2026 AFL Season Wildcard Final 1: Melbourne v Carlton

This is the match report for the match played on 29 August 2026 between Melbourne and Carlton in the first wildcard final of the 2026 season of the Australian Football League. Melbourne hosted Carlton at the MCG. Max Gawn captained the hosts with Jack Viney as vice-captain. Patrick Cripps captained the visitors. The hosts were coached by Steven King and the visitors were coached by Josh Fraser.

Melbourne (7.13.55) were defeated by Carlton (10.14.74).

Match Details

Season: 2026 AFL Season
Round: First Wildcard Final
Teams: Melbourne v Carlton
Date: Saturday 29 August 2026
Time: 7:35 PM
Venue: MCG
Attendance: 91,733

Match Results

Outcome: Melbourne def. by Carlton
Score: 7.13.55 - 10.14.74

Quarter Breakdown

	Q1			Q2			Q3			Q4			Final
Melbourne	4	.	3	5	.	6	7	.	10	7	.	13	7	.	13	(55)
Carlton	1	.	3	5	.	5	8	.	8	10	.	14	10	.	14	(74)
Margin	MELB by 18			MELB by 1			CARL by 4			CARL by 19			CARL by 19
Duration	29:20			28:20			30:21			27:24			1:55:25

Score Worm

This chart is oriented such that the margin is positive when the hosts (Melbourne) are in the lead and is negative when the visitors (Carlton) are in the lead.

Honour Roll

Melbourne

Captain: Max Gawn
Vice-Captain: Jack Viney
Coach: Steven King

Carlton

Captain: Patrick Cripps
Coach: Josh Fraser (caretaker)

AFLCA Gary Ayres Votes

Player	Team	#	Votes	5	4	3	2	1

Player Statistics

Melbourne

#	Player	Pos.	ToG%	GL	BH	DI	KI	HB	MK	HO	TA	CL	CR	FF	FA	RF	IF
17	Bowey, Jake	BPL	82%	0	1	26	20	6	4	0	2	1	3	3	1	8	3
37	Chandler, Kade	FPR	82%	0	1	16	10	6	1	0	2	6	2	2	1	0	4
47	Fitzgerald, Joel	INT	59%	0	0	15	5	10	0	0	4	4	2	1	0	1	2
31	Fritsch, Bayley	FF	85%	1	0	12	7	5	2	0	4	0	3	0	1	0	4
11	Gawn, Max (c)	RU	92%	1	0	18	12	6	3	31	0	6	0	3	0	2	3
14	Jiath, Changkuoth	BPR	86%	0	0	16	8	8	4	0	2	0	1	0	0	4	1
15	Langdon, Ed	C	92%	0	0	18	7	11	0	0	1	0	1	0	1	1	3
4	Langford, Harvey	CHF	78%	1	0	21	9	12	6	0	3	3	1	1	0	2	2
16	Laurie, Bailey	INT	60%	1	1	5	4	1	0	0	2	0	4	0	3	0	0
5	Lindsay, Xavier	INT	69%	0	0	16	9	7	4	0	3	1	2	0	1	4	2
25	McDonald, Tom	HBFL	69%	1	0	3	2	1	1	0	2	0	2	0	2	0	1
18	Melksham, Jake	INT	77%	0	3	6	5	1	4	0	1	0	1	0	1	0	2
35	Petty, Harry	CHB	87%	1	0	6	3	3	3	2	2	0	2	0	2	0	2
36	Pickett, Kysaiah	FPL	88%	0	3	19	18	1	2	0	5	4	4	0	1	0	4
24	Rivers, Trent	WR	74%	0	0	17	14	3	4	0	2	0	1	0	1	7	1
30	Sharp, Harry	HFFR	74%	1	0	10	5	5	2	0	1	1	3	1	2	0	2
32	Sparrow, Tom	RO	79%	0	0	10	7	3	1	0	9	2	3	0	1	2	2
9	Steele, Jack	RR	74%	0	1	23	8	15	4	0	7	1	1	0	1	1	1
19	Taylor, Xavier	HBFR	100%	0	0	6	2	4	2	0	0	0	2	0	2	1	0
12	Tholstrup, Koltyn	HFFL	83%	0	0	15	7	8	5	0	1	1	3	0	2	1	2
10	Turner, Daniel	FB	97%	0	0	15	9	6	5	0	1	0	2	1	1	3	1
7	Viney, Jack (vc)	INT	49%	0	0	13	6	7	2	0	4	2	2	1	0	0	0
6	Windsor, Caleb	WL	65%	0	0	13	5	8	2	0	1	0	4	0	1	0	3
Rushed					3
Total (23 players)				7	13	319	182	137	61	33	59	32	49	13	25	37	45

Carlton

#	Player	Pos.	ToG%	GL	BH	DI	KI	HB	MK	HO	TA	CL	CR	FF	FA	RF	IF
13	Acres, Blake	WL	73%	0	3	17	12	5	6	0	2	0	3	0	1	3	0
12	Ainsworth, Ben	HFFL	85%	3	1	21	14	7	8	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	4
39	Byrne, Talor	FPR	59%	0	0	8	3	5	3	0	1	0	2	2	0	0	0
5	Cerra, Adam	WR	85%	0	0	26	16	10	8	0	3	1	1	1	0	7	1
46	Cottrell, Matt	INT	72%	0	4	20	15	5	3	0	1	1	1	1	0	1	3
2	Cowan, Lachie	BPL	85%	0	0	16	12	4	6	0	3	0	1	1	0	1	1
9	Cripps, Patrick (c)	C	79%	1	0	22	8	14	5	0	3	3	4	1	3	0	3
35	Dean, Harry	CHB	85%	0	0	20	11	9	7	0	0	0	2	3	0	2	0
44	Evans, Francis	INT	73%	0	1	11	5	6	1	0	8	1	1	3	0	0	5
14	Florent, Oliver	HBFL	79%	0	0	24	17	7	7	0	2	0	8	0	3	8	4
26	Haynes, Nick	HBFR	76%	0	0	19	10	9	11	0	2	0	0	1	0	3	2
29	Hewett, George	INT	72%	0	0	20	9	11	2	0	2	1	1	0	1	1	1
4	Hollands, Oliver	BPR	82%	1	0	18	15	3	6	0	4	0	3	2	0	1	7
17	Kemp, Brodie	HFFR	86%	1	2	14	11	3	10	0	1	0	3	0	0	0	2
36	Lord, Cooper	FPL	84%	0	0	17	8	9	3	0	2	2	0	0	0	0	2
11	McGovern, Mitch	CHF	69%	0	0	10	5	5	4	0	3	0	3	2	0	0	3
10	McKay, Harry	FF	94%	2	1	12	8	4	4	0	1	0	1	2	1	1	1
27	Pittonet, Marc	RU	78%	0	1	13	5	8	1	17	2	2	2	0	2	1	1
7	Smith, Jagga	RO	73%	2	1	29	12	17	2	0	2	10	2	1	0	1	1
18	Walsh, Sam	RR	80%	0	0	39	17	22	6	0	3	7	5	3	1	2	5
23	Weitering, Jacob	FB	90%	0	0	18	12	6	12	0	2	0	1	1	0	1	1
15	Wilson, Billy	INT	79%	0	0	14	10	4	0	0	2	0	2	0	1	4	0
33	Young, Lewis	INT	59%	0	0	9	4	5	2	3	1	0	1	0	0	1	1
Rushed					0
Total (23 players)				10	14	417	239	178	117	20	50	29	47	25	13	38	48

Legend

ToG%: Time-on-Ground Percentage, GL: Goals, BH: Behinds, DI: Disposals, KI: Kicks, HB: Handballs, MK: Marks, HO: Hitouts, TA: Tackles, CL: Clearances, CR: Clangers, FF: Free Kicks For, FA: Free Kicks Against, RF: Rebounds Inside 50, IF: Inside 50s

Player Line-Up

Melbourne							Coach: Steven King
BACK							FOLLOWER		INTERCHANGE
	2	L. Cowan	23	J. Weitering	4	O. Hollands	11	M. Gawn (c)	47	J. Fitzgerald
	37	K. Chandler	31	B. Fritsch	36	K. Pickett	9	J. Steele	16	B. Laurie
FORWARD							32	T. Sparrow	5	X. Lindsay
HALF-BACK									18	J. Melksham
	14	O. Florent	35	H. Dean	26	N. Haynes			7	J. Viney (vc)
	30	H. Sharp	4	H. Langford	12	K. Tholstrup
HALF-FORWARD
CENTRE
	13	B. Acres	9	P. Cripps (c)	5	A. Cerra
	24	T. Rivers	15	E. Langdon	6	C. Windsor	FOLLOWER		INTERCHANGE
CENTRE							27	M. Pittonet	46	M. Cottrell
HALF-FORWARD							18	S. Walsh	44	F. Evans
	12	B. Ainsworth	11	M. McGovern	17	B. Kemp	7	J. Smith	29	G. Hewett
	19	X. Taylor	35	H. Petty	25	T. McDonald			15	B. Wilson
HALF-BACK									33	L. Young
FORWARD
	36	C. Lord	10	H. McKay	39	T. Byrne
	14	C. Jiath	10	D. Turner	17	J. Bowey
BACK
Carlton							Coach: Josh Fraser

Score Timeline

Quarter	Team	Scoring Event	Score			Time
Q1	MELB	Harry Sharp goal	1.0.6	-	0.0.0	04:09
	CARL	Blake Acres behind	1.0.6	-	0.1.1	05:14
	CARL	Marc Pittonet behind	1.0.6	-	0.2.2	07:39
	MELB	Harvey Langford goal	2.0.12	-	0.2.2	08:07
	MELB	Bailey Laurie goal	3.0.18	-	0.2.2	12:28
	CARL	Matt Cottrell behind	3.0.18	-	0.3.3	16:53
	MELB	Max Gawn goal	4.0.24	-	0.3.3	22:03
	CARL	Harry McKay goal	4.0.24	-	1.3.9	24:03
	MELB	Kysaiah Pickett behind	4.1.25	-	1.3.9	26:35
	MELB	Jake Melksham behind	4.2.26	-	1.3.9	27:43
	MELB	Jack Steele behind	4.3.27	-	1.3.9	28:19
Q2	CARL	Ben Ainsworth goal	4.3.27	-	2.3.15	03:02
	MELB	Kysaiah Pickett behind	4.4.28	-	2.3.15	04:50
	CARL	Patrick Cripps goal	4.4.28	-	3.3.21	09:37
	MELB	Kade Chandler behind	4.5.29	-	3.3.21	13:06
	MELB	Jake Melksham behind	4.6.30	-	3.3.21	16:36
	CARL	Ben Ainsworth behind	4.6.30	-	3.4.22	18:11
	CARL	Oliver Hollands goal	4.6.30	-	4.4.28	22:57
	CARL	Matt Cottrell behind	4.6.30	-	4.5.29	24:38
	CARL	Brodie Kemp goal	4.6.30	-	5.5.35	26:43
	MELB	Tom McDonald goal	5.6.36	-	5.5.35	28:17
Q3	MELB	Harry Petty goal	6.6.42	-	5.5.35	02:03
	CARL	Harry McKay goal	6.6.42	-	6.5.41	03:16
	MELB	Bayley Fritsch goal	7.6.48	-	6.5.41	04:50
	MELB	Bailey Laurie behind	7.7.49	-	6.5.41	06:48
	CARL	Blake Acres behind	7.7.49	-	6.6.42	08:23
	CARL	Francis Evans behind	7.7.49	-	6.7.43	11:01
	MELB	Rushed behind	7.8.50	-	6.7.43	14:02
	CARL	Ben Ainsworth goal	7.8.50	-	7.7.49	17:01
	CARL	Matt Cottrell behind	7.8.50	-	7.8.50	21:11
	MELB	Jake Bowey behind	7.9.51	-	7.8.50	23:14
	MELB	Rushed behind	7.10.52	-	7.8.50	26:24
	CARL	Ben Ainsworth goal	7.10.52	-	8.8.56	28:36
Q4	MELB	Rushed behind	7.11.53	-	8.8.56	01:10
	CARL	Jagga Smith goal	7.11.53	-	9.8.62	01:48
	CARL	Harry McKay behind	7.11.53	-	9.9.63	05:22
	MELB	Jake Melksham behind	7.12.54	-	9.9.63	09:13
	MELB	Kysaiah Pickett behind	7.13.55	-	9.9.63	10:54
	CARL	Jagga Smith behind	7.13.55	-	9.10.64	11:54
	CARL	Brodie Kemp behind	7.13.55	-	9.11.65	17:47
	CARL	Brodie Kemp behind	7.13.55	-	9.12.66	19:11
	CARL	Matt Cottrell behind	7.13.55	-	9.13.67	21:44
	CARL	Jagga Smith goal	7.13.55	-	10.13.73	24:23
	CARL	Blake Acres behind	7.13.55	-	10.14.74	27:21

Links

2026 AFL Season

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