Carlton’s KING Has ARRIVED… (Round 13 AFL Analysis)

#carltonblues #carltonfc #afl #aflanalysis
Carlton picked up their 9th win of the 2024 AFL season against fellow Top 4 rival the Essendon Bombers, however the win was more unconventional than most, with Harry McKay & Charlie Curnow combining for only a fifth of Carlton’s goals, and both Sam Walsh and Patrick Cripps with hardly outstanding performances. However, in a sign of the Carlton team’s evolution, it was ruckman Tom De Koning who capped off a stellar month by leading the team in possessions & Elijah Hollands who led from the front on the scoreboard to pioneer the performance and lead the team to victory. Both of these players have slowly built into their seasons, but this was far and clear both Carlton players’ most impressive performances of the 2024 AFL season.

Today, in this analysis, we break down the Round 13 fixture’s key moments, understanding how Tom De Koning grew into the match and overcame Todd Goldstein’s challenge, whilst also analysing his around the ground work as well, and stoppage work as an extra midfielder. We also come to understand Elijah Hollands’ game, and how he demonstrated his IQ and game sense mixed in with his quality and skill when possessing the football. To achieve this we analyse the Round 13 fixture with some film, breaking down each element intricately with the aid of stats to understand how Tom De Koning & Elijah Hollands’ performances came to be, both pivotal in getting Carlton a huge win to solidfy their top 8 credentials going into the 2024 bye week.

Share your thoughts. Like and subscribe, doing Carlton analysis weekly.

Thanks to the Following Members for Your Ongoing Support!
— Yuval Legendtofski —
— Libbojrjr —
— Ben Niedelman —
— Odin Imaging —
— Colin Clohesy —

Chapters
Carlton v Essendon
0:00 Introduction
1:19 The King’s Arrival
2:11 Solo Ruck Perks
3:22 A Game of Chess: TDK vs Goldy
7:11 TDK on the Front Foot
8:41 An Unconventional Ruckman
9:21 Elijah Hollands Overview
9:54 Game Smarts & Poise
13:31 Putting it All Together
15:25 Conclusion

Footage not owned by me. Footage from the AFL, Channel 7 & Fox.

Photos from Getty Images.

Music and sounds from Epidemic Sound.

Last Week’s Analysis: https://youtu.be/lQW6KLBMcyE

Carlton 2023 Analysis Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTdtzBxVPHtACUxEYUO5_uXAB-Sg5H1S5
Carlton 2023 Documentary: https://youtu.be/TI6lo3tWpl0
Carlton 2024 Analysis Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTdtzBxVPHtCmqaUX3FZldI8KPwupp_wF

hello and welcome Calton reached the buys with a quality win against the bombers but this win wasn’t a conventional Calton win Calton kicked 15 goals in the match but only three of those came from kerno and mcai Crips and Walsh played but not to their usual prolific standards that leads me to the two discussion points for today’s episode of Calton analysis calton’s unlikely leading goal kicker on the night Elijah Hollands and calton’s unlikely leading possession winner Ruckman Tom D coning an embodiment of how Colton have grown as a team to not rely on their heavy weights to carry them over the line and an embodiment of Scott’s dilemma in preparing for this match during the week often it’s the it’s the Lesser lights so to speak that sort of get under your guards now before we begin make sure to drop a like And subscribe to the show if you want to remain tuned for the next Calton analysis after the buy I will also mention that I’m going to be doing a couple of Colton live streams next week um for about an hour each to compensate for no cartton football being played so if you want to you know tune in for that make sure to remain tuned for more information enjoy the video let’s start with Tom D coning this matchup against Todd gold steam was fascinating with 326 games in the bank Todd Goldstein whilst lacking youth holds wisdom and experience on the AFL Field playing a youthful Ruckman still with plenty of room to grow whilst I haven’t been entirely critical of Tom D coning this year I was wrong build this guy statue no scrap that it’s Acres reserved but hey let’s get this straight I still stand by my view playing two rocks in the same side but if ding’s going to play like this hand him the keys to the front entrance of icon park because if he owned it on the MCG he can own what he wants well let’s not get that far but I think Michael vos’s thoughts become a lot less complicated without pido ding can play every second in the Rock without his ceiling getting lowered that said it’s also heavily dependent on the second rock may that be Kennedy Crips or maai to hold their own in the non-de coning minutes as we highlighted last week it does allow things like like this to happen where with ding on the bench Kennedy took Peter Wright on the Rock matchup fractionally earlier enden following an intercept kick straight to Matt Kennedy Kennedy switches but watch Peter right and Matt Kennedy here right is a Rockman sort of forgot he’s playing like a Ruckman because he somehow found himself defending the shallowest line to Carlton’s goal meanwhile Matt Kennedy snuck in behind and essendon have got the spacing all wrong to employ the zone defense there’s no three on two up the ground and there’s no fluidity in the middle of the ground unless this option is present and this open to allow the play to progress promptly I think this is the extra midfielder look that Calton are looking for with this rck setup and that is something I brush over later against Goldstein it was very much a game of chess Goldstein was incredibly good at killing the momentum of a Run and Jump by ding especially in those Center Square bounces thus negating the influence of ding he’d do a good job of using the off arm on Boundary throws to keep ding at Bay and really protect the landing space well watching this game these occurrences were in abundance and that’s ultimately why Goldstein ended with double the amount of hit outs as D coning but honestly the man they call King around the club needs to be treated like a king this week because because man that last quarter was absolutely blistering I think this quote really helps explain ding’s evolution as the game wore on you can’t underestimate beating a veteran and a veteran rakman as well they they are crafty Goldstein is a very crafty Rockman and you can see the way that he’s sort of skinning the cat different ways dancing around him a little bit then is there’s the grunt to just try and jump through him Coulton had advantages in some pretty key areas in the fourth and guess who was at the the top of the hierarchy in the stats that concern these advantages well none other than the king himself Brad Scott put it pretty bluntly when he said pregame for the conditions and again in big games it’s pretty simple for the early win the ball in contest get it going your way these comments by Scott and rewalt were shown in a big way in the fourth quarter D coning takes it out of the rck for the first center clearance but note Goldstein does exactly what he did all day to knock ding’s influence that little arm extension to kill the Run and Jump momentum but ding’s more agile and he moves right around him as a nice little countering punch Coulton get a goal from this inside 50 then he tracks the ball at the front of the stoppage to Pelt it inside 50 which results in another cartton score then from a throwin perspective the short throwin really helped ding because he didn’t have to change too much but for Goldstein no longer could he hold position he had to come forward as well which resulted in the more youthful winning this contest and Calton get another inside 50 moments later doesn’t win the clearance but like the previous occurrence is hungrier Coldwell potentially can provide a quick dish to Perkins but TDK knocks him off balance and it spills out to Crips and whilst his next tap goes straight down to Nick Martin he’s able to send Martin sideways and backward allowing Crips to also cut him off and thus lack the penetration to get it Forward I will Lord the around the ground stuff but when cartton Surge and score without you even having a chance to Blink it comes from stoppage and if ding’s going to be our tall in the Midfield that time has got to count Calton in the time ding did all of this they had the first eight inside 50s of the quarter and kicked three goals to with a fourth coming off the back of a turnover shortly after I don’t need to say much more now all of this said ding had a habit of coming off at practically this point identically in each quarter when he came back on in the third quarter for the final 5 minute stint ready and refreshed to have a proper crack at it that’s where you saw the foundation for his final quarter efforts I think that’s where you saw the coming of a element emerged as there were moments that foreshadowed a shift in Carlton’s stoppage ascendancy and with that an evolution in ding’s knowledge of how his matchup scored him earlier on very interesting to see throughout the game d coning was willing to impact at the contest and a kick closer practically taking a gamble as Goldstein snuck in behind towards goal this definitely came at a higher tendency earlier in the match for example here where D toning doesn’t impact and Goldstein who maintained Midfield position in the middle of the ground ended up negating the spare that Carlton usually have behind the ball in this case Newman I think that embodies ding’s mindset on the day and how he was able to be as involved as he was a very frontf footed aggressive mindset where he wasn’t really concerned about the negative implications he was like well we don’t need to worry about the negative implications if I’m holding my opponent accountable first and foremost the gutsy third quarter spoil draws from this philosophy where D coning isn’t necessarily concerned with giving Goldstein goals side position because he’s closer to the play and always believes he’s on the front foot goldstein’s going to have to come forward at the ball through ding which given his age won’t necessarily result in success whilst Perkins needed better awareness for how close he was to goal you see that positioning by ding work wonders in cutting in front to chop off the pass this positioning doesn’t only give ding the platform to attack but it also possesses a sound defensive strategy should we need to rely on the Kick Mark game a little bit more I like the unconventional use of ding receiving a short kick more centrally and up the ground as opposed to being used up the line it may be a little bit more energy sapping but it def definitely calls for the opposing Ruckman to face a bit more of a unique demanding task that lacks familiarity as we saw with Peter Wright needing to deal with Matt Kennedy earlier on Zone can belt a kick and he’s unselfish if the Personnel suits both of which can enhance ball movement something that pido does on a lesser scale now for Elijah Holland this guy had a quality game three goals chipped in with the eight score involvements which is pretty quality for a sub 20 possession game I think for me it’s the classiness with the footy the level-headedness the game sense a few around the club have noted exactly that certainly early days he showed a really high level to be able to understand the game he decision making and thinking through roles like that the way he runs his pattern defensively obviously helps us out and then when he gets the ball in hand he’s so composed and he finds that bridge really well out of all the examples I’ll provide today this stands out for what we’ve just heard and said if you remember from this example Carlton won a free kick despite essendon possessing it in the middle of the ground I just want you to watch the clip and we’ll see if you notice anything off at a half lead kickick straight straight him this isn’t awfully difficult to spot but it’s barely getting talked about before seven changes the camera angle you’ll see four players in the center Center Square with a culton jumper the first and only one with the awareness to know what’s going on in Rapid time is Elijah Hollands that smarts means he’s already anticipated and gotten to a position to kicks away while tuart was the available optionwide Elijah has bolted to get to the next kicking point and that game awareness got him his first go but there are some other nice little moments there’s this example which really highlights his Poise Carlton were really absorbent to essendon attacks in the third quarter and this is one example of Carlton keeping essendant out of that central zone within 40 m of go Hollands steps back into the space then when this bomber leads sucking this blue forward obviously there’s a window of daylight for essendon with a precise kick to hit a Target inside 50 but the lackluster effort means the kick doesn’t reach gualy and Elijah is there to it off but it’s the class of the kick for me because Ben McKai is marshalling quite well the lead of Williams indicates the spread the blues are looking to use but it feels like Holland corrects his kick on the action to go more centrally pulling the kick ever so slightly now playing to the advantage of Williams going front left rather than to the right then Colton can use some shorter passes and overlap to maximize that space the key thing about this Elijah didn’t skip the steps rather than taking one kick to go wide which could create a congested contest the shorter kick means the space can be better manipulated as there’s multiple directional changes less congested contests more one of ones and thus more chances of success this example comes at a time where Colton had faced multiple ascendant entries and we’re getting a little bit of momentum at the back end of the quarter you’ll see both Ding and Holland involved here with composed possessions in close and Elijah’s flick over the shoulder removes the impact of Perkins who’s left hu open as he’s drawn in allowing that time for Newman to get a clean look I think this shows the importance of the half for in the structure more so in probably a lot of AFL team systems on the switch for where Holland starts he’s important because he’s going to be one of the first to get to the other side and he’s also going to cover space resourcefully because he’s going to end up a kick behind the football I’m not sure how effective his positioning is here but it helps feed into culton zone for sure enden can’t kick centrally meaning they’re only looking down the line and I’d have to guess the reason enden handal as opposed to the kick was because the option up the line wasn’t ample and this is exactly what Calton wanted that result at least is partially dependent on where Elijah was placed and in this example is pretty effective now this final quarter example I think shows the combination of smarts and skill by Elija let’s note the bombers players here heel Perkins gram right Cox and Coldwell endon absolutely fluff the kick Boyd reads well and McGovern remains wide but you’ll notice right in the white boots heel and gram in the red boots Perkins Cox coldwell’s all the way back here and so that’s really smart for Elijah to hold that position having seen every other bomber at the contest surge forward knowing that a simple turnover means he’s going to be open it is a gamble but sometimes if that is what the opposition is going to give you you need to be able to identify it and exploit it which Elijah Hollands does to a te here the second smart choice is to kick sideways and quickly to simultaneously keep the play moving whilst buying the forwards time time to get a shift in and run into this space Williams does that and then Elijah reading the running Lane that’s staring him down pivots from left to right seeing that we’ve got one wide and Cox has taken him instead of Williams Wheeling round we keep that Dynamic play going with a more direct run then the third part of this is the execution Jake C’s got a good 15 cm height advantage on dirds but the drive that a handball receive provides as it does in this case means Duran just simply needs to block off C’s run backward into the landing space keeping him on the wrong side to spoil the kick allows this effort to be effective and Duran can rake it in ultimately Elijah’s got the perfect mix of poise and quality combined with the game awareness that perfectly complement and enhances that skill he’s got overall in a game where players weren’t clean and weren’t accurate Elijah Hollands was consistently the complete opposite and TDK no two ways about it was in everywhere man a high performance tooning bodess well for Calton as it endorses Squad balance and team success by that same token Hollands well his output changes week by week but his importance to a culton win never changes what is your assessment of these two guys so far in 2024 maybe give us a grade in the comment section I hope you enjoyed this installment of culton analysis thanks for tuning in and I look forward to doing this analysis again with you in a couple of weeks but until then stay safe enjoy the break and bye for now [Music]