Yes, Jesse Hanel is back in Melbourne from SA, this time to watch my beloved Blues play in the flesh for the first time this year. What a pity it was the side from SA that won! But yet again I had the very best time - let me tell you all about it...............

We flew over first thing Friday morning, after I'd been counting down the sleeps the previous few nights. I loved looking out the plane window as we took off and landed - all the houses and cars looked so small and we were up higher than the trees, almost as high as the sky! We arrived at our apartment on the same concourse as Telstra Dome, just in time for me to have some lunch and then my afternoon sleep. I certainly needed that sleep before the next big day at the footy! Saturday morning we got dressed in our Carlton gear and made our way over to the Dome around midday - it only took a minute to get there! While we were still outside the ground who should approach us but ex-Carlton player, David Glascott, asking us if we wanted some free tickets to reserved seating in the Medallion Club area on the second level! He was looking for some Carlton people to give them to, and it was quite obvious we weren't going for the Crows!! So we decided to take them, and thanked him very much. Just nearby was the really huge TV screen right outside the stadium, and I loved seeing my favourite ad on TV, the Auskick "Gimme That Thing Gimme That Gimme Gimme That..." song where all the kids kick the footy around. I did a little dance while it was on:

Once we got inside the ground I just loved seeing all the other Carlton people all around me. So many Blues signs! I got lots of comments about Kouta again with his number 43 on my back. And you wouldn't believe it, but when we went to the Social Club seating area right next to the players' race, we saw my little Carlton friend Keeley! Remember her? We first met at the Telstra Dome in 2005, and saw each other a year later in 2006, and now again in 2007! Her Grandma told my Mum that she talks about her "best footy friend, Jesse" - and I think of Keeley when I think about Carlton. She will be four in August while I turned four already in January. Mum took our photo while some of the Carlton players were checking out the status of the ground about an hour before the match started:

And then guess who came up behind us? Fev!! We asked him about how his leg was (he got a corked thigh last week in the first half during the game against North) and he told us it was still a bit sore but he would be okay. He then signed the back of my and Keeley's footy guernseys, and posed for a photo with me:

Seeing all the Carlton players and my friend Keeley made me love the Blues even more. I wanted to get right into the spirit of cheering, so I was allowed to have my face painted:

After that we went into the Stephen Kernahan Room (Carlton's Social Club) to have our lunch and to listen to interviews with my mate David Teague and new young player Jake Edwards. I got to eat some hot chips and sauce (my favourite) before we headed outside, firstly to check out the seats David Glascott gave us upstairs in the Medallion Club. Pretty good view up there, but Mum & I decided we'd prefer to go back down to the bottom level to be closer to the action, while we left Dad up the top for the first quarter. Mummy and I had a really good feeling about the game - we were both thinking that after losing by less than four goals in three of the last four games, and in all those games having been ahead for more than half the match, surely our luck would have to turn?? We went back to our seats which we'd saved near the players' race with our jackets earlier on, one row back from the boundary, ready for the game to begin. While we were waiting for the players to run through the banner, Captain Carlton came out and gave me a 'high five'. He then did some really cool standing up back-flips!

On the plane trip on the way over to Melbourne I made a Get Well card for Nick Stevens, who unfortunately had to have season-ending neck/spine surgery a couple of weeks ago. Just when he was looking like Brownlow material too. :-( Anyway, we took my card to the game in case we happened to see him. And we did! As the players were ready to start the match and the injured players came off the ground to take their seats in the Social Club area, firstly Eddie Betts walked by us (we said hello and that we were sorry he hurt his hamstring last week) and right behind him, Nick Stevens! We gave him my card, told him how sorry we were about his injury, and asked him how he was doing. He said he's getting better but that it will be a slow process, and thanked me for the card. I showed him the picture I'd drawn inside it, which was of him playing footy. Then he lifted me up for a photo:

And then the siren sounded!

The first quarter was electric. Fev's leg didn't prove too much of an obstacle for him, as he kicked the first goal almost immediately. This got his own personal cheer squad going - the same four guys we saw last time singing "Bren-Dan Fev-Ola, Bren-Dan Fev-Ola, Bren-Dan Fev-Ola, Bren-Dan Fev-Ola". That got me excited! Soon after Jarred Waite kicked truly, and before we knew it, we had three goals on the board while the Crows had only a point! We were dominating completely with our forward structure looking very formidable with Fev, Waite and Whitnall all standing strong, until the Crows got the ball to their forward fifty for only the second time and our defence mucked around with the ball way too much. This became a turnover to hand the Crows their first goal on a plate. Still, we won the quarter easily in the end, five goals to two, and things were looking very good. Carlton was kicking to our end - the Carlton cheer squad end - so all the goals we saw were really close (we were in the left forward pocket of the Lockett stand).

At quarter time we decided to join Dad upstairs, since it would be easier to see our goals up the other end from up there. Perhaps this was what went wrong for the Blues, because they played really, really badly! It was as if we just didn't want to win. We didn't even score a goal at all!! Meanwhile, Adelaide kicked six goals to have the score at half-time 5.4 to 8.10 - they were double our scoring shots. So things were looking grim.

We went back into the Social Club at half time, to listen to more interviews (with big Wow Jones and others). I got to play with Keeley while we were there and she and I had a great time together. We waited to see if we'd won the half-time raffle (we didn't) and then zipped back to our seats, Daddy coming with us this time. Well, by the time we got there, Carlton had already booted three goals!! So we were back to having the same goals as them, only a few points down!! The game see-sawed for a while after that. Fev applied some Eddie Betts magic by kicking a bouncy bouncy ball rolling towards the goals, it went right in the middle, BUT..........a Crows player had just long enough fingers to touch it right at the very last line. Only a point. But not long after, my hero Kouta kicked the best goal ever, playing on after taking a great mark just like the Kouta of old (pre-knee injuries) - he still has what it takes!! That put us only seven points down. A short time later McLeod from Crows was kicking out from fullback and seemed to take all his time and play on, so Houla who was standing on him ran in to tackle him. The umpire gave a free to McLeod which really annoyed all the Carlton fans around the ground! Lots of booing of the umpires (but I didn't boo them as I'm a good boy). Soon after we got to see the Blues do well again with a big spekky mark by Jarred Waite - the crowd stood and cheered! Then Fev did a really good thing way out on the wing - the ball was coming out of the Crows defense and Fev spoiled the mark and turned the ball back to Kouta who kicked another goal! And with only seconds remaining in the third quarter the ball was coming down our end again and drats! The siren! Just one second too early, as Cain Ackland took a mark about 35 metres from goal a second too late. So at three quarter time we were 11.11 to 12.12. Only seven points in it after a very strong quarter by the Blues. The Lockett end where we were was certainly the scoring one, with 17 of the 23 goals kicked being scored there up to three quarter time.

This had us worried going into the last quarter, as we were now kicking away from the cheer squad and towards the end where we'd not scored any goals so far. How were we going to stand up? Mum watched the players with the binoculars during that last break, and was interested to see how all the players split into their groups to be talked to by the individual specialist coaches. Brett Ratten seemed really animated when talking to the midfield. We sure hoped they were all fired up to play a great last quarter!

It was a sharp-shooting affair, with Fisher flying high and kicking the first goal, and after that it was goal for goal for most of the quarter. We hit the front at about the half-way mark. It was a quarter in which our defenders tried their hearts out. Marc Murphy was particularly impressive, running and chasing really hard. He also laid some excellent tough tackles, lunging at the opposition and hanging on for dear life. He was paid the free a few times for making them hold the ball. Speaking of tackles, Jarred Waite made some strong ones as well and took some great marks all day, kicking four goals all up. Adam Hartlett was fantastic under pressure in that last quarter in his debut match, while Bryce Gibbs tried hard too, putting lots of pressure on the Crows forwards. Houla burst out from the backlines towards the forwards a lot of times. I like him because he made me smile when he met me as an 11-week old baby just after my heart surgery. Jason Saddington stood up well, making many strong spoils, and Kouta was all over the place, playing fantastic footy and giving us bursts of brilliance (a bit like McLeod who plays for the Crows). It was especially good to see Kouta and Marc Murphy up close in that last quarter: we can really see just how rough and tough it is out there when we're so close to the action. All the defenders tried so hard, and towards the end we were left wondering "where are our forwards?". It looked as though the Crows were flooding their defence, because every time we got the ball towards our forward fifty, the red Crows guernseys were everywhere! But they were simply beating us one on one. Where was Eddie Betts when we need him? What a pity he wasn't out there, as he'd have lapped up the amount of times we had it down our end in a big pack, just begging for one of his roving dashes out to goal. Our midfield did pretty well too, considering we don't really have a ruckman these days without Cameron Cloke out for the season. Carrazzo played well in his 50th game, and Simpson did some nice big kicks with his left foot (I'm a left footer too).

I must say that while I don't boo the umpires, the umpire wearing the number 3 needed some glasses. At one stage the Crows took a mark about 40 metres from their goals by first doing a blatant push in the back of Adam Hartlett. That umpire was in our direct line of sight and it was very obvious that it shouldn't be paid a mark but a Carlton free, especially in this day and age of that terrible rule that no one seems to like and yet the AFL bosses refuse to admit they were wrong by bringing it in in the first place (that's what Mum & Dad tell me!). Another thing that annoyed the crowd was the free and report and 50 metre penalty paid against Matthew Lappin for attempted tripping - he didn't even touch the other player and yet up our goal end a Crows player kicked out and made hard contact with Adam Bentick in the thigh and didn't even give away a free! Grrrrrrrrrr........

So the final scoreline saw us go down yet again by less than four goals after being in a winning position. We lost by 19 points. The coach said that while respect must go to Adelaide, we were beaten by ourselves. Yes, we're a young side, and yes, we're competitive, and yes, we play good footy that is entertaining and keeps the crowd on the edge of our seats for most of the game..........BUT we're not winning! People talk about how bad Hawthorn was last week against the Saints, but their supporters at least got to sing their theme song at the end of the match! Still, like all the other supporters around us (except for one who abused the umpires an awful lot - Mummy told me to block my ears), we stood to applaud our players as they walked off the ground, because we knew they had tried their hardest and we knew that by playing our exciting brand of football we must surely be close to a win soon:

After the match we went back to the Social Club for a while. Carlton captain Lance Whitnall and Adam Hartlett were interviewed in there, and I got my photo taken with the Captain, 'Big Red':

I then had excellent fun playing footy of my own, with lots of other Carlton boys in the room........I saw a boy called Liam who I'd kicked the balloon with last year when we were here and asked him if I could join in with the big boys who were running around and tackling and handballing the footy to each other. He warned me I might get hurt because they might be a bit rough, but I tell you, I proved to them that I can tackle hard with the best of them! It must have been from watching Marc Murphy show me how it's done! Apart from Liam, I played with another kid about my age also called Jesse, and his two older brothers Bailey and Corey, and a couple of other boys I didn't get the names of. Here's a photo of most of us after getting a bit pooped from all our running around:

And that's it from me this week. But stay tuned! Because I'll be back to talk to you after next weekend's game against the Bulldogs! We are going to Tasmania for this week on a holiday and flying back to Melbourne on Saturday afternoon in time for Sunday's match at the MCG. It will be my first time there, so I'm looking forward to it. Mum & Dad have been there lots of times and tell me it's a really big ground and Australia's best sporting venue.

Until then, bye!

Jesse Hanel