Two minutes later,Carlton’s Matt Owies kicked his first AFL goal and the momentum of the game shifted as Blues veterans Eddie Betts and Curnow then kicked a goal each to narrow the margin to under a goal with Essendon only scoring two behinds for the rest of the quarter.

The run of unanswered goals to the Blues would stretch to five as they opened up a lead early in the third quarter that Essendon could never quite overcome.

Until Parks’ game changing tackle,Essendon had been better than Carlton,using the ball more efficiently going forward and finding loose men everywhere. While the Blues played at a breakneck speed,the Bombers were more controlled with their forwards enjoying better service and their backs able to set up for turnovers.

Jake Stringer,Darcy Parish,Andy McGrath and Zach Merrett were winning the centre clearance battle against Carlton’s dynamic duo Cripps and Sam Walsh.

The Blues only looked like scoring when Saad roared out of defence and launched a long ball into an open forward line,with the boos of aggrieved Essendon supporters in his ears.

“I loved the boos because they were quite regular,which meant he was getting the ball a bit,” Carlton coach David Teague said.

“He just wanted to go out and play his role and I thought he did it really well.”

Essendon coach Ben Rutten acknowledged Saad’s performance was strong but said the biggest issue for the Bombers was their connection between their defence and attack.

“It was a little bit about what we were doing that gave them really good opportunities and they were good enough to take them,and Saady was one of those who was good enough to take them,” Rutten said.

Devon Smith became a tackling machine,embarrassing Cripps early in the second quarter when he jumped the Blues’ skipper as he stood on the wing contemplating his options like a little brother about to be robbed of a bag of lollies by his older sibling.

But the Carlton captain had the last laugh,lifting exactly when the team needed him in the final quarter to tilt momentum the Blues’ way,with key forward Harry McKay kicking two last quarter goals to stretch the lead beyond Essendon’s reach.

Along with Walsh and Curnow,he helped the Bombers control the game with the addition of Sam Petrevski-Seton as the medical sub to replace the concussed Paddy Dow giving Carlton much needed run in the second half.

The Bombers’ rebuild is behind Carlton but they have exciting youngsters with Essendon supporters likely to leave relatively satisfied with what lies ahead.

BEST:
Essendon:McGrath,Heppell,Smith,Stringer.
Carlton:Saad,Walsh,Petrevski-Seton,Jones,Curnow,Weitering,Fogarty,Cripps.

VOTES
A Saad (Carlton) 8
S Walsh (Carlton) 8
J Stringer (Essendon) 7
E Curnow (Carlton) 7
A McGrath (Essendon) 7