Gerard's Editorial | Carlton's Project Hail Mary (01.04.26)

Wednesday morning. This is your town. This is your station. This is

Waitley. Good morning. Project Hail Mary. Is there a bit about that for

Carlton heading towards its Good Friday superclash? Last year it was North

Melbourne that was being fitted up for judgments. The showcase poised as a

measure of the torturous rebuilds. And perhaps their darkest moment, the

kangaroos were annihilated by 82 points. How Carlton would love to

reprise that performance. You might have thought that fortunes had tilted to

some degree 12 months on, yet the blues are still substantial favourites. North

ended its losing streak against Carlton in round 15 last year, and there

appears a gentle upswing. Only gentle. The worth of which is about to be

tested are new. Carlton's fortunes are undeniably in recession. This stretch of

three must-win games have delivered the luckiest of victories against

Richmond's, which doesn't read particularly well a couple of weeks on, and the

capitulation against Melbourne. The blues are expected to win on Friday, haven't

helped them if they don't. Markovos shirks nothing. That was an excellent

observation from Adam Simpson in the means test on Monday. Voss has given us

who'd be a coach and filthy after the past two performances. Today he

manns the fort under a degree of siege. He'll be typically stoic and

unflitching, but not much, he says, will matter until his team conquers some of

its foibles. And at some point, he might very well mutter a little prayer under

his breath, and then can't a bit of project Hail Mary. He actually opened

it up to us as players, which I like that he did because we're the ones out there.

I feel as though it's like standing here now, I can stand and talk and say,

we've got to do this, so we're going to do that. But when the heat comes, where are

we going? I think probably sometimes it can be a concentration thing, and then

other times it's also just been over to know how to control the game a little bit

if teams are coming at us. There's no point soaking about it. It's sort of getting

to work right now. Now as Sam Walsh yesterday, no points sucking about it, get to

work. So it will have been a busy week. It is a busy week at Carlton, and they

play on Friday. Carlton, the bad, but north without sharing their barely good enough

with him has come through on the text to explain the pronounced favoritism.