses have been one-offs, and are only because we weren’t allowed to play our way which probably won’t happen in September.
Carlton on the other hand have had a mostly Carlton season, however their young side does look to be starting to gel together. They started with their obligatory loss to Richmond, but have taken some impressive scalps that show they’re not to be taken too lightly. Their biggest scalp to date is easily the #1 side in the comp, GWS. Along with St Kilda, they’re the only 2 teams worth mentioning on football TV shows as teams who have beaten GWS.
Form Guide:
Adelaide: WWLWL
Carlton: LLWWL
Brief summation of Adelaide's form since Round 6.
Players to Watch
Adelaide
Rory Sloane
After tagging went out of fashion over the past few years, the effectiveness of tagging Sloane by North has meant tagging Sloane is almost a certainty these days. It’s like bidding $1 more than the guy before you on The Price is Right. It’s s**t to watch and we hate it, but it works. But does Carlton have a tagger capable of going with Sloane?
Brodie Smith
Has been way off the boil lately. At his best he is one of the most damaging players off half back in the AFL. Will have a bit more space at his disposal this week on the MCG so will have the chance to run into some form. We’re a far better side when he’s firing. It’s been far too long since I’ve had to defend a sudden suspicious bulge in my pants to my wife after a trademark Brodie Smith 60m dart goal.
Josh Jenkins
JJ is the barometer in our side. And by barometer, I mean he’s a scientific instrument used to measure atmospheric pressure. As a general rule of thumb, if there is pressure in the atmosphere, JJ will be invisible to the naked eye. Needs a few big weeks to get back the confidence he had last year.
Carlton
Bryce Gibbs
Who else? Finally a gun mid was ready to come here in a trade, but not willing to be bent over at the trade table, we walked away. A move many said was justifiable, as giving away our future for a mature instant fix player was a silly move, especially for one whose best footy was behind him. Luckily the fact that his best footy is behind him has made it a lot easier to stomach the fact that 2 of his 3 career best games stats wise have come this year. He’s on fire at the moment, but hopefully has a quiet game in his last game against his future side.
Patrick Cripps
This kid is a star. He has more clearances than Le Cornu and gets more contested possessions than Sam & Dean Winchester. He comfortably broke the records for most of each from a 50 game player. He’ll be up against good company in Matt and Brad Crouch, so the midfield battle should be interesting viewing.
Matthew Kreuzer
Kreuz has been in decent nick. He’s not dominating hitouts but he’s getting plenty of touches around the ground. He also makes a decent target when resting up forward, jagging a few snags here and there this season. You’d probably expect Sauce to win the battle of hitout numbers but Kreuz could drag him forward and expose his defensive side to win the war. For Sauce to come out on top he’ll need to be consistent all game by getting into Kreuz Control mode early.
Prediction
This game isn’t going to be the pushover we would’ve been hoping for, though in terms of our long term aspirations, that’s not a bad thing. Really it’s your classic no-win game. If we win, yay, we beat up on a bottom side. If we lose, pitchforks at the ready.
Some (aka every footy media personality) have said the blueprint to beating the Crows is to tag Sloane. But is it really that simple? I’ll tell you the same thing I told my Mexican gardener when he asked for a raise, “No way, José.” You have to put a loose man in defence too. Then you're good.
Kade Simpson seems to enjoy the loose man role so that could be his task this weekend. And when I asked if Carlton has anyone up to tagging Sloane I was being honest. I don't know anything about Carlton's list beyond our rejects, their few stars, and SOSOS.
Simpson being attacked by the Adelaide forward line.
But in all seriousness, football is a game of execution. Does Carlton have what it takes to execute a game plan to stifle our running game, and keep it together for a whole game? Yes. But will they? I don’t think so. It won’t be an easy game, but we should get the job done. I’m backing the Crows to respond after last week’s debacle against Hawthorn and break away in the second half on the way to a 6 goal win and bringing home the KWMBJCBEMGNTCTCT Cup. Crows fans will rejoice at being back on the winner's list until next Friday when the Doggies beat us at home at which point we'll be back in danger of missing the finals and figuring out which coach to sack first.
Crows by 38.
Round 15:
Carlton
Vs
Adelaide
Where & When: MCG. Saturday, July 1, 2:10pm Local (1:40pm ACST)
Sportsbet Odds: Adelaide $1.30, Carlton $3.55. Line is 23.5 points Adelaide’s way. Gamble responsibly. Unless you’ve got a sure thing. Then load up.
Weather:
Outlook: Sunny
Maximum: 14°C
Minimum: 3°C
Chance of Rain: 5%
Rain Amount: <1mm
UV Index: Low
Frost Risk: Moderate
Wind Speed: 12km/h
Wind Direction: NNE
Relative Humidity: 52%
Dew Point: 3°C
Sunrise: 7:36am
Sunset: 5:11pm
Moonrise: 12:24pm
Moon Phase: First Quarter
Head to Head: 18-17 Carlton’s way (Last 5: 3-2 Adelaide’s way)
History:
Welcome to the latest installment of the Kerridge-Wright-Menzel-Betts-Jacobs-Curnow-Bond-Eccles-Massie-Gallagher-Nelson-Turner-Camporeale-Teague-Craig-Trigg Cup*. That name is a bit of a mouthful so henceforth the cup will simply be referred to as the far easier to remember KWMBJCBEMGNTCTCT Cup.
*I am aware the name is probably missing some other Adelaide/Carlton players/officials, but adding more would make for a comically long and silly name, and would involve far more research than I am interested in undertaking (ie. Finding more than one source article for Carlton/Adelaide links).
In 26 seasons we’ve met 35 times, 24 of those in Victoria, for a ledger of 18-17. If we can win this week we would finally tie it up.
For two teams who’ve shared so much talent, we’ve never developed that much of a serious rivalry with the Blues. The most heated exchange between the two clubs was by far 2016’s Armchair List Managers Debate over Bryce Gibbs, where weeks and weeks of BigFooty posters doing imaginary deals to satisfy the other club’s imaginary demands resulted in, well, nothing, as it came to light that AFL trades are actually done by club employed officials and not people posting and posturing on BigFooty in between filing TPS reports.
That’s not to say there hasn’t been highlights and lowlights for both sides. Modra kicking 13, Burton’s screamer, Tex doing his knee, Fevola’s goal after the siren, Roo dragging us home at Princess Park, van Berlo getting 40 touches, and many more that can be found in the Memory Lane thread.
Recent History:
Weirdly enough, our recent history only involves games in Victoria. As a matter of fact, last time we played Carlton in Adelaide:
- The world was buzzing over upcoming yet-to-be released movies; Inception, Despicable Me and the Social Network
- Osama Bin Laden was still alive
- Harry Potter fans were eagerly awaiting the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
- Paul Walker was preparing to film Fast Five
- The first iPad was 2 weeks old
- None of Instagram, Snapchat or Tinder had been invented
- Barack Obama had just completed his first year in office
- Kevin Rudd was still in his first tenure as Aussie PM
- The AFL only had 16 teams, St Kilda were the team to beat, Brendan Fevola was the reigning Coleman Medallist, Daniel Rich looked like a future Brownlow Medallist, and Hawthorn only had 10 flags and were looking like 2008 was a flash in the pan.
In the 5 most recent games since then, we went 1-2 under Sando, including a real shocker. Under Walsh and Pyke we’ve won both games against the Blues, one in ugly fashion and one relatively comfortably.
2017 has been a strange tale for both sides. After round 6 we were looking unbeatable, as evidenced by the fact we were yet to be beaten. Then the aberrations started.
First we s**t the bed against North Melbourne. Although s**t the bed doesn’t even begin to describe that game. Really, we s**t the bed, grabbed some nuggets and proceeded to paint the walls with said excrement before vomiting in the pillowcase for added measure. Then we really dropped the ball against Melbourne at home (pictured below).
Following that we had some easy teams to beat up on before another couple of disturbingly similar aberrations against Geelong and Hawthorn. We can, however, take solace in the fact that all four of these losses have been one-offs, and are only because we weren’t allowed to play our way which probably won’t happen in September.
Carlton on the other hand have had a mostly Carlton season, however their young side does look to be starting to gel together. They started with their obligatory loss to Richmond, but have taken some impressive scalps that show they’re not to be taken too lightly. Their biggest scalp to date is easily the #1 side in the comp, GWS. Along with St Kilda, they’re the only 2 teams worth mentioning on football TV shows as teams who have beaten GWS.
Form Guide:
Adelaide: WWLWL
Carlton: LLWWL
Brief summation of Adelaide's form since Round 6.
Players to Watch
Adelaide
Rory Sloane
After tagging went out of fashion over the past few years, the effectiveness of tagging Sloane by North has meant tagging Sloane is almost a certainty these days. It’s like bidding $1 more than the guy before you on The Price is Right. It’s s**t to watch and we hate it, but it works. But does Carlton have a tagger capable of going with Sloane?
Brodie Smith
Has been way off the boil lately. At his best he is one of the most damaging players off half back in the AFL. Will have a bit more space at his disposal this week on the MCG so will have the chance to run into some form. We’re a far better side when he’s firing. It’s been far too long since I’ve had to defend a sudden suspicious bulge in my pants to my wife after a trademark Brodie Smith 60m dart goal.
Josh Jenkins
JJ is the barometer in our side. And by barometer, I mean he’s a scientific instrument used to measure atmospheric pressure. As a general rule of thumb, if there is pressure in the atmosphere, JJ will be invisible to the naked eye. Needs a few big weeks to get back the confidence he had last year.
Carlton
Bryce Gibbs
Who else? Finally a gun mid was ready to come here in a trade, but not willing to be bent over at the trade table, we walked away. A move many said was justifiable, as giving away our future for a mature instant fix player was a silly move, especially for one whose best footy was behind him. Luckily the fact that his best footy is behind him has made it a lot easier to stomach the fact that 2 of his 3 career best games stats wise have come this year. He’s on fire at the moment, but hopefully has a quiet game in his last game against his future side.
Patrick Cripps
This kid is a star. He has more clearances than Le Cornu and gets more contested possessions than Sam & Dean Winchester. He comfortably broke the records for most of each from a 50 game player. He’ll be up against good company in Matt and Brad Crouch, so the midfield battle should be interesting viewing.
Matthew Kreuzer
Kreuz has been in decent nick. He’s not dominating hitouts but he’s getting plenty of touches around the ground. He also makes a decent target when resting up forward, jagging a few snags here and there this season. You’d probably expect Sauce to win the battle of hitout numbers but Kreuz could drag him forward and expose his defensive side to win the war. For Sauce to come out on top he’ll need to be consistent all game by getting into Kreuz Control mode early.
Prediction
This game isn’t going to be the pushover we would’ve been hoping for, though in terms of our long term aspirations, that’s not a bad thing. Really it’s your classic no-win game. If we win, yay, we beat up on a bottom side. If we lose, pitchforks at the ready.
Some (aka every footy media personality) have said the blueprint to beating the Crows is to tag Sloane. But is it really that simple? I’ll tell you the same thing I told my Mexican gardener when he asked for a raise, “No way, José.” You have to put a loose man in defence too. Then you're good.
Kade Simpson seems to enjoy the loose man role so that could be his task this weekend. And when I asked if Carlton has anyone up to tagging Sloane I was being honest. I don't know anything about Carlton's list beyond our rejects, their few stars, and SOSOS.
Simpson being attacked by the Adelaide forward line.
But in all seriousness, football is a game of execution. Does Carlton have what it takes to execute a game plan to stifle our running game, and keep it together for a whole game? Yes. But will they? I don’t think so. It won’t be an easy game, but we should get the job done. I’m backing the Crows to respond after last week’s debacle against Hawthorn and break away in the second half on the way to a 6 goal win and bringing home the KWMBJCBEMGNTCTCT Cup. Crows fans will rejoice at being back on the winner's list until next Friday when the Doggies beat us at home at which point we'll be back in danger of missing the finals and figuring out which coach to sack first.
Crows by 38.
