Fox Footy’s Leigh Montagna is tipping another slender loss this weekend for the Blues, who have become well-accustomed to playing in tight affairs.
Carlton will host GWS at Marvel Stadium this Saturday afternoon, with both sides confirmed to be without key contributors for the ladder-shaping clash.
Blues midfielder Adam Cerra and defenders Adam Saad and Mitch McGovern are all hamstrung, while star Giants defender Sam Taylor and midfielder Stephen Coniglio will be absent on Adam Kingsley’s side.
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The Blues have been living on the edge recently, with eight of their past 11 games decided by 10 points or less — including last Saturday’s heartbreaker against Adelaide.
Living in such regular close confines has drawn comparisons with the Magpies of recent years, which probably doesn’t delight the Blues faithful.
287-gamer Montagna is predicting Carlton to stay with the trend and enter a tight encounter against the Giants.
“I think this will be a beauty, I think this will be another close game,” Montagna said on this week’s edition of Fox Footy’s Give Me Something.
“(The Blues) have been on the right side of the ledger; they were 7-0 in those close games (before) the loss to Adelaide.”
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However, Montagna believes the Blues will be consigned to a second consecutive narrow defeat at Marvel.
“I think they’ll lose another one,” he said. “Another close game by inside 10 points, Carlton, and (it’ll) just start to get them nervy.
“After (GWS) they’ve got the Cats, Collingwood, Melbourne and Sydney (in Sydney). I just think they’ll get beat.
“It’ll be a close one, and it just starts to get a little bit interesting for the Blues about where they’re at with some tough games to come.”
It’s hard to argue Michael Voss’ men weren’t unconvincing in the important moments against the Crows.
From the 20-minute mark of the final term to full-time, the Blues were -18 on the scoreboard, -16 in uncontested possessions and allowed Adelaide a goals per inside-50 rate of 67 per cent.
Carlton was also -11 in points from turnovers after ranking first in the AFL in that metric through the first five rounds.
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In 16 all-time meetings, the Blues are 6-10 against the Giants but are 3-2 in their last five clashes. The clubs’ most recent Marvel Stadium bout resulted in a 32-point GWS win in Round 24, 2023.
Carlton vs. GWS this Saturday from 4:35pm AEST is exclusive to Fox Footy (via channel 504) and streaming via Kayo.
Source Agencies
