By Andrew Wu
All up, it took about 20 seconds. Diehard Carlton fans can remember it by heart from having it on loop all summer and beyond: The dare, the courage and the near miss, followed by a roar so thunderous the MCG stands shook.
It’s a passage of perfect imperfection that will forever tie Jacob Weitering, Ollie Hollands, Sam Docherty and Blake Acres together in Carlton folklore; a play instantly as iconic as Fraser Brown’s tackle on Dean Wallis in the 1999 preliminary final.
The critical moment: Blake Acres boots the winning goal.Credit: Channel Seven
Nearly eight months on, it is but a distant memory for Carlton coach Michael Voss and his Blues. Despite the obvious interest as Carlton and Melbourne meet for the first time since that epic final, this is not a storyline the Blues, fighting to stay in the eight after three losses from their past four games, want to buy into this week.
But as much as Voss wants to consign it to the past, there are lessons from that match-winning play relevant to his Blues of 2024.
There’s the contest and pressure – the Carlton way under Voss – and execution, the latter one of the key messages of the week judging by the coach’s repeated references to it on Wednesday.
We break down the key moments from a play Blues fans will never forget.
The attempted smother
The precursor to the 20 seconds Blues fans will never forget started with Jake Lever, who had marked a dump kick from Adam Saad at half-back.
Carlton’s attention to detail, a trait lacking in their defensive game this year, is impeccable. They have their opponents manned up, depriving Lever of a spare player to kick to who can take more precious seconds off the clock.
Hearing the whistle, an injured Acres rushes late to attempt a smother, forcing Lever to kick long to a contest but not as wide as he would ideally like. As the ensuing scramble takes place on his wing, Acres has surreptitiously slipped forward.
The turnover
Weitering grew up a Melbourne supporter. Born in 1997, his heart beat red and blue at a dark time for the Demons. This, he joked in an interview with the Blues’ website last year, was payback for those years of suffering.
As players fight for a ball he brought to ground, the Blues’ back-line general – criticised this week by respected analyst David King for not putting himself into enough dangerous positions – drops off a contest he is unable to directly affect and positions himself to intercept any rushed kick.
Such is the pressure in this game, Jack Viney cannot be blamed for kicking blindly on his non-preferred right foot, but if he had handballed to Christian Petracca instead, Weitering would have been caught in no-man’s land.
Almost immediately, in contrast to his team’s laborious ball movement earlier in the season, Weitering plays on and drills a 40-metre bullet to Hollands, running into space in the centre square.
“If he misses by a metre and a half, it’s a goal the other way, and we lose the game,” Docherty said last week. “To have the courage to do it on that stage is crazy.”
The all-or-nothing kick
Subbed on in the last quarter, Hollands’ head was “spinning”: a knockout final in front of a full house, wearing the navy blue of the club he’d supported his whole life.
“There was so much adrenalin and excitement,” Hollands told the Blues’ website last year.
One of three Blues in the centre square, Hollands is in more space than the Demons’ coaches would have planned when the ball is turned over. Inspired by Weitering’s spirit of adventure, the first-season wingman keeps the ball moving.
“Him going for that real gutsy kick gave me the confidence to roll,” Hollands said. “I didn’t know Doc was there. I turned and seen him and just pulled the kick.”
Perfect imperfection
Docherty, by his admission, should not have been on the field. His shoulder, dislocated in the second quarter, was “hanging on by a thread”, he said.
What happens next partially explains why Weitering describes Docherty as “the most courageous person I know”. Under duress, Docherty puts his injured shoulder to the test to mark above his head, and his body at risk.
Hollands’ kick is not perfect, but is perfectly imperfect. The ball hangs long enough to lure young Demon Judd McVee to spoil rather than give up the contest to stand the mark, which would have given Melbourne time to push numbers back.
By committing and failing to take out the ball or his opponent, McVee gives Docherty invaluable time and space to assess all options.
‘That was a bit rattling’
In a game where defence ruled, Docherty is spoiled for choice. He has Charlie Curnow free and leading towards him. Defender Brodie Kemp is also in the clear near the boundary.
Fatefully, he does not “lower his eyes”, as the saying goes, and heads long where, remarkably, Acres, who less than half a minute earlier attempted a smother on Lever, and defender Mitch McGovern have a two-on-one at the top of the goal square.
“It was too long for me late in the game, I’m not a really long kick when I’m on the run,” Docherty said.
“I was going to find someone inside 50, but I didn’t expect to see four blokes open by themselves inside 50 – that was a bit rattling,” Docherty said.
“I saw a two v one in the goal square and thought at a bare minimum if that gets spoiled someone should be there to pick it up and kick a goal. Lucky, Blake took the mark, but nearly missed the goal.”
Acres enters Carlton folklore
Acres is adamant his kick was never missing.
“From where I kicked it, it was about half a metre or a metre in!” Acres said on the Blues’ website last year.
The highest percentage play for Acres would have been to take his full 30 seconds for the kick, reducing the time Melbourne had to find a winning goal. But, unhappy with his ball drop from an earlier goal he kicked, Acres’ confidence was down. The last thing he wanted was to be taking a shot after the siren.
“That would’ve been a bit more nerve-wracking,” Acres said. “I remember I had a set shot earlier in the game that went through the middle, but the way I dropped it, I wasn’t feeling good about my set shot at the time!
“I didn’t want to risk doing that. I know how to kick a dribbler through the goals, but not so much going back with that pressure on. I just wanted to get it over and done with, the crowd probably had me a bit hyped up at the time as well.”
Carlton host Melbourne at the MCG on Thursday night from 7.30pm.
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