Momentum is a dangerous thing in sport. It can’t be acquired with any real success; it simply decides to arrive, announced only by the inexplicable way it shifts the air around a team. And something has certainly shifted down at Princes Park.
If there had been any lingering doubts, Carlton’s semi-final demolition of Hawthorn well and truly dispelled them. From the first whistle, the Blues burst forth with a single-minded fervour usually reserved for teams far more experienced. There was no grace period for their opponents; no easing into it. There was only their unrelenting onslaught, picking up right where they left off the previous week, and they did it brimming with a joy contagious to fans and neutral onlookers alike.
