“He might be in trouble – I think I got in trouble for that,” Greene told Fox Footy post-match of the incident.

But coach Michael Voss will be pleased with the returns from injury of star on-ballers Sam Walsh and Adam Cerra, who were among their side’s best players as they prepare to host Sydney in a fortnight’s time, as well as the club’s stunning mid-season recovery.

“It’s a strange feeling, this one, to lose and still win [make finals],” Voss said.

“We’ll certainly reflect how this game played out – we can’t ignore the evidence that’s there, so we’ll go to work on that. But certainly to come into the game and know we had a position locked away, and we had a home final, is a significant achievement.

“From where we were to where we are [is pleasing], and we’ve got a finals series that we’re about to get stuck into. The qualification period is done, [it] asked lots of questions of us, and we found our way through that, and we are able to, in a couple of weeks, play a home final, so I just can’t wait.”

Voss stopped short of declaring Carlton could win the premiership, but said the football they played in the past two months was “good enough to win finals”.

“What we’re trying to build is a system that will stand up in big moments, and in big finals,” he said.

“We feel like we’ve made massive inroads into that particular part of our game. Funny enough, some of that probably let us down today – the defence, and our ability to defend the turnover was pretty poor today, and it was poor last week as well.

“We dodged one last week [against Gold Coast], and we didn’t dodge one today, but we’ve got the feedback we need to make sure we correct it and put it back into place when we come to our first final.”

Marvel Stadium was a sea of Blue, with the vast majority of the 44,354 fans that crammed in desperate for a Carlton win, including some Bulldogs stragglers. The GWS cheer squad filled a few rows with orange behind the goals but were overwhelmed.

None of that mattered, with the Giants rallying from an early 14-point deficit to swing the match for good with a five-goal-to-two third term, including the last four, that saw them take a 26-point lead to the final break.

The GWS midfielders – led by Tom Green, 200-gamer Stephen Coniglio and Josh Kelly – began to feast at stoppages, helped by breakout ruckman Kieren Briggs’ latest excellent performance, while the always-classy Lachie Whitfield was dynamic on his wing.

Greene kicked four goals to cap what will be another All-Australian campaign, and the recently re-signed Jake Riccardi bobbed up with three second-half goals of his own.

Coleman Charlie

It took Carlton superstar Charlie Curnow barely 15 minutes to secure his second straight Coleman Medal as the AFL’s leading goalkicker.

Technically, Curnow already had four minutes earlier, when he marked, played on and snapped truly – drawing level with Crows veteran Taylor Walker, whose nine-goal binge on Saturday night made things interesting.

The 26-year-old would have privately fist-pumped when news came through that All-Australian Giant Sam Taylor (hamstring) was ruled out, which left Jack Buckley to pick up the slack.

Curnow terrorised Buckley early, with his second goal of the night – to win the Coleman with his 77th of the season – following an athletic ‘hanger’ that sent Blues fans into raptures. They were even louder when his set shot sailed through from about 50 metres.

His Carlton teammates mobbed him as he celebrated with arms outstretched before flexing towards the crowd, then urging them to make even more noise.

Curnow also out-wrestled Buckley to take a brilliant mark shortly after, but his snap was smothered. He finished with three goals, with Buckley ultimately holding his own.

GWS 3.2 8.4 13.7 16.9 (105)
CARLTON 4.3 7.5 9.5 11.7 (73)

GOALS
GWS: Greene 4, Riccardi 3, Coniglio 2, Cumming, Daniels, Lloyd, Hogan, Ward, Keeffe, Brown.
Carlton: Curnow 3, Owies 2, Cottrell, Martin, Hewett, De Koning, Fisher, Durdin.
BEST
GWS: Green, Whitfield, Coniglio, Greene, Briggs, Himmelberg, Kelly.
Carlton: Walsh, Weitering, Dow, Cerra, C. Curnow, Newman.
INJURIES
Carlton: Acres (collarbone).
CROWD
44,354 at Marvel Stadium.

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