Carlton’s Mia Austin delivered a profound tribute to her late cousin Ben after kicking a goal in the Blues’ win over West Coast on Saturday.
While the Blues comfortably took care of business against the Eagles, Austin’s goal after the third quarter siren stole the show.
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The 21-year-old lined up 20m out directly in front and made no mistake as she slotted her kick through the big sticks.
Emotions immediately came pouring out as Mia kissed the bandage on her wrist, which had Ben written on it, before pointing skyward.
Her teammates came rushing in from all over the ground to get around her with the emotion pouring out of the Blues forward.
Ben, 17, tragically was struck by a cricket ball in the nets in Melbourne’s east on Tuesday and died in hospital on Thursday.
“Your heart breaks with this vision doesn’t it?” Abbey Holmes said on Channel 7.
“You can see how much this means to Mia Austin … just the teammates, it gives me goosebumps looking at that vision, just the love and support that has been shown there.”
Alister Nicholson earlier said: “A moment of great poignancy on the three-quarter time siren. It has been such a challenging time for the Austin family following the tragic passing of young Ben in the cricket training accident.”
Austin bravely spoke to Channel 7 after the match.
“Early last week, my little cousin Benny passed away in a cricket incident,” she said.
“My cousins and uncle are here today so that was just to honour him. I know if he was here today he would have absolutely loved it. A little tribute to him.”
The Blues were an unstoppable force in the elimination final and propelled themselves into the second week of the finals with a 9.6 (60) to 2.7 (19) victory.
The perpetual rain and the Eagles’ strong second term wasn’t enough to halt the Blues, who piled on six unanswered goals in the premiership quarter.
Through Ella Roberts the Eagles had worked their way back into the game at half time. But from start to very finish the Blues put the foot down.
Carlton won the footy heavily at the source with the top four leading possession getters on the ground in the third quarter.
Madeleine Guerin found it the most with 11 disposals, which was more than double Roberts as the Eagles’ best with five.
There was style in how the young Blues dismantled Daisy Pearce’s West Coast too, as Poppy Scholz and Sophie McKay pulled out elaborate goal celebrations.
Carlton now takes on the wounded Hawthorn in next weekend’s semi-final.
– with Tyler Lewis, NewsWire
