Carlton v Port Adelaide live scores, stats and updates<\/a><\/p>\nThe final margin wasn\u2019t entirely indicative of how dominant the Blues were either, given Port kicked the final three goals of the game in late succession.<\/p>\n
Leading the charge up forward for Michael Voss\u2019 side was star Harry McKay, who kicked an equal career-high seven goals \u2014 four of which came before half time.<\/p>\n
In his first game back since Round 13, former No.1 draft pick Sam Walsh wasted no time in picking up where he left off to accumulated 28 disposals, nine score involvements and two goal assists from just 66% game time.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow good is it to have Sam Walsh back playing football?\u201d three-time premiership player Cameron Mooney told Fox Footy\u2019s coverage at three-quarter time.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s just walked straight back in \u2026 he\u2019s been absolutely incredible. This is clearly one of the pillars that they\u2019ve missed this year \u2014 his ability to win the ball, his ability to gut-run from (the) defence to forward line is as good as anyone in the competition. <\/p>\n
\u201cWith him not in the side, it just put so much more pressure of Patrick Cripps.\u201d<\/p>\n
Port\u2019s loss is more than just a sour blow for outgoing coach Ken Hinkley, who now looks all but certain to finish in the lowest ladder position ever in his 13-year tenure at Alberton.<\/p>\n
And just to add that extra bit of salt into the Power wound, rebounding defender Josh Sin was subbed out in the second term with a corked calf. <\/p>\n
Carlton goalkickers: McKay 7, Cripps, Williams, Evans, F.Young 2, O\u2019Keeffe, Moir, De Koning<\/p>\n
Port Adelaide goalkickers: Whitlock 3, Boak, Georgiades, Lord, Richards, Moraes, Byrne-Jones<\/p>\n
THE 3-2-1…<\/p>\n
3. BLUES BAND BACK TOGETHER TO INFLICT MIDFIELD MAULING<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been 10 rounds since Patrick Cripps, Sam Walsh and George Hewett last lined up alongside each other in the middle of the ground, and on Saturday afternoon, it was clear as to how good the trio can be together when fully fit. <\/p>\n
Combining for 90 disposals and 21 clearances, Walsh\u2019s return from injury left the Power midfield for dead \u2014 who despite missing Jason Horne-Francis, simply had no excuse for their poor showing.<\/p>\n
So great was the hosts\u2019 dominance at one stage, that Hewett amassed seven of his 11 clearances in the second stanza to help the Blues to their highest first-half score in over two years.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou look at the clearance numbers, and it\u2019s been an absolute belting \u2014 and as we know, this is where the game is won and lost,\u201d Cameron Mooney said at half time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is where you start your attack from. 16 to 3 centre bounce clearances, I mean the game\u2019s already lost then and there.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just an absolute smashing \u2026 this is where it starts. Seven goals to one from clearances (at half time).\u201d<\/p>\n
Brad Johnson added: \u201cThey have absolutely dominated Port Adelaide, especially around clearance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Usual Port Adelaide suspects Connor Rozee and Zak Butters were notable, without being exceptional as their side lost the eventual clearance count 31-41 \u2014 significantly better than what it once was.<\/p>\n
In the first quarter alone, Michael Voss\u2019 side were +30 for points from clearance, +22 for contested possession, +12 at clearance and registered eight inside 50s more than the Power.<\/p>\n
2. \u2018MIGHT BE MY DAY!\u2019 MCKAY BAGS 406-DAY BEST AMID RIOT<\/p>\n
In the absence of partner-in-crime Charlie Curnow, Harry McKay took the reins up forward with full force on Saturday afternoon to bag his equal-best haul across his 139-game AFL career.<\/p>\n
Not since Round 17 last year against GWS has McKay kicked more than four majors in a match, but the 27-year-old did more than just surpass that with a monstrous seven goals to tower over Port Adelaide\u2019s depleted defence.<\/p>\n
Missing the in-form Esava Ratugolea, Miles Bergman and Ryan Burton in defence, all responsibility for the star Blue rest on the shoulders of Aliir Aliir, who was his direct opponent for the clash.<\/p>\n
But when the Power veteran rolled his ankle in the opening stanza, McKay made the most of the Blues\u2019 midfield blitz. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Aliir went off with an ankle injury, he thought: \u2018This might be my day!\u2019\u201d Cameron Mooney told Fox Footy.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s having a bit of a day out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Western Bulldogs great Brad Johnson added: \u201cHis eyes are lighting up this afternoon because of the amount of ball and flow coming his way.\u201d<\/p>\n
McKay finished with 21 disposals, six marks and a goal assist to go with his massive haul.<\/p>\n
1. \u2018HORRIBLE\u2019 POWER LEAVE THEMSELVES WITH ONE MORE SHOT FOR KEN<\/p>\n
The noise around Port Adelaide\u2019s coaching handover between Ken Hinkley and Josh Carr is oh so close to coming to a close.<\/p>\n
The much-loved Hinkley now has one last game left at the helm for his club of 13 years, as they host Gold Coast at Adelaide Oval next Friday night.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately this season, the Power\u2019s enormous injury list has prevented them from getting the absolute best out of themselves, but some areas of their game on Saturday afternoon extended beyond just the medical room.<\/p>\n
\u201c(They just need to) start winning some clearances, start winning the contested ball around the stoppages and get the ball going your way,\u201d Cameron Mooney said of Port at half time.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir forward line has worked okay when the ball\u2019s come in nicely \u2014 it just hasn\u2019t been in there at all. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t want to end the season on a horrible note \u2026 this is a horrible way to finish a year that hasn\u2019t been a good year to begin with.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a rare shining light from the match, three-gamer Jack Whitlock kicked three goals, while Mitch Georgiades became the first Power player in a decade to kick more than 53 goals in a home-and-away season.<\/p>\n
Georgiades joins the likes of Warren Tredrea, Jay Schulz, Daniel Motlop and Scott Cummings to kick just a number in one year for the club.<\/p>\n
Re-live our coverage of Carlton v Port Adelaide in our blog below! Can\u2019t see the blog?Click here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carlton has snapped their three-game losing streak with a thumping nine-goal win over a hapless Port Adelaide outfit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,689,55,639,3239,2105,33330,25854,5093,647,3257,677,6082,1138,56396,1124,85,56397,660],"class_list":["post-72118","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-getty-images-inc","tag-josh-chadwick","tag-lachie-jones","tag-match-centre","tag-melbourne","tag-michael-voss","tag-oceania","tag-port-adelaide","tag-sam-walsh","tag-second-last-game","tag-south-australia","tag-sports","tag-star-returns","tag-victoria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72118","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=72118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}