Lessons learned: North flex over struggling Tigers to claim big win
North Melbourne put Richmond to the sword in a game most neutral fans would sooner forget at Marvel Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Finishing with a 20.10 (130) to 7.13 (55) victory, the Roos were relentless against an inaccurate Tigers outfit that looked a class below in a game they would have viewed as winnable.
Paul Curtis starred with six goals, Harry Sheezel did Harry Sheezel things, and North Melbourne snared their fourth win from six games as their impressive start to the season continued.
Now look, this game wasn’t much to write home about, so as my old man would say, let’s not piss-fart around.
Here’s what we learned from a pretty stale contest.
Zurhaar the defender gets an early tick
He’s been a regular fixture in North’s forward line since he broke into the team in 2019, but today we saw a new role for Cameron Zurhaar as he played the entire game at half back.
Somewhat surprisingly, the results were a big positive.
The 27-year-old finished with 23 disposals and 11 marks, and looked a likely distributor as he ignited his fair share of assaults from the back half.
It got me thinking about the excess of aerial forwards North now finds themselves with. It’s a great problem to have, but ultimately you can’t sit Zurhaar, Cooper Trembath, Nick Larkey, Zane Duursma, and Paul Curtis all in the same forward 50m. You might take plenty of marks, but when you don’t, you’re going to get killed at ground level.
Something had to give, and with only six goals to his name in 2026, it appears the coaching staff identified Zurhaar as the man to move into defence.
While he’s not the candidate many people would expect, the move does come with an added benefit: He’s big.
Sounds like a simple thing, but North’s defence has been its weakness for years. Time and again, they’ve tried different options at half back that quite simply have been too small.
From Aaron Hall through to Zac Fisher and Caleb Daniel, North’s defenders have never really been able to, you know, defend.
While I am sceptical about Zurhaar’s ability to be a defensive beast in the long term, at the very least he’s got size and physicality to throw around back there.
I’ll be keeping my eye on this one moving forward.
And the other side of that move is…
Colby McKercher was swung forward to accommodate Zurhaar’s move into defence, and it’s worth sticking with.
It’s not completely foreign to him, as I’m pretty sure McKercher has played in every area of the ground since he was drafted in 2023, but he was certainly effective today being positioned in an area to do maximum damage with his run and carry.
He kicked a beautiful goal on the run in the third term that had Cam Mooney reminiscing about Anthony Stevens, and he finished with 26 disposals to go with it.
But more important was his ability to be a constant presence in the middle of the ground. Whenever North won the footy back, McKercher was zipping around the park trying to be a handball option and get involved in the chain.
Then, once he collects the footy, he’s in a position to put his elite ball use and natural traits to best use, kicking inside the 50 arc.
It’s easy to sit McKercher at half back and let him rack up cheap kicks, swinging the ball from side to side, but I like him better when he’s darting around the centre square like Chad Warner does for the Swans.
The swap for Zurhaar and McKercher might be a way to kill two birds with one stone.
I like the lasso rule, but the umps are struggling with it
Three times in this game the field and boundary umpires required a conference to adjudicate the new last-disposal rule, and twice they ended up making the wrong decision.
I enjoy this rule, I think it makes a lot of sense, but the umpires are clearly lacking confidence when it comes to making a definitive decision on it.
The beauty of Australian Rules is it’s constant movement and continuity, and taking the time to review a play that doesn’t immediately impact the scoreboard feels like a backward step.
An over-reliance on review technology has dented the umpires’ conviction, and hopefully moving forward we can see a bit more decisiveness.
Bright spots in the abyss for Richmond
I won’t lie, halfway through this game I was sending messages to our Mongrel group chat lamenting the fact that I had to review it.
That’s because Richmond is the toughest watch in the AFL, and it’s not overly close.
Still, our fearless leader, HB, challenged me to find some shining lights for the Tigers through my blinding cynicism, and here’s what I came up with:
- Sam Grlj is tracking extremely well in his first few games at the top level. His numbers aren’t insane, but he’s clearly a class above most of his teammates. His sharp ball use and his zippy legs are AFL-level traits, and you’d be excited by him as a Tigers fan.
Okay, that’s about all I got, sorry Tigers fans, but your boys didn’t give me much to go off today.
HB here _ I watched this game with my son crawling all over me and generally making life both really pleasant, and very unpleasant. I have another one.
- It’s a no-brainer, but the injuries to key players saw Sam Lalor spend more time in the guts, and with that came his combative attitude. He attended 19 centre stoppages and finished the game with 22 touches and four clearances. He also started to throw his weight around a bit, and that stiff-arm is going to become a weapon in the coming years. Wait til he sits down one of the big names… the media will be unable to get enough of him, suddenly.
A tale of two rebuilds
Both of these sides are in the thick of their own rebuilds, but it was clear to see which one is further along than the other (yes, Richmond fans, I know North has been rebuilding since you were winning flags…).
North Melbourne looked more mature in all areas of the ground, specifically in the midfield, where the likes of Harry Sheezel, Luke Davies-Uniacke, and Tom Powell were significantly stronger and better-drilled than their Richmond counterparts.
While the Kangaroos have been working on their rebuild for longer, this would still be a little alarming to me if I was a Tigers fan. Richmond were supposed to be the fast-tracked version of what North Melbourne have put together, but injuries to some core youngsters and a lack of senior support have left the remaining Tigers exposed this season.
It got me wondering today about the more senior players on Richmond’s squad.
Going into this season, I thought the Tigers had an upper hand on some of the teams around them thanks to a contingent of older players who could guide the young guns through their early days.
Blokes like Nick Vlastuin, Nathan Broad, Jayden Short, Noah Balta, and Dion Prestia seemed like the perfect mentors, but too often do they look disinterested out there.
Fair enough, some of them are still putting up strong numbers individually, but I wonder if some aren’t looking over the fence at old mates like Dan Rioli and Shai Bolton, and simply missing playing winning footy.
They’ve achieved about all you can in an AFL career, and perhaps it’s not that easy to stomach getting flogged every week after that.
North’s forward mix is something to be envious of
Paul Curtis booted a career high six goals in this game, spearheading an attack that made light work of a lacklustre Tigers defence.
But while Curtis was the beneficiary today, it’s plain to see North is building a forward line worthy of most other teams’ envy.
Nick Larkey is the main man, but he’s no longer alone as he was for so long beforehand. Cooper Trembath is a nightmare for defenders in the air and kicked three of his own today, while Zane Duursma also bagged two.
Add to that the development of Lachie Dovaston, along with more forward play from rotations with Sheezel and McKercher, and you’ve got plenty of talented players running through that forward 50m.
It gives your mids plenty of options when heading forward, and having a capable front six is crucial in modern footy (in fact, it always has been!).
Ask Collingwood fans what they would give to see Curtis in their colours. Or even Trembath, for that matter.
HB here, just jumping in to finish off the review, as Justin is pulling double duty on games today, and I bloody-well appreciate it. There is something I wanted to add before finishing up.
Great Expectations.
I don’t have to remind any North Melbourne supporter of their recent history. Fans would turn up, hoping not to get belted. Those expecting wins were seen as somewhat delusional. Highly passionate, overly optimistic, but mostly delusional.
The crowd were a little flat in parts of this game, and I reckon I know why – North fans sense the corner has been turned. They know what it feels like to completely buried by teams, and now, they get the sense that their turn to do the same is coming, if not here, already. The crowd was a little flat because they wanted a massacre. 75 points is a massacre of sorts, but it is not a “leave entrails on the turf” kind of destruction that was on the cards for a little while in this one.
This is a wonderful thing. It means that the expectations on this footy club have now changed. No longer are they out there just to eke out a win and be grateful. No, this incarnation of the Kangaroos is expected to punish teams, and that’s what their supporters want to see.
It may not all come to fruition this season, but from now on, you’re going to see a North Melbourne fanbase unwilling to sit back and pick up a close win or an honourable loss. Now, it is time to start payback for the years they copped the hidings.
That, and they want Cooper Trembath to take some big hangers every week.
Me too, in that regard. Me too.
