G’day everyone,

The 2009 AFL home and away season commenced last night, with Richmond and Carlton facing off in one of the most anticipated opening round clashes in recent memory. The anticipation easily outweighed even the build-up to the Grand Final re-match between Hawthorn and Geelong (which is tonight, in case you weren’t aware). And for what it’s worth, I’m actually looking forward to the Hawks v Cats match.

But back to last night, 86,972 people watched as Carlton, somewhat surprisingly to some, absolutely destroyed Richmond in a total anti-climax in the season opener.

For Tiger fans, their disappointment was compounded by another hamstring tear to star recruit, Ben Cousins. The injury is a cruel blow to Cousins who has from all accounts trained the house down since his arrival at Punt Road in late 2008.

My take on Cousins? I’m actually severely disappointed for him. Sure, he has a checkered (and infamous) past but he has worked his way back to the AFL after a forced one and a half year lay-off throughout 2007 & 2008. I honestly hope Cousins can now rehabilitate his hamstring and make it back to AFL footy but I expect him to miss a minimum of 4 weeks given his history of hamstring tears.

I was at the game last night, but now in hindsight – I question why Richmond would put Cousins back on the field after three-quarter time – especially given the footage on the Channel Ten telecast of Cousins flexing his hamstring/leg prior to the final break.

If you want to read the thoughts straight from the man himself, check out Cousins’ feature article here. Some pretty honest thoughts there, and well worth a read.

Finally on Richmond, their performance was simply listless. Ordinary disposal and they looked shot as soon as the Blues jumped out to a 3 or 4 goal lead early. I now officially don’t hold any hope for them in 2009, whilst I realise it is a long season. There is very little to be excited about, maybe Mitch Morton and Jack Riewoldt aside. I liked the disposal of Matt White, also. He can use the ball – which is a rare commodity at Tigerland it seems.

That’s enough about Richmond. Back to the Blues.

I cannot emphasise enough how impressed I was with the Blues performance last night. Sure, the Tigers were terrible but Carlton still had to do all of the right things, which they did.

The entire team was magnificent. But from an individual standpoint, Marc Murphy (28 disposals, 2 goals, 6 tackles), Bryce Gibbs (30 disposals, 6 marks), Eddie Betts (15 disposals, 5 goals) and Chris Judd (23 disposals, 6 tackles) were all outstanding.

Other performances of note came from first year player Mitch Robinson (3 goals), Matthew Kreuzer (16 disposals, 21 hit-outs) and the ‘under-the-radar’ but ever reliable types in Hadley and Wiggins. One of my favourites, Kade Simpson, got his usual bunch of touches but was a bit wasteful in his disposal.

Hard to fault the Blues at all. They won every quarter convincingly and posted their highest score since, wait for it, Round 13, 2001 (by the way, a player named Brett Ratten was amongst our best players that day).

Richmond were held to just 67 points by the Blues last night.  Only twice last season did Carlton keep their opponent to 67 points or less.

And lastly from the statistical cupboard, last night’s winning margin (83) was our largest since the 119-point belting of the Eagles at Optus Oval in Round 10, 2001. If you hadn’t already guessed, Carlton haven’t been very good since 2001.

What I love about Carlton in 2009 is their depth. The fact that players such as Carrazzo, Fisher, Grigg, Stevens, Walker, Yarran and Warnock are currently on the outside looking in, means almost every player in the 22 should be playing for their footballing lives each week. I say ‘almost every player’ because I’d suggest Judd, Murphy, Gibbs, Fevola and a couple of others are quite safe.

Next week, the Blues play the Brisbane Lions at the Dome. This presents Carlton with an excellent opportunity to potentially win their opening two matches which would be a terrific platform for the 2009 season. After Brisbane, we play Essendon – another game Carlton would realistically expect to win. Their draw gets tougher after Round 3 (Swans, Bulldogs, Hawks).

My Carlton Top 5 for Round 1:

5 votes – Marc Murphy (exceptional, kicked 2 goals capping off a great effort)

4 votes – Jarrad Waite (exposed Richardson’s lack of defensive mindset all night)

3 votes – Chris Judd (another typical Judd performance)

2 votes – Eddie Betts (5 goals tells the story)

1 vote – Mitch Robinson (best Carlton debut since Andrew Walker?)

Elsewhere on the interweb, surf on over to the website of some of my Twitter friends, Kick2Kick.net, Molly’s Mollyzine and Monty’s FanFooty. Some excellent AFL resources there, especially FanFooty if you’re into Fantasy Football.

By the way, don’t forget to join Twitter if you haven’t already!

Thanks for reading everyone – feel free to leave a comment on last nights game or any other subject!

Cheers.

Luke.