Four points: Silvagni helps Blues to a win of substance; Cats look ominous; Taylor stands among giants

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Forget the Port players rested, unfit or managed. A month ago, Carlton could not beat anyone. They came off a six-game losing streak and Chicken Little saw the sky falling.

This was the game that confirmed that Carlton was not that team any more. Yes, they had won their previous three games but, really, so they should have: they played Fremantle (now a bottom-four side), Hawthorn (bottom-four all year) and the Suns (so bad they sacked their coach days later). Port was a different proposition.

Jack Silvagni and teammates celebrate Carlton’s return to form, which was proven on Saturday by the big win over Port Adelaide.Credit: Getty Images

Even without the handful of players omitted on selection night, the Power were second on the ladder and, supposedly, on a different plane to the Blues.

The better picture of Carlton’s form is not found by looking at who they have played and beaten, nor even the impressively big winning margins, it is how they have played. This is a Carlton team decidedly different to a month ago.

That string of three weaker opponents probably came at the right time. The Blues had stripped their game right back and getting those wins rebuilt confidence.

They changed their game in the way that caretaker coaches invariably coach teams when they take over: back to basics, win the contest, lift your pressure and play with freedom.

Michael Voss, in particular, deserves credit for the shift. The Blues accepted what they were doing was not working and, rather than obstinately insisting they must stick to their game plan, they tweaked things.

They straightened up a game that had got ahead of itself, or got ahead of the team. They reappraised what was working and what was not and refocused on what the team was built for and what they did well.

So, they brought it back to what they were doing well at the start of the year with their contested ball strength and the intensity and pressure that forced turn-overs. If you have a team of big-backsided, slow midfielders at least play to that strength and worry less about the fact you are slow on the outside.

The irony is they have begun moving the ball much better, have lifted their intensity and are now hunting the ball. By forcing more turnovers, they have become more attacking.

After the strong start to the year, the Blues tried to address their obvious deficiency in ball movement and ground defence, but the changes led to players second-guessing themselves. Confidence, which is just as infectious when you lose it as gain it, dropped away quickly and their game style fell apart.

Of course, it’s not all fixed and the solution was not as simple as just tweaking the game. Personnel issues were also important.

Sam Walsh is returning to his best form and that has helped Carlton’s resurgence.Credit: Getty Images

Sam Walsh missed early on and it took him time to get a level of match fitness and running power back into his game. He now looks vastly better.

The Blues were able to bring the hugely talented, but all too often injured, Jack Martin back into their team, along with Lachie Fogarty. They made a significant improvement to their forward make-up when Jesse Motlop and Corey Durdin struggled to consistently play the role the team needed them to play. Ironically, it ws a superb performance by Motlop – back in the side as a late inclusion – that helped power the win on Saturday.

Brodie Kemp has been valuable as an emerging defender, with Lewis Young being eased out, and so the balance feels better, and Jacob Weitering looks more confident flying for intercept marks.

Now just four points outside the top eight, the Blues have momentum and belief. They look likely to lose Ben McKay, probably for most, if not the rest, of the home and away season because of a knee injury. They play West Coast next week, followed by top-four teams Collingwood and Melbourne either side of a clash with St Kilda. It’s a stretch that will decide their finals hopes.

Bear in mind the Magpies have a top-of-the-table game next week against Port (who are likely to welcome a number of players back) in Adelaide.

If the Pies were to lose that match, and the Blues were to account for the bottom-placed Eagles to notch a fifth straight win, it would make for a very tasty clash at the MCG, with a full house and genuine finals consequences.

SOS call answered for Blues

A few weeks ago Jack Silvagni was dropped. Or more accurately the Blues decided they couldn’t find a place anywhere for a player they had used everywhere.

Silvagni had one of his best games for the Blues in the Port win – a career-high four goals. Importantly, it came in a match where the Blues had lost Harry McKay to injury. The timing could not have been better for the versatile forward, who – if nothing else – is a genuine competitor.

Cats make their march in July

Saturday night at Kardinia Park offered a reality check of two teams. Now we know Essendon is not a top four team yet, and Geelong’s season is far from done.

This game affirmed those truths and helped the competition find its balance.

Essendon have been disarmingly better this year. Their rise has taken all by surprise. But they are not that good yet. They certainly are not beating-Geelong-at-home good. Not yet anyway.

Skipper Patrick Dangerfield bursts clear for Geelong against Essendon; a game where the Cats looked like men playing against boys.Credit: AFL Photos

Nor is the reigning premier as bad as their ladder position suggested. They are now a whisker off the top four. Their loss at home to GWS in round 11 might prove the one that bites them most in their push for the double chance.

Essendon was a team playing against bigger men in an inhospitable environment on an unfamiliar ground, and they looked lost. This looked like boys playing men. When the game was won and done in the first quarter Essendon was bullied around the ball, muscled out of the way and hunted into error. Strong-bodied Mark O’Connor ran with the most dangerous Bomber, Zach Merrett, and subdued him, Mark Blicavs was everywhere.

As Brad Scott said, they were drawn repeatedly into turnovers, yet they were not clanger kicks. They were kicks taken without time because Geelong’s pressure had limited the options of where the Bombers could go with the ball and the time they had to make their decisions.

Repeatedly in that first term Essendon came out of defence searching for a new avenue forward, only to find every exit option stymied, and the defence was drawn into regular error. The quick one-two handball, designed to open up space and switch the play, only invited more pressure. More pressure brought turnovers. What started as a creative switch became a panicked shuffling of the problem to someone else.

Partly, and only partly, for it shouldn’t be overstated as a factor, this was a product of the narrower ground at Geelong, which is unfamiliar to the Bombers. But this is challenge the bigger Victorian teams will have to start preparing for as they face the prospect of more games in Geelong as the stadium upgrade there nears completion. The skinnier ground allows the Cats to defend the corridor, and without the usual space, Essendon ran out of width and ideas.

The Cats are coming, but they have Brisbane in Brisbane next week, an away task as unenviable as … playing Geelong in Geelong.

Worpel’s timely reminder

James Worpel delivered a vintage performance. The out-of-contract inside midfielder was back his best-and-fairest form of 2019 against the Roos, picking up 32 touches, 12 of them contested, seven clearances, and a goal.

Taylor-made for Walker assignment

Special mention must go to Giants defender Sam Taylor. He might be overlooked for All-Australian selection this year because of the games he missed with a hamstring injury, but that might be the only reason. The Giants backman is now entrenched as one of the elite defenders of the AFL.

He had 16 intercept possessions on Saturday, and with his side coming from behind to beat Adelaide in Adelaide, Taylor kept Taylor Walker from touching the ball in the second half.

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