Caretaker coach Mark Riley reviews Melbourne's win over the Blues, exclusively on melbournefc.com.au 

Pre Match:
- It was a very emotional week for all involved leading into the match and there were plenty of distractions in front of the players and the coaching group.

- We focussed on playing as a tight group and not getting caught up in any hysteria surrounding the events of last week.  Didn’t want to focus on injury concerns and instead concentrated on opportunity and team work, heading towards a competitive effort against Carlton.

- There were a few outs from last week's close loss to Essendon with David Neitz (hamstring), Daniel Bell (hamstring), Travis Johnstone (Achilles), and Brad Green (knee) all unavailable for selection this week.  We also lost Cameron Bruce on the eve of the match suffering hamstring soreness.  However, this gave our younger players a great opportunity to perform.

- We brought in Chris Johnson, Lynden Dunn, James Frawley, Brad Miller, and Simon Buckley to make his debut.

- Needed a good start after last week’s disappointing eight goal to two first quarter against Essendon.

- We had to continue our focus on playing four quarters of football with high pressure and intensity throughout the entire match.  Keeping belief within the group was a focus, knowing that the reward of a victory would eventually come our way as long as we persisted with a strong work ethic.

During the Match:
- We started young James Frawley on Carlton’s Jarred Waite.  A big challenge for James, who has only played a couple of games, and Waite has been in very good form.

- Ricky Petterd came off injured early in the match.

- Got the start we required kicking four goals to three for the opening quarter. 

- During the first quarter we moved Simon Godfrey onto Andrew Carrazzo as he had collected 17 possessions in that term.  Paul Wheatley started the game well, picking up ten possessions and used the ball very well.

- Early in the second quarter, we used the ball well, moving it quickly and direct into our forward 50 metre area.  James McDonald made a huge impact in the centre bounces, winning a lot of clearances and collecting ten possessions for the quarter.

- We let Carlton score some easy goals from our mistakes which reduced our lead that we had fought hard for.  Both teams finished with five goals each for the quarter. 

- At half time, the message was to continue with the same pressure and intensity that we’d shown in the first quarter and a half of the match.  We needed to continue to work hard around the stop plays and encouraged the players to take risks when in counter attack or going forward.

- We kicked five goals to Carlton’s two in the third quarter.  Russell Robertson was looking dangerous with limited opportunities in the forward line, and Matthew Bate was also hitting the scoreboard.

- At three quarter time we led by 16 points but knew the game still needed to be won.  We needed to continue our hardness and pressure around the ball.  James McDonald (nine tackles) and Nathan Jones (ten tackles) were great in this area.  Carlton did come at us in the final term on a couple of occasions but our boys steadied and found the composure required to win the match.  We kicked five goals to four in the last quarter to win the match by 23 points.

Post Match:
- Godfrey did the job on Carrazzo after quarter time keeping him to 17 possessions for the last three quarters after his initial 17 possessions in the first quarter.

- Our younger players showed promise, which hopefully is a good indication of what we can see in the future.  We had nine players that were 21 years of age or younger.  James Frawley was terrific on Jarred Waite keeping him to just the one goal.  Michael Newton kicked three goals from six shots. Matthew Bate, Colin Sylvia, Simon Buckley, Nathan Jones, Paul Johnson, and Lynden Dunn were all solid contributors.

- We kicked 19 goals for the game which was a tremendous result.  We haven’t kicked big scores like that too often this year.  It was a good return as we only entered our forward 50 metre area on 50 occasions as opposed to Carlton’s 59.

- Our ruckman were dominant particularly Jeff White who amassed 44 hit outs for the game.  The final numbers were 60 hit outs to Carlton’s 19.  However Carlton were very good around the stopped plays evening this advantage out by winning the clearances 44 to 26.

- James McDonald (29 possessions) played an outstanding game leading the team as Captain for the day. Paul Wheatley (29 possessions), Nathan Brown (24 possessions), and Daniel Ward (23 possessions) were our other major ball winners for the day.

- We’ll have a very light week on the training track this week, as we only have a six day turnaround before we play Brisbane in Queensland on Saturday night.