{"id":611531,"date":"2026-04-16T21:21:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T21:21:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/611531\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T21:21:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T21:21:21","slug":"more-late-heartbreak-for-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/611531\/","title":{"rendered":"More late heartbreak for Blues"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n                Match Report\n            <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__summary\">\n                It was a familiar story for Carlton, who fell by five points to Collingwood in the 31st Peter Mac Cup.\n            <\/p>\n<p>\n                            By Cristian Filippo, Carlton Media\n                            <\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">IT WAS a familiar story for Carlton, who fell by five points to Collingwood in the 31st Peter Mac Cup.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Despite once again leading for the majority of the contest, a three-quarter-time lead was whittled away, with the Blues conceding seven final-quarter goals in the 12.11 (83) to 13.10 (88) defeat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">On a night where the Blues lead for essentially the entirety of the middle two quarters, it was a last-quarter blitz from the Pies which put the Blues on the back foot, seeing an 18-point lead turned into a 13-point last-quarter deficit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The Blues fought back late and had the chance to level the scores with the final kick of the game, but a post-siren set shot from youngster Talor Byrne drifted agonisingly wide in another narrow loss.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Sam Walsh drove his side forward all night with 28 disposals and seven tackles, while Nic Newman continued his strong return to the elite level with 24 disposals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The Blues got the early jump as the returning Will Hayward looked dangerous early with six disposals and a goal, before the Pies started to get on top and dominate possession, ending the first term with +33 uncontested possessions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Nic Newman (seven disposals) and Nick Haynes (six disposals) were working overtime down back, before Brodie Kemp gave the Blues just what they needed on quarter time with a contested mark and snap to bring his team within one point.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">There was a bright start to the second term, as Carlton kicked three goals inside seven minutes as Harry McKay looked increasingly dangerous as a forward target.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Jacob Weitering was a much-welcomed addition behind the ball, as the Blues had to hold on late as the Pies started to get on top but missed gettable opportunities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The story of the first half &#8211; which saw the Blues lead by 14 points at the main break &#8211; was that the Blues looked like scoring every time they went forward, with 11 scoring shots coming from just 17 forward entries.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Carlton carried the momentum into the second half with a Mitch McGovern goal inside the opening minutes, before chances started to go begging.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Ben Ainsworth was typically classy with ball in hand, while Walsh was prolific and drove his side out of congestion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">After an error-riddled third term, a late Francis Evans goal after a holding-the-ball free kick gave Carlton a three-goal lead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">However, that lead faded inside four minutes of game time in the final term, with the Pies piling on seven of the first eight last quarter goals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">McKay didn\u2019t return to the ground after a head knock, but despite late goals from McGovern and Matthew Carroll, it was more late heartbreak for Carlton.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">CARLTON \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 2.3 \u00a0 \u00a0 6.5 \u00a0 \u00a0 9.9 \u00a0 \u00a0 12.11 (83)<br \/>COLLINGWOOD \u00a0 \u00a0 2.4 \u00a0 \u00a0 3.9 \u00a0 \u00a0 6.9 \u00a0 \u00a0 13.10 (88)<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">GOALS<br \/>Carlton: McGovern 3, Ainsworth 2, Carroll 2, Kemp 2, Evans, Hayward, McKay<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Match Report It was a familiar story for Carlton, who fell by five points to Collingwood in the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85,83],"class_list":{"0":"post-611531","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-text"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611531","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=611531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}