CARLTON and Richmond. It's fitting that two teams with a recent history of struggling to close out tight matches were both once again unable to finish on top.

With scores level at the final siren of Thursday night's season opener, the Tigers have now played in the past three AFL draws (throw in one in the AFLW, too), Jack Riewoldt now holds the record for most draws played in (a whopping eight), and the Blues' last three matches have been decided by a cumulative six points.

But Carlton coach Michael Voss came away from the season-opener a relatively happy man.

"I can't emphasise enough, I reckon if that game happens last year, we lose by six goals. So for that game to play out the way it did, and still be a chance to win, and still be disappointed we didn't get the result, that's why I say there's been real progress with our group," Voss said.
 
"We were holding for five minutes, maybe even six and a half minutes, against the tide. So if there's a couple of moments there we need to take back and work on, we'll do that, but we need to look at the six minutes, too, and acknowledge what was there.

TIGERS v BLUES Full match coverage and stats
 
"There was a bit above the shoulders tonight, for sure. There were moments we had to hold for a long period of time. I think the number was 15 forward-half intercepts, and they had 37, and that's a lot of ball in your back half, and you can't get out.
 
"So we have to go to work on that, but if you look at the other side, it means we held, and we held tight. I don't think that's been said a lot about us, in the last little while."

Voss had lots of praise for key back Lewis Young, who finished the game with 20 disposals, 14 intercepts and eight marks, despite playing on canny veteran Jack Riewoldt.
 
"He's been growing for the last 12 months, and he's caught us by surprise, a little bit – I hope he doesn't mind me saying that. But his development has been really steep, so to be able to see him and what he's been able to do and know when to be assertive and when to win battles.
 
"He's winning more battles, and he's playing against a pretty good opponent, and he was put under stress a fair bit, because that ball was coming in fast a fair few times."

Richmond coach Damien Hardwick was also pleased with aspects of his side's performance, coming from behind in the final 17 seconds via a Tom Lynch mark and goal, rather than coughing up a draw.
 
"The scoreboard dictates the outcome, but I thought it looked like a Richmond game. I thought we had them pinned in the front half for the vast majority, but the reality is, we just lacked polish," Hardwick said.
 
"We had seven missed shots on goal, we had four on the full, we had a few sodas (missed) from in front – I'll look at how the game looked overall, but the polish I think is the one thing we can take out that we can certainly improve.
 
"What we were really happy with tonight was our system and our defence, we kept them to a really manageable score, we just couldn't capitalise when we wanted to."

Lynch was the hero on Thursday night after having the opportunity to seal an elimination final win last year, his shot back then deemed to have clipped the post.
 
"He probably came into the game as we knew he would. He had three quarters of a game last week, and as the game progressed, he got a lot better," Hardwick said.
 
"I thought he looked strong, gave a good contest. You look behind the ball, guys like Weitering, Young are really good defenders, McGovern as well, so we certainly had our hands full. I thought he battled really well.
 
"I was hoping (he'd convert). I was (confident), I think he missed one earlier or it was on the full, but he's generally a pretty good shot at goal. I was happy with that one. We had a couple of stinkers along the way, but sometimes you have to make your own luck.
 
"At least it didn't hit the post."