BRISBANE -- The opening round of any AFL season is often reserved for wild overreaction and hyperbole. You know the very kind. Team A is destined to win the premiership. Team B desperately needs a priority pick. On and on it goes.
But we should not view any discourse suggesting Carlton has well and truly joined the competition's elite -- and are now a legitimate premiership threat -- through such a lens.
On Friday evening, the Blues returned to the Gabba, the scene of last year's 16-point preliminary final loss to Brisbane, and turned the tables on their Queensland rivals. The thrilling one-point win snapped a 14-game winning streak at the venue for the Lions and ended a run of 11 years without victory at the ground for the Blues.
It was no ordinary win, either. Brisbane could not have enjoyed a faster start, piling on seven first-quarter goals as they looked to be shaking off last year's Grand Final heartbreak in emphatic style. When Lincoln McCarthy slotted his second goal midway through the second term to increase the home team's lead to a game-high 46 points, it simply became a matter of 'Lions by how many'.
But from that point on the contest flipped on its head. The stagnant, deliberate approach the Blues had taken into the game was abandoned in favour of putting speed on the ball, something that allowed Carlton to find time and space on the outside.
In just 25 minutes of game time, the Blues had erased the near eight-goal deficit and put their nose in front, both to stun the capacity crowd and delight the travelling contingent. And a game that had looked every bit a preseason scratch match suddenly felt on par with that preliminary final encounter from last September.
Reigning Coleman medallist Charlie Curnow was instrumental in the turnaround, bursting to life after a near invisible first 45 minutes. Curnow booted four of the eight goals that had the Blues surging into the lead, putting to rest any criticism that he cannot produce match-winning performances against the league's top sides.
But it was his forward line partner in crime, Harry McKay, who brushed off the mental demons of 2023 and delivered the killer blow. The 2021 Coleman Medal winner kicked truly from 45m out with just over a minute remaining, his third major of the game, to give his side the one-point lead they'd hold until the final siren. McKay looked comfortable lining up for goal all night, flushed most of his shots and clunked four contested marks in a performance that will have delighted Blues fans.
"Iron sharpens iron at training. [McKay and Curnow] compete so hard at training and it comes out here, which is so good to see," Carlton midfielder George Hewett told ESPN. "Obviously, Harry had to work on his goalkicking, he would be the first to admit it, but that's as big of a clutch moment as you can get. it's not just his goalkicking, his contest down the line was incredibly. We're so stoked for him."
Carlton skipper Patrick Cripps, as he has so often throughout his glittering career, put the cape on and took charge in the midfield. He was ably supported by Hewett (27 disposals, five clearances) and Adam Cerra (25 disposals, seven clearances).
Blake Acres carried his 2023 form into the new campaign and again played an impressive role on the wing. Zac Williams provided his trademark dash and drive in his first game since 2022, while substitute Jack Carroll showed plenty of class after being injected into the contest just after half-time when veteran Sam Docherty was ruled out with a knee injury.
The even spread of contributors was something that had held the Blues in great stead in the back half of last year, and Michael Voss was thrilled with the way in which his troops bound together after a shaky start to rescue what was looming as a disastrous opener.
"Amazing win, like, amazing win ... we had to overcome a bit," Voss said after the game. "We'll remember this day, as a team. "It certainly gives us a lot of belief. There's things you look back in retrospect and say, 'that was a really significant moment'."
The staggering turnaround will rightly garner the headlines, but the most impressive aspect of Carlton's win over the highly fancied Lions was that it was achieved despite missing two of their best and most important players -- Jacob Weitering and Sam Walsh.
Walsh, who is out indefinitely due to a back injury, was the player of the finals series six months back, and appeared a genuine Brownlow Medal chance in 2024 before injury derailed his preseason. Weitering, a four-time selection to the All-Australian squad of 40, has also been sidelined as he battles a calf strain.
It was clear the absence of both was having an enormous impact in the early stages.
Without Weitering, the Blues' defensive structure was non-existent in the first quarter. Chris Fagan's forward six ran rampant, enjoyed acres of space and were able to capitalise. The steady hand of Walsh in the midfield would have also been welcomed with the Blues unable to enjoy any long-lasting possession or run-and-carry.
But, ultimately, neither were required. Instead, everyone else lifted to fill the void.
"Footy is just a game of one goal at a time and it moves so quickly," Hewett told ESPN. "We just needed to get some territory. Second quarter we slowly started to do it with a goal at a time and it worked."
Despite a 10-game winning streak, a second successive inspired campaign from Curnow, and back-to-back stirring finals wins, there was never a moment in 2023 when Carlton felt anything more than a feel-good story. That line of thinking was justified when they were bounced by Brisbane in that preliminary final.
But Carlton's extraordinary Opening Round performance, both from a resilience and production standpoint, has well and truly verified this club's premiership credentials. It's also confirmed they are a team to be taken seriously in 2024.