Coaching great Leigh Matthews has described Carlton’s high-scoring win over Essendon as the “perfect game of football”, but said both clubs would be intent on defending better in the future.

35 goals were scored in the match, with onlookers lauding the open and attacking manner in which the game was played.

Matthews said he expected both coaches to review the game and suggests they should look to lock down their defensive structures in the next few weeks.

“That Carlton versus Essendon game was the perfect game of football,” he said on Sportsday.

“It was high scoring and close, I would just utter the thought that (in the review meeting of the game) coaches couldn’t say that, ‘we’re better if we score 15 goals even if the opposition side scores 14’.

“I bet in the review it was, ‘we’d like to score more but we have to defend better next week’. It was a fantastic game and we love it like that, but as Jacob Weitering said (in an earlier interview), they didn’t plan the game to be a high-scoring one because no one plans for it to be high scoring.

“We love it that way, but unfortunately the coaches don’t love it that way and they’ll be doing their utmost to defend better next week.”

The Blues will take on the Western Bulldogs on Sunday at Marvel Stadium, while the Bombers face a daunting trip to Sydney to take on the in-form Giants.