CARLTON needed a spark.
When the Blues got their 2024 season underway against Brisbane on Friday night, they were under siege. The Lions were playing nearly perfect football, and the Blues appeared hapless in attempting to stop the rot.
The hallmarks of their game throughout the back end of the 2023 campaign, as Michael Voss is at pains to stress every single week, were all about contest and pressure.
For Carlton to get back in the contest from 46 points down, they had to lock in — and lock in they did.
And Lachie Fogarty was arguably the biggest unsung hero of the lot in a famous Navy Blue comeback.
Not that the 24-year-old would mind that. Just as he did last year, when he got back to playing consistent football every week, Fogarty was one of a key cog of role players that sparked the Blues into life.
An eight-goal turnaround isn’t ever going to be on the back of one person, but rather, the collective. That’s exactly what occurred on Friday night for a Carlton side which, crucially, never lost belief.
“It’s funny. We came in at half time, and speaking to George Hewett, I said I still felt really confident that we could get the job done and get the win up here,” Fogarty told ABC post-match.
“From last year, we’ve got a lot of belief now — it used to be hope, but now we certainly believe that we can get the job done. I’ll go back to that pressure and contest, our front-half game, those selfless acts that we got rewarded for in the end.
“That second half was how we want to play our footy. It was a lot of contest and pressure, which is what we pride ourselves on.”
As the likes of Patrick Cripps, Charlie Curnow and Harry McKay deservedly drew acclaim for their showings in getting Carlton back in the game, Fogarty quietly - typically - went about his business.
Come the end of the night, he was one of only two Blues (along with Orazio Fantasia) to register two direct goal assists, while he laid more tackles (nine) and forward-50 tackles (five) than anybody else on the ground.
His first-quarter goal came as a direct result of one of just seven tackles the Blues laid inside the first quarter — they ended up finishing with 59 for the night.
Joined by the likes of Matthew Cottrell, Jack Carroll, Jordan Boyd and Lewis Young as those role players on Friday night which the Blues' system relies so heavily on, Fogarty said it all came back to the messaging from above.
“It doesn’t matter who’s coming in to perform. Everyone has got a lot of clarity with their role and what’s required when they do come into the team. That clarity allows us to go out there and do our job.
“We’ve had a couple of years together now, and everyone has built that confidence. As a group, we’re a lot more mature, which allows us players to be leaders out on the field.
“I play as that high half-forward who can come in through the midfield and give a chop out. I’ve managed to get my body right, dealt with a few things a couple of years ago and worked out my routine and what’s required each week to get up and perform.
“That’s given me a lot of confidence going into the rest of the year.”
