Blues v Demons final scores, stats and more<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cIf you come in with that sort of velocity there \u2026 he came so fast into the contest, that the collision was inevitable. Steven May has a duty of care when Francis Evans has the ball there,\u201d three-time Richmond premiership player Jack Riewoldt told Fox Footy\u2019s Super Saturday Live post-game.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, this will go to the Tribunal \u2014 and it\u2019s how hard, or how big a penalty they want to give Steven May. If they rank it severe, it could be anywhere from four to five weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a no-brainer for mine, it definitely goes to the Tribunal … it\u2019s a pretty gruesome injury.\u201d<\/p>\n
For a brief period, Carlton\u2019s pressure factor dipped to as low as 110 at the 10-minute mark of the third term, before holding off one last charge from the Demons to claim their fourth straight win over the Demons at a combined margin of just 15 points.<\/p>\n
Carlton goalkickers: Moir 4, Curnow 3, Cerra, Evans, F.Young, Docherty, Carroll<\/p>\n
Melbourne goalkickers: Pickett 5, Fritsch 2, Melksham, van Rooyen, Jefferson<\/p>\n
\u2018IN TROUBLE\u2019: BRUTAL BUMP ON BLUE SET FOR MRO SCRUTINY… AND HISTORY THAT \u2018DOESN\u2019T HELP\u2019 <\/p>\n
In an ideal world, tonight\u2019s main narrative would be spun in favour of Carlton who registered a desperately needed four premiership points to lift a smidge of pressure off Ikon Park.<\/p>\n
Instead, it\u2019s turned the way of Melbourne defender Steven May \u2014 who is almost certainly set to face a multi-week suspension from the AFL\u2019s Match Review Officer (MRO) for his third-quarter hit on Carlton\u2019s Francis Evans.<\/p>\n
Just after the halfway mark of the third stanza, the Blues\u2019 SSP signing and May both charged at full pace towards a loose ball inside Carlton\u2019s forward 50, with the Demons trailing by just two points.<\/p>\n
The yellow Sherrin continued to roll over itself towards the Blues\u2019 goal, before popping up well for either player to snatch. Evans beat May to it by a minimal margin, but it very quickly ended his night \u2013 as the Dee braced to bump at full speed, pulling out of any intent to win the ball.<\/p>\n
It left Evans bloodied, battered and with one less tooth in his mouth. The 23-year-old was quickly ordered to leave the field of play, before being swiftly subbed out due to concussion.<\/p>\n
While May\u2019s forceful contact on Evans was evident, it left Fox Footy\u2019s commentary team unsure as to the appropriate sanction for the hot-headed Dee.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese days, you have to step out of the way don\u2019t you?\u201d Jason Dunstall said in the collision\u2019s aftermath.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe handball\u2019s missed, he sees it coming \u2026 can Steven May make a late decision to get out of the way and let Evans run onto the ball?\u201d<\/p>\n
Collingwood legend Nathan Buckley added: \u201cHe would\u2019ve thought he was going to get there at the same time (as Evans).<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if our game is capable of allowing that anymore. We\u2019re taking that outcome out of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know \u2014 other than not compete \u2014 what Steven May can do there. He\u2019s of the Tom Lynch mould, who doesn\u2019t mind hurting the opposition though; so that doesn\u2019t help with that history either.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unfortunately for Evans, the former Geelong and Port Adelaide small forward was en route to finishing with his best game in his new colours, collecting eight disposals and a goal early on to go with his four tackles. <\/p>\n
As a result of the bump, Evans will miss at least next Thursday night\u2019s clash with Hawthorn at the MCG. <\/p>\n
Speaking at three-quarter time, Eddie Betts also noted that May was \u201cin trouble\u201d for the hit, before Dunstall finished by saying: \u201cWe\u2019ve still got a serious injury to a player that we have to protect, so we think May\u2019s probably going to be in trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018HELL OF A FOCUS\u2019: \u2018CLUTCH\u2019 CURNOW RETURNS TO FORM WITH A BANG AFTER \u2018TOUGH TROT\u2019<\/p>\n
After a four-round run of going goalless, Charlie Curnow set the tone from the very first bounce to play a crucial role in seeing his Blues home.<\/p>\n
In fact, it took the dual Coleman Medalist just 33 seconds to kick truly in front of goal as teammates rushed from all parts of the MCG to get around the superstar who has been heavily scrutinised in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been excellent; you\u2019d be really encouraged as a Carlton supporter sitting in the crowd looking down at his work rate,\u201d Nathan Buckley said at half time.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been able to get involved (and) kicked two goals early.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adelaide Crows and Carlton great Eddie Betts added: \u201cKicking those two goals really set the tone for him, because he was quiet the last month \u2014 he hadn\u2019t kicked a goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s getting up the ground, 14 (first-half) disposals (and) seven marks. It\u2019s back to the Charlie we know!\u201d<\/p>\n
While a miscued ping at goal from outside the arc still proved Curnow wasn\u2019t at his absolute best, the 28-year-old bullied Melbourne\u2019s defence throughout the rest of the night \u2013 even if it didn\u2019t mean he kicked a massive bag of majors.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Fox Footy post-game, head coach Michael Voss praised his high-profile forward for his return to form.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been steadily building. He\u2019s had a tough trot in terms of form, and obviously given the player he is for us, he cops a hell of a lot of focus\u201c Voss said after his side\u2019s seventh win of 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been fighting pretty hard down there in more recent weeks, and not a lot\u2019s been going for him. He\u2019s been getting shots on goal, but hasn\u2019t been able to convert that into goals.<\/p>\n
\u201cTonight, he kicks the first and kicks the last \u2014 that was clutch at the end, we needed it.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could just sort of see the energy he builds in the stadium. As soon as he turns to the crowd, everyone flocks to him. To see him in that sort of form is definitely heartening.\u201d<\/p>\n
Curnow\u2019s three-goal haul takes his season tally to 37 goals from 17 games, still averaging a more-than-reasonable 2.2 goals a game this year.<\/p>\n
MORE TO COME…<\/p>\n
Re-live our coverage of Carlton v Melbourne in our blog below! Can\u2019t see the blog?Click here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A gruesome bump from Steven May has somewhat overshadowed Carlton\u2019s heart-stopping win over Melbourne on Saturday night, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,689,55,639,3239,7803,7802,2105,5093,647,7804,3257,7801,677,7800,3252,7806,85,7805,1117,3254,660],"class_list":["post-5927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-carlton-blues","tag-clayton-oliver","tag-final-teams","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-match-centre","tag-melbourne","tag-melbourne-demons","tag-michael-voss","tag-milestone-match","tag-oceania","tag-patrick-cripps","tag-player-movement","tag-sound-six-goal-victory","tag-sports","tag-star-midfielder","tag-tom-de-koning","tag-trade-saga","tag-victoria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}