1. Sleepy start
Fremantle's loss to Adelaide earlier in the day, and the fact that seventh-placed North Melbourne is playing eighth-placed Essendon on Sunday, meant Carlton started the game knowing a win would leave it just four points outside the top eight. But instead of opening the contest with urgency, the Blues basically slept through the early stages of the game. They didn't register a score until the 16-minute mark of the first term when big man Levi Casboult kicked a behind from 50m out. By that time the Lions had 2.4 (16) on the board. The game was 21 minutes old when Jeff Garlett finally kicked Carlton's first goal.
More talking points
2. The best team the Lions have played this week?
In the lead-up to the game, Brisbane Lions coach Michael Voss said Carlton had been the best team his men had come up against all season. His claim was based on the way Brett Ratten's outfit sliced apart the Lions up at the Gabba in round two, when the then-high-flying Blues won by 91 points. ''I still maintain that despite what's happened to them across the whole year, they've actually been the best side we've played the whole year," were the words uttered by Voss on Friday. Voss will surely have changed his mind after this nondescript encounter. The Blues might have won easily, but they're still quite a way off recapturing the form that saw them assume premiership favouritism in mid-April.
3. White on Brown
With regular full-back Michael Jamison sidelined by a hamstring injury, Brett Ratten gave unheralded defender Simon White the big job on Lions skipper Jonathan Brown. White, who was making just his second appearance in the AFL for the season, looked set for a horror night when Brown dribbled through the first goal of the game with a clever left-foot snap. However, White ended up restricting Brown to just two goals, four marks and 13 possessions.
4. Long way home
Although White did a reasonable job on him, big Browny must tear his hair out at the way the Lions over-possess the ball these days. Rather than attacking down the middle of the ground, their first instinct is often to chip the ball backwards or sidewards, even if Brown and his fellow forwards are desperately offering leads. During the first three quarters, when the game was relatively even in the middle of the ground, the Lions had only 19 fewer possessions than the Blues, yet they also had 19 fewer inside-50s.
5. Wonderful Waite
It's been a tough season for Carlton's Jarrad Waite, but the injury-prone forward produced the highlight of this largely forgettable clash when, midway through the third quarter, he soared over Lions defender Daniel Merrett and hauled in a spectacular overhead mark. As the pro-Blues crowd roared its approval, Waite calmly went back and slotted his shot at goal from 20m out right in front. Waite didn't do a whole lot else during the evening, but his 'speccy' gave the 25,977 fans in attendance something to talk about.
Follow Adam McNicol on Twitter at: @AFL_AdamMcNicol
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs.
