THAT'S WHY THEY CALL IT "THE BLUES" by Whispering Jack

[Demonland 64,798]

The Carlton Football Club and all those associated with it must be collectively heaving sighs of relief about the events at Essendon.

They came in the week after the Blues managed only three goals after quarter time in an 83-point turnaround that saw them capitulate to fellow wooden spoon contender Brisbane by 64 points. Former player Mitch Robinson added to the humiliation by sticking it to his old club with a display that saw him amass 34 disposals and lay 15 tackles. It was an unspoken gesture that spelled out "bruise-free" if there ever was one.

Had it not been for the troubles at Essendon which, earlier on the same day lowered its colours to Adelaide at Etihad Stadium by 112 points and a few days later parted company with coach James Hird in strange circumstances, the media would have been all over Carlton.

And if not Carlton, it would have had far more to say about Melbourne's pitifully weak and inept performance against the Western Bulldogs which saw another bloodbath at the Docklands, giving the stadium under the roof a combined losing margin from two AFL games of 35 goals.

If that's not a very good advertisement for our game then I would like to know what could be worse than those two results and how the AFL managed to sell six years of broadcast rights in their aftermath for $2½ billion. Even if you leave Essendon and its drug issues aside, if Gillon McLachlan can pull off that sort of thing then what price the Sydney Harbour Bridge?

Which brings us to this week's game.

Well actually ... er, um no. The garbage served up by both teams last week won't bring many people to the MCG to watch the slopfest of embarrassing, coach killing skill errors and the kaleidoscope of half-hearted weak efforts that we saw from both these teams last weekend.

What more can you say about a match between teams where a 98 point last start loser is a firm favourite to win according to the betting agencies?

In fact, the match up is threatening to revive the horrors of that game between the two sides on the same ground eight years ago which lives in infamy and is known as "The Kreuzer Cup". We know who won that because it was one of the few games in AFL history where the loser got the four points. The man after whom it was named will be turning up for that game's winner this week. Despite what was obvious to all and sundry at the time, his team was strangely enough, never really investigated for bringing the game into disrepute.

And on form, we can expect more on-field disrepute this week although this game has one thing going for it - the fact that the two leading contenders for the NAB Rising Star award, Melbourne's Jesse Hogan and Carlton's Patrick Cripps, will both stand out as quality footballers among a fairly dismal lot.

THE GAME

Carlton v Melbourne at MCG Sunday 23 August, 2015 at 3.20pm

HEAD TO HEAD

Overall Carlton 115 wins Melbourne 89 wins Drawn 2

At MCG Carlton 48 wins Melbourne 49 wins

Past five meetings Carlton 4 wins Melbourne 1 win

The Coaches Barker 0 wins Roos 0 wins

MEDIA

TV - Fox Sports Channel 3 @ 3.00pm live

RADIO -

THE BETTING

Carlton to win - $2.80 Melbourne to win - $1.44

THE LAST TIME THEY MET

Melbourne 12.9.81 defeated Carlton 7.15.57 at the MCG Round 4, 2014

Carlton was on top early but the Demons slowly wore their more fancied opponents down and provided an early season upset. James Frawley was on fire for the Demons with 24 touches and Rohan Bail had 10 tackles. Both kicked a couple as did Chris Dawes and Jack Watts.

Strangely enough, Carlton had more disposals, marks, scoring shots and inside 50s but still lost.

THE TEAMS

CARLTON

B: Zach Tuohy, Michael Jamison, Sam Rowe

HB: Dylan Buckley, Sam Docherty, Matthew Dick

C: Marc Murphy, Andrew Carrazzo, Kade Simpson

HF: Tom Bell, Andrejs Everitt, Blaine Boekhorst

F: Andrew Walker, Levi Casboult, Troy Menzel

FOLL: Matthew Kreuzer, Ed Curnow, Patrick Cripps

I/C: David Ellard, Kristian Jaksch, Jason Tutt, Mark Whiley

EMG: Nick Holman, Clem Smith, Matthew Watson

IN: Levi Casboult, Troy Menzel, Jason Tutt

Out: Lachie Henderson (omitted), Nick Holman (omitted), Clem Smith (or mitted)

MELBOURNE

B: Colin Garland, Lynden Dunn, Jeremy Howe

HB: Daniel Cross, Tom McDonald, Christian Salem

C: Billy Stretch, Bernie Vince, Heritier Lumumba

HF: Viv Michie, Chris Dawes, James Harmes

F: Jeff Garlett, Jesse Hogan, Jack Watts

FOLL: Max Gawn, Nathan Jones, Jack Viney

I/C: Angus Brayshaw, Jack Grimes, Alex Neal-Bullen, Ben Newton

EMG: Rohan Bail, Mark Jamar, Aidan Riley

IN: Ben Newton, Christian Salem, Billy Stretch

OUT: Neville Jetta (neck), Matt Jones (omitted)

The thought of two struggling clubs facing off at the end of a long season doesn't really inspire but you can hardly feel sorry for either of them - both clubs have made mistakes along the journey and though the Blues appear to have a dismal future, they must have someone at the top looking after them.

Apart from escaping scrutiny for their list management as alluded to above, they managed to get the Lion's share of lucrative Friday night matches which deliver clubs huge financial bonuses in terms of gate receipts and sponsorships. It was recently reported in the Herald Sun that having a few of these fixtures each year can add as much as $1.2m to a club's bottom line but the Demons have had only one in the past three years and that was the 2015 ANZAC Eve away match against Richmond. So much for equalization in the AFL.

Anyhow, financial matters will be of little concern and well in the background this Sunday. The Demons surely couldn't be as listless as they looked against the Bulldogs and they will respond to Paul Roos' suggestion that the team is already in holiday mood in Bali and they should win - unless the airlines cancel their flight back home due to another run of nearby volcanic activity.

Dees by 10 points.