Tom makes Blues pay
Tom Mitchell's father might have played 38 games for the Blues, but he had no time for sentimentality on Sunday. Instead, his Brownlow Medal charge continued with another outstanding performance. Carlton's plans for the prolific Mitchell went up in smoke with just minutes remaining in the first quarter. Young midfielder Zac Fisher looked like he'd been given the role on the Hawthorn gun but rolled his ankle in a tackle and didn't finish the game. It allowed Mitchell to get off the chain, finishing with 46 disposals, nine marks, nine tackles, six clearances and two goals. It was Mitchell's ninth game in 17 this season in which he's had more than 40 disposals, incredibly now outnumbering his number of sub-40 possession matches. Carlton's normal tagger, Ed Curnow, went to Hawthorn running machine Isaac Smith and limited him to just 18 touches.
Read: Match report - Hawks v Blues
Carlton's woes continue
Carlton is breaking a series of unwanted records in 2018. They continued on Sunday, with the Blues held scoreless in an opening quarter for the first time since round 18, 1990. It was simply one-way traffic in the early stages of the game, with the Blues butchering the ball going forward and the Hawks making them pay in transition. That paved the way for another low-scoring Carlton contest, with the Blues failing to reach the 100-point mark for the 50th straight game. That record now dates back to round 11, 2016. Hawthorn piled on four unanswered goals in the first term to set up a comfortable 72-point victory, though it could have been more if not for some wayward kicking – the Hawks finishing with 18 goals from 34 scoring shots. The Blues eventually registered a score, courtesy of a goal from defender Kade Simpson, in the third minute of the second term. But they'd have to wait until the 19th minute of the third quarter to find their next major on a rough afternoon.
Clarko's next milestone
Sunday was Alastair Clarkson's 200th victory in charge of Hawthorn, but it also corrected a rather strange record for the supremely talented Hawks coach. Clarkson went into the match with five defeats in six games against his former lieutenants this season. Last week was his second loss for the year to Chris Fagan, while he had also suffered defeat at the hands of former Hawks assistants Damien Hardwick, Adam Simpson and Leon Cameron. He's now got the points against Brendon Bolton, but before that his only other victory for the year against someone he used to share the box with came against Luke Beveridge and the Western Bulldogs earlier in the month.
No going back to go forward
Alastair Clarkson has used Jack Gunston where he's needed him this season. So, when James Sicily was ruled out for the next six weeks with a broken scaphoid, many thought Gunston could be thrown into the backline. However, having been played predominantly forward this year, it was there where Gunston stayed on Sunday. Instead, James Frawley, Ben Stratton and Kaiden Brand took on Carlton's key forwards, with Ryan Burton also rotating through a few different opponents at times across the afternoon. It proved a successful move, with Charlie Curnow, Levi Casboult and Harry McKay kept to just one goal between them. Gunston, meanwhile, was at his creative best up forward – finishing with two goals from 16 disposals and four marks.
The baby Blues
Positives might have been hard to find for Carlton on Sunday, but fans desperate for a ray of light might have found some in the continued exposure of the club's youngsters. More than half of the selected side was 21 years of age or younger at Etihad Stadium, with the Blues fielding 12 players within that age bracket. Jacob Weitering, Jack Silvagni, Caleb Marchbank and Lochie O'Brien were used in defence, Sam Petrevski-Seton, Cam Polson, Zac Fisher, Matthew Kennedy and Paddy Dow were rotated through the midfield, while Charlie Curnow, Harry McKay and Jarrod Pickett were played up forward. The rare glimpses they showed were about the only bright spots on another dark day for the Blues.
