Carlton records courageous win as McGovern is rushed to hospital after brutal hit

Thank you for spending your evening with us once again folks, what a great win for Carlton!

Dean Bilton will kick things off tomorrow around midday before the first match, before myself and Marnie Vinall join you for the night session.

Catch you then!

Here’s what Michael Voss had to say about Carlton’s win.

“It’s been a long time since we had a win like that,” he tells reporters.

“It didn’t have a lot of brilliance in it. It had some brilliant moments, but it largely took a grind and getting in the trenches and fighting our way out of it.

“When it was needed, we had our group stand up.”

Voss with a whole not to offer in terms of updates on the players injured tonight.

“Cowan will have his hamstring assessed. He was a bit tight and we just didn’t want to send him back out there,” he says.

 “‘Gov’, we’ll wait for the assessment in the chest area. I’ll call it the chest area because I couldn’t give it a medical terminology right now.

“Obviously Blake had the shoulder that he was managing, and Nick got a kick to the back to his neck that he had to get assessed.

“There were a couple of moving pieces there for a while. We were sort of inventing new defenders for a period of time.”

Carlton coach Michael Voss is speaking to reporters now.

We’ll have an update on Mitch McGovern’s condition shortly.

Here’s what Ross Lyon said about Jack Higgins, who was subbed off for the final quarter due to “illness”.

“He had a tough week. He almost didn’t play,” he said.

“He had a scan on his calf, didn’t train, then he was alright. Then he was really quite unwell, so we’ll put our arms around him and try and get him up for Perth.”

St Kilda coach Ross Lyon has begun his press conference.

We’ll keep you posted with the key lines. Stay tuned!

Ross looks like a very tired man, this might be past his bedtime.

Here’s a look at some of the final numbers between Carlton and St Kilda.

• Disposals: Carlton 343-341
• Inside 50s: Tied 46-46
• Clearances: Carlton 43-33
• Contested Possessions: Carlton 125-108
• Marks: St Kilda 108-107
• Tackles: St Kilda 74-69

Here are your top three-ranked players from tonight’s match.

1. 1.Harry McKay (CARL): 19 disposals, 10 marks, four clearances, three goals
2. 2.Jack Sinclair (STK): 26 disposals, six score involvements, five inside 50s, one goal
3. 3.Jack Steele (STK): 20 disposals, nine tackles, seven score involvements, four clearances

It was the ruck match-up that was talked about all week, and boy did it deliver!

Tom De Koning finishes with 21 disposals, 36 hitouts and seven clearances.

Rowan Marshall not too far behind him with 19 disposals, 33 hitouts and four clearances.

If De Koning does choose to join the Saints, Marshall is going to be an excellent pick-up for another club, maybe even the Blues!

Professional stuff from the Blues in the last 10 minutes as they hold off the Saints to secure a HUGE four points at the MCG!

Carlton needed to be courageous tonight, as they weathered the storm of multiple injuries, but they hold on in the end.

Michael Voss will be thrilled at the way they managed the back end of that quarter, particularly after the Phillipou goal trimmed the margin to within a goal.

That’s four wins in five games for the Blues after the 0-4 start, and the finals hopes and well and truly alive once again.

McKay was arguably Carlton’s best player tonight and combined for six goals with his forward tag team partner Charlie Curnow.

Tom De Koning with a monster match (and maybe audition) as he finishes with 21 disposals, 36 hitouts and seven clearances.

Jack Higgins’ illness was huge in the end. The Saints could have used his composure in the forward line.

St Kilda’s yin yang season continues. So impressive and fluent a week ago, and they’re pegged back this week.

The game was there to be won for the Saints, but they refused to be daring enough with their ball movement in the final quarter and eventually ran out of time.

Harry McKay seals the win for Carlton with a clutch set shot!

What a finish from the Blues big man, who has been excellent tonight.

McKay was tucked into the pocket but goes back and calmly slots it and he’s mobbed by his teammates.

McKay with 19 disposals, 10 marks, four clearances and three goals tonight.

Carlton a minute away from a famous victory here.

A big miss from Corey Durdin on the run, he should’ve kicked that one.

Carlton’s lead is nine points with two minutes left.

Some very good game management happening here from the Blues.

Elijah Hollands got a mark on the wing and could’ve played on quickly, but chose to wait and take some time off the clock.

Blues inching closer to a big win here. There’s 2.33 left on the clock and there’s a boundary throw-in on the wing 70m out from the Blues goal.

The Saints need to be a little bit more aggressive with their ball movement here, they’re running out of time.

Carlton holding on for dear life. The ball is locked in St Kilda’s forward line at the moment.

St Kilda’s ball movement has been messy all night, can they string a few good plays together to overturn this deficit?

There’s six minutes left and they need two goals, which sounds doable, but scoring has not come easily tonight for either side.

The margin is eight points after a big miss from Max Hall on the run. He should’ve kicked that one.

COOPER LORD, WHAT A KICK!

That is huge from Carlton’s medi-sub!

Lord takes an uncontested mark 45m out from goal after a lovely short kick from Harry McKay.

Lord wheels around and pounds it from 50 to get the Blues a much-needed goal.

Margin back to nine points. God that was a terrific kick.

Mattaes Phillipou kicks his second goal of the night after winning a free kick for holding the ball up forward!

It was another messy entry from the Saints, but more importantly, it was a groundball, and Will White found himself over it, and he was trapped by Phillipou.

The Blues need to chance their arm a little. They’ve played far too defensively in this quarter, almost looking like they’re trying to run down the clock.

Nervy, nervy football from Carlton heading into the final 10 minutes of this contest.

Jack Silvagni looks completely revitalised as a footballer playing in defence this season.

Who would’ve thought a Silvagni in defence for Carlton would work eh?

Silvagni has completely blanketed Mitch Owens in St Kilda’s forward line so far tonight. He’s got 16 disposals and 10 marks.

There’s still time for Mitchito to make an impact though.

Jack Sinclair trims the margin to eight points with a terrific goal!

There’s a ball up in St Kilda’s forward 50 and Sinclair weaves his way through the contest completely unmarked, as he sharks Marshall’s tap perfectly and runs into goal.

That’s special stuff, that is not easy to do. Righto, game on here.

A big let-off for the Saints as Elijah Hollands misses a very gettable set shot from 40m out on a slight angle.

Carlton did so well to move that ball from defence to attack, but unfortunately Hollands couldn’t finish.

The first goal will be crucial in this final quarter. There’s a big difference between a 20-point lead and one in single digits.

Some bad news on the injury front for St Kilda with leading goalscorer Jack Higgins subbed out.

It’s been deemed as an illness for Higgins, who will be replaced by Lance Collard.

We’ll have to get more on that from Ross Lyon after the game.

Higgins is currently sitting on the Saints bench looking very, very sad.