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Carlton captain Patrick Cripps has admitted his side got “frantic” after its late-game demons from last season resurfaced in a drawn thriller against Richmond.
The Blues led by seven points late in the fourth quarter before a goal with 17 seconds left from Tigers forward Tom Lynch tied the scores at 8.10.(58) apiece, with the draw the first between the two teams since 1972.
“When you’re up, you just want to control the footy,” Cripps told Seven after the match.
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“We probably got a little bit frantic there at the end, so you’ve just got to keep learning. These young guys have just got to keep learning. These experiences in big games with big crowds, that’s where you want to be playing, so we’ve just got to keep learning.
“Our game is going to keep evolving. You’d rather win, but I thought tonight was a quality hard game of footy.”
Carlton forward Harry McKay echoed his skipper’s sentiments.
“We’ll look back and there are a probably a couple of moments that, if we had our time again, we probably could have done a bit better, but it’s all part of the learning process,” he told 3AW.
It was the first drawn round one match since the 2011 season when Melbourne and Sydney drew at the MCG.
Collingwood great Nathan Buckley pointed to a final minute play where youngsters Jesse Motlop and Lochie O’Brien combined to play on as an example of Carlton’s lack of game management hurting them.
“It looked like they had the game iced and under control seven points up,” he said on Fox Footy’s post-game coverage.
“It’s the little things when you’re tired and fatigued. How do you make the right decisions at the right time to help your teammate?
“You know what Carlton will ask themselves? Motlop took the mark in heaps of space and kicked it across to O’Brien.
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“In that situation, are you coaching for O’Brien to play on and put himself in a pressure situation … or does he come back, kick, mark and take time off the clock?”
Richmond was also left to rue what could’ve been after finishing the night ahead on many of the key stats.
The Tigers won the disposals (349-341), inside 50 (66-45) and clearances (36-32), but were made to pay after being wasteful in their forward half.
“It looked like a Richmond game. The reality is we just lacked polish,” Tigers coach Damien Hardwick said after the match.
Carlton’s task gets no easier next week when it faces the reigning premiers at the MCG on Thursday, while Richmond travels to Adelaide to take on the Crows.
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