Carlton in power over Port

CARLTON captain Marc Murphy snared three goals in an 18-point win over a disappointing Port Adelaide at Etihad Stadium.

The Power won its first five games under Ken Hinkley, but showed little sign of that form against the Blues as it suffered its third straight defeat.

Port’s kicking was terrible, its turnovers frequently gifting Carlton easy goals to help the Blues win 16.13 (109) to 14.7 (91) and to climb to a 4-4 record.

Murphy, who spent much of his 150th game in attack, still picked up 23 disposals, while Jeff Garlett kicked four goals.

Lachie Henderson had a strong game in defence and Heath Scotland celebrated his 250th AFL game with two goals.

The loss was not Port’s only concern, with midfielder Hamish Hartlett set to attract match review panel attention after losing his cool badly for a few seconds as the game slipped away from the Power during the third term.

After having a kick smothered, an angry Hartlett remonstrated with teammates before he delivered a right arm jab to Murphy’s stomach, then followed up with a left arm to the head as the Carlton skipper crouched over in pain.

Earlier, the Blues kicked 3.3 to nothing in the first 13 minutes of the match, including a brilliant snap from Murphy that he rolled through from tight against the boundary.

Carlton was up by 15 points at quarter-time and had stretched that to 24 clear by 10 minutes into the second after Port’s Cameron Shea picked out Carlton’s Kade Simpson with a kick from defence, allowing Simpson to set up Jeff Garlett for an easy and welldeserved goal.

The Blues’ own shoddy kicking kept Port in the contest, the home side managing just 3.6 for the second quarter, including two bad set shot misses by Matthew Kreuzer, while the Power scored 4.1 to be within 14 points at the main break.

But Carlton found its range in the third term, with Scotland goaling from two long-range set shots and Garlett converting two snaps to build the lead to 33 points by the last change.