Live: Greene on fire in special milestone game as Blues and Giants face off

Toby is determined to put game number 250 up on the podium.

Carlton leads the way in terms of the inside 50 count, and it felt like the Blues owned a lot of the territory in that second quarter. But missed chances opened the door for the Giants at the other end, and GWS made them pay.

The Blues have been in front at half-time in nine out of their first 10 games so far this season, so this is a bit of a new experience for them. Still plenty to play out in this one.

The Blues fans aren’t happy with the whistle in this second quarter, but there was little to complain about with that one. The Giants took the ball from deep defence to deep attack far too easily after Greene was taken high at the other end.

Riccardi was the man in space on the end of it and finished the play off nicely with his set shot. Important goal late in the half.

And that one is the best of the lot. The Carlton defence went to sleep as Hogan’s shot sailed wide but also short, allowing Brown to mark almost uncontested deep in the pocket.

His little left-footed snap from just inside the boundary line was delightful. Giants take the lead back.

Leek Aleer threw himself back bravely at the footy but when he didn’t hang on to the intercept mark deep in defence, the Blues’ smalls could go to work.

Fogarty got the first hand, dished it off to White who snapped from directly in front. All tied up again.

Hogan just moved Tom De Koning out of the way like he was nothing to clunk that contested mark. Too big, too strong.

Last thing the Blues need is Hogan getting involved. That’s his first of the afternoon.

Electric start to the day’s footy at Docklands, with five goals apiece in the first quarter leading to a one-point GWS lead.

Toby Greene has been absolutely everywhere in his 250th game, clearly the best afield so far.

Everything else though has been pretty much dead even. Tough to separate on the stat sheet, tough to separate on the scoreboard.

Ten disposals and two goals for Toby Greene in the first quarter of his 250th game. Outrageous start.

Greene had a free run at that long ball inside 50 as the Blues defence got muddled up. Easy mark, relatively simple left-footed snap.

Curnow was clipped high by Taylor in the marking contest and made no mistake with his resulting set shot.

Nine goals in the first quarter and we’ve still got three minutes to play.

The little grubber pass from Greene through a sea of bodies inside 50 was incredible. The vision and the craft from Greene opened the play up for the Giants, and the slick handball from Himmelberg to Riccardi was just as quick.

Goals galore in the opening stages here.

Straight out of the middle, straight into the waiting arms of Fogarty in a ridiculous amount of space inside 50.

The stoppage work from Carlton there was very nice, lovely overlap of handball to go straight out the front of the contest.

One central kick from Carlton is cut off and the Giants split them open the other way, finding Brown on the lead deep in the pocket.

Still had some work to do with the finish though, but Brown’s snap was lovely.

Jacob Weitering looked like he was going to gobble up the easiest intercept mark of his life, but inexplicably ran under the ball and dropped it.

Easy crumb and goal for Brown. Some friendly defending at both ends.

A bit of a freebie for the Blues there, a sloppy free kick conceded off the ball at a forward 50 stoppage. Hollands got held above the shoulders and helped himself to an easy goal.

Decent start from the Blues.

Muted celebrations because nobody realised he had actually kicked it. Greene’s scrappy snap looked to have been stopped on the line and eventually rushed through, but a review showed it had crossed the line initially by a few inches.

Greene has been very busy to start this one, desperate to make his mark in game 250.

The Giants are sending tagger Toby Bedford to Cripps today, but that is a significant physical mismatch. Cripps has already begun taking Bedford deep forward, and when the quick kick came in the much bigger man climbed all over Bedford to mark.

If that match-up continues, Cripps could be spending a fair bit of time up forward as that is a serious advantage for the skipper.

And he picked the perfect moment to do it, just as the whole crowd was engaged in a round of applause for Robert Walls. Curnow found his own way to remember a Blues’ legend, and that’s by slotting the opening goal on the run from outside 50.

Open start to this game, it’s going end to end.

So here we go, Saturday footy up and running. Important game this for two sides looking to begin their moves back up into the top eight.

Carlton and GWS players stood united, side by side in a large ring, for the Welcome to Country and pre-game ceremony as we continue to recognise Sir Doug Nicholls Round. Quite the sight before these two teams go at it.

Just about ready for the bounce here at Docklands.