MELBOURNE -- The Carlton resurgence under Josh Fraser rolls on for another week after the Blues stormed home to win their AFL wildcard clash with Melbourne in front of 91,733 fans at the MCG.
Jagga Smith and Harry Dean starred in their first career finals, while Jacob Weitering was a rock in defence against the Demons' undermanned forward line.
For Melbourne, 2026 might feel like an opportunity missed. For Carlton? The fairytale continues.
Here are three things we learned from the game:
The fairytale continues, and the Blues could keep rolling...
There's no great surprise about it anymore. Carlton gets behind? So what? Four goals down in a final? Big deal. Geelong next week? Bring them on.
That's the sort of wave of confidence the Blues are riding in this remarkable revival under new coach Josh Fraser. And why it seemed like Carlton's destiny to defeat Melbourne a fair way from the final siren even as scores remained close.
The Blues conceded the first four goals of this game, but it was 10-3 thereafter, and could have been plenty more as a tide of possession was reflected everywhere but the scoreboard.
The final term was one-way traffic, Carlton racking up 14 inside 50s to just five, winning the clearance count 10-4, up by 22 in contested ball and enjoying nearly 30 more uncontested possessions.
"I think their pressure was pretty good and they were getting us on the bounce a fair bit so we just had to get it back on our terms, which I think we did," said Ben Ainsworth after the game.
But the Blues' recruit, a big factor in this stunning season turnaround, and the leading goalkicker in this game with three, happily conceded it probably wouldn't have been the case in the first half of this year.
"We've done a lot of work in that space and no one was panicking. I think we just stuck to our process and obviously the game turned on its head." A fairytale? "Oh, yeah, absolutely. We were 1-8 and now we've won a final. It's pretty surreal. But we're not done yet."
Like their last fairytale finals effort in 2023, Carlton has found unlikely heroes everywhere. Perhaps it's even more remarkable this time given the pre-season loss of Charlie Curnow, Tom De Koning, and Jack Silvagni. The incoming likes of Ainsworth, Ollie Florent and Will Hayward couldn't elicit the same level of enthusiasm that their departing stars had surrounding them.
But that seems a long time ago now. And Geelong next week? Well, no one takes the Cats for granted, obviously. But Carlton has beaten the perennial powerhouse four times out of the last five now, all of them at the MCG. Who'd doubt now they're not highly capable of doing it again?
Did anyone want to win this game?!
You've got to take your chances, goes the old football maxim. Unless, that is, your opponent squanders even more of them than you do.
The second half of this game was an exercise in frustration for both sets of fans, missed targets, fumbles and most tellingly, shocking kicking for goal denying both teams the chance to press home a potentially winning advantage.
After its flying start, Melbourne was pegged back by the Blues, but again in the third quarter the Demons had a great chance to press home an advantage after it led by seven points.
Over a 15-minute period, the Demons had 10 of 12 inside 50s, but from that massive territorial advantage could yield only 0.2. And the chief offender was surprising.
The brilliant Kozzy Pickett just didn't have his kicking boots on. By the time he muffed his sixth shot at goal for the evening, Pickett had had 15 kicks but at an efficiency rate of an appalling 27%. Several of those were attempted snaps which seemed to float and fall short consistently.
Then it was the Blues' turn to miss the opportunity to put the game to bed. Harry McKay missed. Brodie Kemp missed. Twice. Matthew Cottrell hit the post, one of five Carlton posters for the evening.
The Blues saw out the final term with 2.6, and it was only with just over a minute remaining that Jagga Smith finally made victory a formality, Carlton's second half reaping 5.9, Melbourne an incredibly wasteful 2.7.
The Demons have six months to ponder that now. The Blues have a week to find their kicking boots.
Not all doom and gloom for the Demons
It's hard to smile after a finals loss, but really, you'd be pretty churlish if you were a Melbourne supporter bleating about their team after this defeat.
Who, perhaps even the Demons themselves, really expected this exciting team to go as far as it did under Steven King in his first season as a senior coach. Certainly not the many doomsayers who had Melbourne consigned to the bottom few given the changing of the guard via the loss of Christian Petracca, Clayton Oliver, and retirement of Steven May.
Their departure, however, gave a whole clutch of younger Demons a chance to shine, and they seized the day with relish, Melbourne consistently one of the best sides to watch all season as it played a fast, flowing attacking brand.
There were exciting emergences, like from Harvey Langford, surprise packets such as Koltyn Tholstrup and Harry Sharp, the rise of Daniel Turner as a quality defender and Tom Sparrow going to another level. Not to mention key forward Jacob Van Rooyen, whose presence in this game would have made a big difference.
No wonder King had nothing but praise for his troops post-game.
"Really, it's just the beginning of a journey we're going on," he said. "We're not going to be defined by tonight, more the opportunity and excitement of what's ahead for us.
"I feel like in 12 months what we've been able to do as a footy club is to reinstate a bit of respect both on and off field and play a brand of footy that our supporters should be proud of hopefully.
"I couldn't be more proud of them for what they've done, their body of work, and how they've re-engaged our supporter base, which is really loving watching them play footy again."
And not just Demon fans, Kingy. You guys have been a pleasure to watch.
You can read more of Rohan Connolly's work at FOOTYOLOGY.