“Went crazy”: King hails best individual performance of 2026

Did we see the best individual game of the 2026 season on Sunday?

Of course, it’s all objective, but David King believes the outing of Ed Richards in the Western Bulldogs’ draw with Carlton was the No.1 performance this year.

Without captain Marcus Bontempelli next to him, Richards still had 31 disposals at 87.1% efficiency, along with 644 metres gained, 11 score involvements, eight inside 50s, seven intercepts, six clearances (three centre clearances), two goals and two goal assists.

King absolutely loved his game.

“I thought it was probably the best individual game that I’ve seen for the year from Ed Richards,” King said on SEN’s Fireball.

“You do forget about some that happened prior. We talked about Izak Rankine the week before, he was brilliant. There’s a good discussion in that - what have been the best half a dozen individual performances of the season?

“But I thought it was a special effort. Without Bontempelli you looked at the lineup and you thought that things were going to have to go well for the Dogs.

“And Ed Richards just went crazy. Everything he did turned to gold.”

Richards was helped by Tom Liberatore who started slowly before moving into the middle and having a major impact.

“I thought the Dogs missed a step early. I thought starting Libba out of the square for the first quarter was an error given the fact Bont wasn’t there,” King added.

“Then when he went in the whole clearance game swung. They were in a hole at quarter-time, they were a few goals down.

“And you thought to get the heart and soul in there. The talk about Libba being the emotional lifter in there as well. He was great for Ed Richards and obviously Matt Kennedy.

“The number one performance for me for the year was the red head.”

Cornes also rated the game of Richards, but loved what Carlton pair Sam Walsh and Patrick Cripps delivered.

Walsh had 33 disposals and kicked the ball beautifully, while skipper Cripps had it 34 times with 12 clearances and six tackles.

“He was huge,” Cornes said.

“I thought Sam Walsh and to be fair, probably Cripps, were matching him.

“The amount of times in the last quarter Cripps gave to Walsh, I reckon it was four or five times.

“He’s had 17 kicks at 94 per cent. I don’t usually look at kick percentage but he was going that well. I thought his want to will himself in the last quarter late was just as good.

“Walsh and Cripps were awesome. Shoutout to those two.”

The draw locked in a Wildcard Finals Round slot for the Blues who are 10-1-2 under interim coach Josh Fraser.