Carlton certainly are the pre-season specialists, knocking the admittedly flogged 2007 Grand Finalists Port Adelaide in round 1 of the NAB Cup. Let's face it someone had to get polaxed by the Cats that day and we couldn't think of a better team to take one for the league!

The Brief...

• Carlton young guns fire, but not the ones you'd think
• The Blue Kruze is unveiled
• Can Carazz keep his price tag?
• Power play some possession and hand-pass
• Salopek turns it on
• Cornes boys absent

The Blues

Carlton scores were unxepectedly led by a couple of low-priced youngsters in Darren Pfeiffer, with 88 DT and 95 SC points, and young ruck Shaun Hampson with 74 DT's and 78 SC's. If this is a sign of things to come and each player can earn some game time then they'll be names to keep in min during the season.

2007 exploder Andrew Carazzo performed and could be worth his high price tag this year, and for DT coaches in particular scores were very evenly spread below these three. Players out to catch the SuperCoaches attention were Jarrad Waite (60,99), Ryan Houlihan (57,86), Nick Stevens (47,83) and Brett Thornton (46,76), each tallying significantly higher Sc totals than DT.

Heath Scotland (61,81), Marc Murphy (60,48) and Brendan Fevola (60,77) were all solid while Bryce Gibbs (36,49) was quiet and the big "Kruze" showed some glimpses.

The Power

The Power fielded their youngest team ever and played a possession and hand-ball game. Although not the greatest spectacle this can make the job of consistently tallying decent numbers much easier, particularly for Dream Team - many DT coaches would remember 2005/2006 when the Hawks played this game. It was common to have the names Hodge, Mitchell, Crawford, Birchall and Everiit all in the same team... Power DT scores had a bit of GST on the Blues numbers, particularly at the top of the list. In the stats the kicks were pretty even, Port had the hand-balls and hit-outs, while the Blues had the marks and tackles. DT Hero did some quick calculations and found the Power's possesion game had them win on DT points (1251-1217), while Carlton's kicking, direct play and better foot-skills saw them win on on SC points (1469-1421).

It's certainly something to keep in mind when teams show a leaning toward a high possession game and have the same players regularly topping their scores. Keep in mind the Cornes boys were absent and could well straighten up the Power game plan a bit, but the names Salopek (115,143), Cassisi (93,98) and Boak (80,78) should be regularly at the top of the Power score sheet in 2008. Former Lion, Tom Logan (88,82) and up-and-comer Matt Thomas (78,109) could also be worth a look if they can string together some consistent totals.

Down the list a bit Power big guns Dean Brogan (58,70) and Warren Tredrea (44,51) were impressive in really only a half each, while Young star Danyle Pearce was out of the action with 70 DT points and just 56 SC's.

What's Next?

Carlton and the Hawks return home for a quarter final bout at the Dome on Saturday night, while the Power travel to take on the Swans in a challenge match at Sydney's newly-named "Insert Sponsor Here" Stadium.

DT