CARLTON was irresistible and as entertaining on Saturday night as the Blues sides of their great years of the early 1980s and mid-90s as they extended a seven-point half-time lead over Essendon into 58 at the final change. And then came the party trick in the final quarter - Andrew Walker soaring into the night sky to take one of the marks of the year.

Eddie Betts kicked eight goals but might poll one Brownlow vote, if he's lucky. Chris Judd will surely get the three (again!) and his trusty midfield sidekick Marc Murphy will likely poll the two. It was a night of multiple triumphs for the Blues.

For all Carlton's second-half dominance on Saturday night, we're still not 100 per cent convinced the Blues are premiership material. Betts was fantastic, but dominant small forwards are good for getting sides into the finals but not necessarily for winning them. Carlton still needs a tall forward to take command of the side and give opposition coaches something to really think about when doing the match-ups.

The Blues need Shaun Hampson back in the side as their No.1 ruckman. That would release Matthew Kreuzer back to the forward line where he would be the real x-factor. Carlton looked most damaging against Collingwood a week ago when Kreuzer pushed forward, but for too much of the match, he was needed elsewhere and the side suffered accordingly.

Again on Saturday night, Kreuzer clunked a couple of great contested marks and looked a perfect fit up forward. But the Blues won this match in the middle, with Judd, Murphy and Kade Simpson feasting on an Essendon midfield that sadly missed the hard bodies and minds of Jobe Watson and Heath Hocking.

Carlton still has to travel to Fremantle, host Hawthorn (at Etihad Stadium, in a an unfortunate twist of the fixture) and meet the resurgent St Kilda before the end of the season. With Michael Jamison and Jarrad Waite back to stiffen the Blues down the spine, we’ll be better placed to judge their premiership aspirations by the round 22 clash with the Hawks than we were on Saturday night.

But we suspect that it is on Kreuzer’s back that the Blues’ finals aspirations rest for 2011.

What's happening to the pride of SA?
The toughest sell in Australian sport right now? How about South Australian football?

The euphoria that followed the announcement of the deal to move AFL football to the Adelaide Oval seems an eternity ago as South Australia comes to terms with the worst season - collectively - by its two teams since Port Adelaide joined the national competition in 1997.

Between them, Adelaide and Port Adelaide have won six games in 2011. Barring a draw, that figure will increase by one after Sunday’s clash between the sides at AAMI Stadium, surely the least anticipated Showdown ever. It also shapes as the first of the games in which Adelaide has been the home team where fewer than 40,000 fans attend.

There might not be too many more winning opportunities for either side, which means 2011 will go down as by far the poorest season for the South Australian clubs in the AFL. In 2000, the Crows won nine games in Gary Ayres’ first season as coach, while Port, in the second year of the Mark Williams era, won seven and drew one. Even last year, the first time in a decade that neither side made the finals, they still combined for 19 wins.

With a stadium now officially on death row and two tenant clubs that would appear to be miles off winning a premiership, the marketing gurus will earn their keep trying to keep the turnstiles clicking in the lead-up to the move to the Adelaide Oval in 2014.

Sadly for the estimable Adelaide coach Neil Craig, it is these marketing factors, as much as anything, that will help determine whether he remains as coach of the Crows beyond this season. Although having listened to his excellent and forthright interview with Melbourne radio station 3AW on Saturday, it would appear that Craig is under no illusions that some deep thinking is required from both he and his football club in the coming days and weeks.

Meanwhile, out west
The closing minutes of Sunday’s Fremantle-West Coast derby did not produce the best football you will ever see, but it just might have been the most exciting.

There were acts of brilliance, acts of courage, a sprinkling of “I can’t believe he did that!” moments - and not just from the players. The deliberate out-of-bounds decision paid by umpire Dean Margetts against West Coast’s Matt Rosa with just three seconds to go, which handed Hayden Ballantyne the potentially match-winning goal after the siren, was one of the bravest umpiring decisions in recent memory. Whether it was correct is another matter.

The passion brought to the contest by both clubs was outstanding. In an ideal world, you would bottle it and send a dose to Adelaide ahead of this weekend’s showdown.

CLUB BY CLUB
COLLINGWOOD: What the Magpies have been able to do with Lachlan Keefe, a soccer player until a few years back, suggests that player development is another area of modern football where this club's excellence again comes to the fore.

GEELONG: We know that clubs that are finals-bound usually install a heavy-training load sometime in July in order to get some miles in the legs in anticipation of September. But we usually learn about these things after the event. Not sure too many teams are as open about their current heavy training load as are the Cats.

HAWTHORN: Cool and clinical in every department against Melbourne. Max Bailey’s 100-metre chase on Stefan Martin, in which he did just enough to effect a turnover that resulted in a Cyril Rioli goal, was brilliant.

CARLTON: Lovely to see Kade Simpson play so well in his 150th game after his late brain fade last time around against the Bombers cost his side the win.

WEST COAST: John Worsfold would have some concerns that the Eagles almost blew a four-goal lead in the last 10 minutes of an otherwise low-scoring game.

SYDNEY SWANS: Dominated the Bulldogs for all but a period of the second quarter to stitch up a much-needed win. Well done to the SCG ground staff for turning out an excellent playing surface after so much rain in Sydney during the week.

FREMANTLE: Really big game against Hawthorn on Saturday night for Freo. Aaron Sandilands returns, and they’ll need him.

ST KILDA: Shades of Hawthorn of last season as the Saints storm back towards the finals after an awful start. Should account for Gold Coast this week but the run home from there is tough, with Collingwood and Carlton among those they face. Ross Lyon is coaching superbly.

ESSENDON: Three weeks of good work was smashed in one quarter by Carlton. Midfield will be boosted with the return of Jobe Watson and Heath Hocking, but against Collingwood, it might not matter.

NORTH MELBOURNE: The club that brought you Friday night football finally gets back to the big stage this week against the Blues. The Kangas also have a tough run to the end of the season, with the Hawks to follow in Launceston. Win this, though, and they come right into September calculations. This is clearly North’s biggest game of the year.

MELBOURNE: Ricky Petterd’s smother of Jordan Lewis was eerily similar to that of Heath Shaw on Nick Riewoldt in the Grand Final replay last year. Same ground, same goal square. The Demons didn’t lack for endeavour on Sunday, but did for polish and execution.

WESTERN BULLDOGS: Adam Cooney is likely to be spelled for the clash against West Coast on Saturday, which, realistically, represents his team’s last bid to stay in the race for the finals. And if the Dogs lose, he should be put in cotton wool until 2012.

RICHMOND: 1.4 in a half of football under a closed roof. We suggest that unlike the Carlton game, Damien Hardwick does sit and make his players sit through every minute after agonising minute.

ADELAIDE: Granted, 4.7 is never a good score but in 1991 against a very good St Kilda outfit at Moorabbin, it wasn’t catastrophic. Twenty years later, 3.6 under the roof against the Saints absolutely is.

BRISBANE LIONS: Not sure how much longer Lions fans are going to have to enjoy the mastery of Simon Black, but they should take every opportunity to watch him every time that they can. Another brave performance. Bright future for the Lions, but some years away.

GOLD COAST SUNS: Not sure how much should be read into the “keeping up with the Magpies in the second half” commentary that has accompanied Saturday night’s clash with Collingwood. For the visitors, it was all about self-preservation. The Saints, who visit Metricon Stadium on Saturday night, have much more to play for, so for how long the Suns can keep track there will be a better gauge of their progress.

PORT ADELAIDE: Well done to Matty Primus for using part of the bye week to head to Victoria and talk up his club and its prospects on The Footy Show. A beach holiday would surely have been more tempting.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Few players are more infuriating when they play against your team, and so entertaining otherwise, than St Kilda’s Stephen Milne. He was magnificent against Adelaide with eight goals on Friday night, working the angles and making the ball talk. We agree with Mark Stevens from the Herald Sun that if St Kilda’s Team of the Century was being selected today, 473 goals from 229 games gets him a game at least on to the bench. Sorry to Jim Ross.

NEXT WEEK’S GAME NOT TO BE MISSED
We lose a game this week with Richmond, Sydney and the Brisbane Lions each facing the bye. So it’s North Melbourne and Carlton on Friday night. The Blues can’t afford too many more stumbles if they are to finish in the top four, while North needs to keep winning in its bid for the finals. The Kangas have been good of late but really, in Brad Scott’s time as coach, have yet to lay a glove on a top four side. This is their time.
(Apologies to Fremantle-Hawthorn, a match that could decide key end of year positioning.)

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