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

0:00Wednesday 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

1:00Richmond'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

2:02other 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.