Carlton travel to Sydney in Round 10 for a Friday night blockbuster against the Swans for Marn Grook at the SCG in Sir Doug Nicholls Round.
Fresh off a 15-point win against St Kilda, the Blues are sitting in 10th place on the ladder having won four of their last five matches. George Hewett and Patrick Cripps both collected 26 disposals in Round 9 against the Saints, while Charlie Curnow and Harry McKay booted three goals apiece.
The Swans, however, tripped up against Essendon in a frustrating contest for Sydney fans in their Round 9 match. Despite dominating for much of the game the Swans failed to convert on the scoreboard, eventually going down by 8 points. Matt Roberts continues his breakout season with 26 disposals while Chad Warner was consistent with 25 touches of his own.
The Swans got the better of the Blues in Marn Grook at the SCG last season, pulling away late in the match to win by a healthy margin of 52 points. Chad Warner, Errol Gulden and Isaac Heeney were the best for the Swans in that fixture, while Nic Newman had 32 disposals in the midfield and Curnow booted two majors.
The Swans have made two changes for the match with Joel Amartey and Pete Ladhams coming in for Hayden McLean and Ben Paton who have been omitted, while Carlton flew to Sydney without ruckman Tom de Koning who will miss the match with a throat issue.
Speaking in Sydney, Blues coach Michael Voss said he welcomes the challenge of taking on the Swans.
"I think our experience has always been that we’ve got their very best and certainly at the SCG, we haven’t had a great recent record here, so we have to amend that,” said Voss.
"We also recognise that we don’t play the venue, we have an opposition that is a pretty good opposition, they’ve been a very good team over a long period of time, they have plenty of weapons that if they have their own way, it’ll be a tough game.
"We’re not expecting anything except their best and having played against them in some really good games, we’ve got a really clear picture on what that looks like.
"They’ve always built their games off pressure out first and we know the speed they can put on the ball if given the opportunity.
"They give us a bit to think about, but we’d like to think we’re clear enough on what we need to be able to get down and we still have to make sure we get enough out of us to give ourselves the best chance,” said Voss.
