Curnow’s fortunes reflected that of his side. Sent behind the ball in the second quarter when the Giants threatened to rip the game to shreds, Curnow was a colossus after half-time, proving too much for Jack Buckley, who is as honest as the day is long but without the tools to take down the game’s best forward when he is on.

McKay was also a handful, hauling in three contested grabs alongside his three goals, though youngster Leek Aleer did not look out of place.

“Those two, they love playing with each other and they got a lot of looks tonight and were able to capitalise on different times,” Voss said. “We obviously need them, [they’re] important players to our team.”

Despite his marking prowess, De Koning has shown he is a ruckman first and a forward second, but for the first half he was the Blues’ most dangerous in attack.

His three-goal effort in arguably the best of his 66 games to date, provided more grist to the mill to the Carlton ruck discussion. So too did Marc Pittonet’s wholehearted game.

The theory is the two specialist rucks takes away from the Blues’ defensive game. The debate is still a live one.

Winning clearances by 16 and contested possessions by 30 is not a sustainable style at a time when turnover is king. Their pressure was down in the first half, when the Giants, to the sighs and groans of the Blues faithful, were able to pick apart their defensive zone with alarming ease.

“They were just going end to end,” Voss said. “There were lots of opportunities to be able to attack. So we took our moments but with incomplete plays it probably put a bit of pressure on us to be able to defend a bit faster.”

After a marked discrepancy in the two sides’ pressure ratings in the first half in favour of the Giants, the Blues’ lifted while their opponents could not maintain the rage around the ball, leaving the game to be decided by Carlton’s centre square domination.

Voss is keeping an open mind on his preferred ruck set-up, though the discussion is somewhat redundant for now due to the Blues’ lengthy injury list, particularly to their pressure and medium-sized forwards.

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“Form says a lot as well,” Voss said. “We’ve got a style of play that we want to play and clearly we had the dominance around the ball today, certainly from centre square bounce we did. Their games were certainly impactful today.”

Patrick Cripps and Sam Walsh put on the Batman and Robin show. The dynamic midfield duo were unstoppable with 39 and 35 possessions respectively, while George Hewett was also strong as the Blues on-ball brigade overwhelmed the Giants.

The Blues’ midfield will only get stronger when Adam Cerra returns from a hamstring strain in the next week or two.

Voss has a “next man up” philosophy to injuries, but his stocks are thinning. Already without nine of their best 23 players, the Blues could be without a 10th next week for the clash against Geelong with Zac Williams the latest to be struck down.

The running backman was subbed out at half-time after a knock to his Achilles in the second quarter, which Voss said was precautionary.

Star defender Jacob Weitering is also under a cloud after corking his left thigh just before the long break. Though he played out the game with the injury strapped, he was noticeably proppy and will need to recover well to take his place against the Cats on Saturday.

It continues a wretched recent run for the Blues, who in the last 10 days have lost Cerra, Mitch McGovern and Adam Saad to hamstring strains.

Greene and Hogan are both in danger of missing the Giants’ game with Brisbane on Anzac Day.

In an incident similar to that which resulted in Essendon’s Peter Wright rubbed out for four games, Greene braced for contact late and made contact to Jordan Boyd’s head in a marking contest.

Boyd was able to take his kick and play out the match but a grading of medium impact, careless and high would result in a one-game suspension. Hogan will come under scrutiny after appearing to make contact to Lewis Young’s face in a push and shove.

“There won’t be anything in that,” Kingsley said of Greene. “He’s allowed to contest the ball, isn’t he? He’s allowed to launch for the ball? And if you’re running and launching at the ball, you’ve got eyes for the ball, you’re trying to take a chest mark and you get knocked, free kick against? It’s hard being Toby.”

The Giants missed their injured players more than the Blues. It is doubtful Carlton’s triple threats could have exerted the same influence if Sam Taylor had been fit, while the Giants’ midfield lacked bite with Stephen Coniglio injured, earning a damning assessment from Kingsley.

“Centre bounce, clearly, we were obliterated inside,” Kingsley said. “We break even in there, we give ourselves a chance, I think. But we didn’t get that one done.

“I think our midfield is really strong, they just had an off night, beaten by a hungrier, better midfield tonight.”

Magpie ‘Swiss Army Knife’ pulls them back from the brink

Danny Russell

A deep breath, extra time-off and an unlikely hero have not only levelled out Collingwood’s flailing season, but have the born-again Magpies hurtling towards an in-form Essendon for a mouth-watering Anzac Day clash.

The Magpies were staring down the barrel of an ignominious defeat at the hands of a rampant Port Adelaide when they trailed by 31 points during the first quarter at the MCG on Saturday, their season already in deficit at 2-3.

Then, as some began penning an obituary for their title defence and perhaps the careers of some their veteran players, up bobbed a rarely celebrated star on the game’s biggest stage.

It was Will Hoskin-Elliott who rose to the occasion, literally, plucking a hanger in the Collingwood goal square when the Magpies needed a spark. He then kicked the goal that ignited his teammates and the Collingwood crowd.

From that moment forward, the pressure metre flicked definitively back in the Magpies’ favour, and they turned a five goal deficit into a 42-point victory.

“We allowed them to get their game going, and I thought their pressure was enormous,” Collingwood coach Craig McRae said of Port Adelaide’s six-goal-to-three opening term.

“I was pleased that we held our nerve, got a couple of goals late in that first quarter and that just gave us a little bit of a spark.”

On the back of Hoskin-Elliott’s soaring heroics and continued link-man role, Collingwood were able to shut down Port’s full-ground movement and start taking territory of their own.

Dynamic mids Jordan De Goey and Nick Daicos began putting Powers’ celebrated trio - Connor Rozee, Zak Butters and Jason Horne-Francis - to the sword, winning contested possessions and providing their mobile forwards such as Patrick Lipinski (four goals) with an abundance of supply.

“I think our forwards were starved of opportunity a bit early, but they looked dangerous,” McCrae said.

“I think we scored nearly every second time we went inside 50 early, so we just needed to get a bit more volume, and our mids got busy.

“We’ve got a pretty simple formula, really - let’s just get the ball going and then turn up and then have fun doing it. And there was some energy built through that.

“I think we looked way more connected today than what we have in previous weeks.”

McRae was quick to praise the efforts of role players Lipinski and Hoskin-Elliott, who is out of contract this year and continues to play for his career.

“I call Will the Swiss Army Knife because he can play everywhere,” McCrae said.

“He’s done a lot of jobs for us over a long period of time, and we wanted him to go forward today and play a bit taller and it’s pleasing because he takes his marks. He’s a brilliant mark.

“And then for Patty to kick those four goals, you know, he runs enormous patterns for us, and so I am really pleased for both those players.”

McCrae said the Magpies placed a focus on “taking a deep breath and having a bit more time off than we normally do” during last week’s bye to prepare for Port Adelaide and the five-day break leading into Anzac Day.

He said the players arrived at training last Monday with a bounce in their step after having the chance to refresh “body and mind”.

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“I heard Ross Lyon talk about it post game - this game is so, so difficult. Every week is such a challenge,” McCrae said.

“He spoke about his back-to-back five-day breaks, and I’m not sure much gets mentioned around those things, but there is a cost to that - training and then coming in a bit under done versus the opposition, potentially, energy wise.”

McCrae said he wanted to enjoy Saturday’s win, but was mindful of the looming Anzac Day.

On top of their win, the Magpies also celebrated veteran Steele Sidebottom who played his 314th match - and 200th at the MCG - moving into second on the club’s games list behind Scott Pendlebury’s 384. Jack Crisp played his 220th consecutive game.