If you’d looked ahead to this fixture one month ago you could be excused for scratching your head and wondering why a premiership contender was playing a standalone night match ahainst a team that has endured the worst sustained run of form in the AFL era.
Fortunately for the AFL, the relative form lines of each team have drastically shifted in that time, and even in the lead up a sense of preserve curiosity permeated through the neutral viewership to see if the lowly Roos could put another nail in the Demons’ calamitous 2024 campaign.
The first quarter reverted to the April/May script as Melbourne jumped out of the blocks with five goals, Pickett and McDonald in particular lively in overpowering their young counterparts. North’s brittle backline was under siege and struggling to display any cohesion, however, a taste of things to come, with ill-discipline by the Dees and specifically Oliver, gave North a heartbeat.
The second term was completely dominated by North, despite them only outscoring Melbourne by two goals to one, with the Rising Star favourite, George Wardlaw driving his team forward with multiple possession chains, and both Eddie Ford and Cam Zurhaar taking towering marks inside F50. Mid-season draft addition, Brynn Teakle added an extra dimension with three strong marks, preventing the Demon defence having their way in the air as they are accustomed to. The clear highlight of this term, however, was a goal of the year candidate by Trent Rivers. Deployed into a central midfield role, he attacked a loose ball at pace, burst through several would be tacklers and converted from a tight angle from just inside F50.
The ’premiership’ quarter, which funnily enough North looked closer to than their more credentialled opponents on the night, replicated the first term almost identically. Melbourne booted another five goals, Daniel Turner looking most likely of the taller Demon forwards, Pickett’s explosiveness a key again in a withering three-goal burst that appeared to break the game open. North refused to concede. however, and this was best illustrated through a desperate lunging spoil by Jackson Archer (which would have sat comfortably amongst his Dad’s most iconic efforts) on Bayley Fritsch who he completely blanketed in this game. This led to another Oliver reversed free kick and to one of two highlights for the term, a superb individual effort from LDU to score bursting out of the middle after a perfect set up from defence, and then a precisely weighted kick from Simpkin to set up Zurhaar for the lively forward’s second kept them within touching distance at the last break.
It was apt that Melbourne was playing this game, as once the fourth term started, all hell broke loose, as North threw everything they had at the 2021 premiers, desperate to erase last week’s fade out and return to the winners’ list for a rare victory. Ford and Zurhaar hit the scoresheet again, tall Dee Tomlinson outpointed again deep in defence, then budding superstar Sheezel took a brilliant mark and converted his second to take this right to the wire.
Ultimately the Dees managed to hold on for a three-point win, but it certainly felt as though the better team on the night was North. While a win would’ve been welcome relief for a club so bereft of this feeling in modern times (North have not won at the MCG since 2017), last night was certainly justification that they are finally heading in the right direction. For Melbourne, however, this win may not even mask the many cracks in their on-field performance, much like other premiership sides their success is driven by the A-graders, and Melbourne’s are struggling for various reasons, and those in the next tier have either not developed consistency or failed to progress to the level required to stay relevant as a premiership contender.
That’s the recap, let’s deep-dive into five key areas where the game was won and lost:
Who steps up in Petracca’s absence?
There was talk during the week that Trent Rivers would get first crack at the giant hole left by Petracca’s injury, and so it played out with the young West Australian thrust into the centre square rotation. Potentially by direction, but also possibly through inexperience, Rivers was not as proactive getting first hands to the ball in clearance situations only gathering two for the night, but apart from that was excellent in his full-time debut as a central mid.
His 21 disposals, 559 metres gained, 23 pressure acts and a stunning goal of the year contender in the second term were a more than handy contribution and Rivers was probably his team’s third best player on the night behind Viney and May.
Gawn vs Xerri
This was another keenly anticipated duel between the preeminent ruckman in the competition who is likely to claim a seventh All Australian blazer late this year and the improving behemoth Xerri from North . The Melbourne skipper was influential in the victory, directing seven hit outs to advantage amongst his 30 taps and collecting eighteen touches, including an important goal in the third term when he drifted forward from a clearance, however, his younger opponent physically imposed himself all night and severely impacted Gawn’s output in several areas.
Three marks, five clearances (all after half time) and one tackle were well down on his season averages of six, six and three respectively as Xerri used his frame to buffer and batter Gawn at every opportunity. To the Dee star’s credit, he kept competing and gained some very important taps and possessions deep into the last term that helped secure the win for his team.
Meanwhile, Xerri’s star continued to grow, and while he was outmuscled in the hit-out category (five taps to advantage from 20 hit outs) he found his groove once the ball hit the ground. Ten tackles, nine clearances (second on the ground behind Viney), nine pressure acts and 17 disposals were a tremendous return against the yardstick of the past decade. Xerri’s work allowed his midfielders of Wardlaw, Davies-Uniacke and Simpkin primarily to have the room to extract and move the ball quickly time and again. Based on overall impact and their relative profiles, this clash was awarded to the North big man on points but was an engrossing battle throughout.
Can North maintain the rage?
In a stretch of three games North might have displayed their best form in four years, a win against the Eagles in Perth, and a brutal last gasp loss to the reigning premiers after earning a nine-goal lead. While Melbourne scored five goals in the first term, North’s effort couldn’t be questioned, and they gained the ascendency in the second quarter but were unable to capitalise on the scoreboard. Brilliantly led by the inspirational LDU, who in a finals team would arguably be a top ten player in the comp, he possesses all of the traits, speed, strength, hardness and desire, North propelled the ball forward with speed but took a while to break down the Demon defence.
Overall, North led most of the major statistical categories in another strong step forward, 13+ one percenters, 18+ marks, 63+ uncontested possessions, 8+ contested possessions, 7+ clearances, 1+ inside 50 which bodes well for the growing revitalisation 18 months into the Clarkson era of a proud club that have languished at the foot of the table for too long.
Talented youth on display
North Melbourne’s access to high draft picks is well known with ten top 10 selections in the past four years, and several of those names were prominent in this game. Will Phillips followed up his impressive shut down role on Nick Daicos last week with a complete thrashing of Clatyon Oliver. It must be said though that this isn’t the same Clarry that was touted as one of the greatest Dees of all time as recently as last season. It’s apparent things are not right with him, and hopefully he can regain the hunger at some time soon.
Harry Sheezel since being deployed further afield has been the revelation we all expected, adding goal scoring prowess and assists to his silky skills, he looks to be a sure-fire star. George Wardlaw is still building to be that four quarter contributor but watch out when he matures as his output is already spectacular. Going toe to toe with Viney at times, he didn’t look out of place and 21 pressure acts, seven clearances and eight tackles are indicative of his willingness to get his hands dirty. Jackson Archer completely nullified the dangerous Fritsch and displayed great judgement in when to attack and when to defend.
Melbourne’s young players were less influential in this one despite some positive signs. Windsor started brightly, but faded and ended with only ten touches, 21 pressure acts though was a good indicator of his willingness to keep working when things didn’t run his way. Tholstrup and Howes also had bright moments, but as happens with most newcomers, failed to impose themselves on the contest for long periods, both showed enough to persist with for the remainder of the season to get them up to speed for more integral roles in the coming years.
Kynan Brown, on debut, had just one opportunity to make an impact, and he absolutely nailed it with a run-down tackle deep into the last that won his team a free kick and potentially stopped a match winning thrust. While JVR continues to frustrate, admittedly only 30 games into his career but at present his AFL elite skills are unfounded swagger and pleading to the umpires for assistance. He has all the tools at his disposal, but apart from youth is delivering nothing more than those languishing in the reserves would contribute, and while outsized he was also a liability when he deputised in the ruck, both Xerri and Teakle eviscerating him in the contest. He’s only 21, but the fan’s patience must be running thin.
Clarkson vs Goodwin
The two premiership coaches fought an enthralling contest off the field, Goodwin with winning moves including pushing Rivers permanently into the centre square, gaining some improved output from Petty and McDonald forward who both competed well in the air all night, and gaining a great contribution from Steven May who held the backline together as North found holes to exploit. He was not as responsive to the emerging threat the Kangas deployed during the game though and was fortunate to rely on some individual brilliance from Viney and Neal-Bullen throughout and several cameos from Pickett.
Clarkson has turned the clock back in the past month, able to finally unleash a preferred game plan and having the players able to execute it to a level that puts them in winning positions. In game strategic changes were never really his forte at Hawthorn, more so the meticulous planning and drills to deal with opposition tactics, but last night he either showed improvement in this area or allowed his support team to implement some changes on the run. These included some tweaks at both ends of the field to neutralise the Melbourne advantage that very nearly won them the game. Early on Melbourne were picking apart the suspect North defence, but a tightening up of the talls such as Comben along with a fine outing from Corr who was the pillar, and then empowering Archer to both defend Fritsch but also switch as required closed the easy access for Melbourne and dried up their scoring opportunities. Likewise, he was able to direct the play to bypass May on occasion which opened up Tomlinson to one on one defending which is not his forte, moving Teakle up the ground as a marking presence to beat the first barrier of Melbourne defence, and then having Ford compete above his height and Zurhaar to show his class were great moves that very nearly were rewarded with the four points.
And let’s finish off with five quick ones, symbolising the clearance bursts of North star Luke Davies-Uniacke.
- Larkey vs May – the battle of these two All-Australians have been fizzers in recent times and so it played out again. Larkey fresh off nine goals in the past two weeks, started brightly with two good looks at goals in the opening quarter and start of the second, but failed to land the blow that might’ve set up his night. May, on the other hand, was supreme all evening, along with Viney his team’s best player as he was imperious in the air with half of his 18 touches being intercepts.
- Luke McDonald’s captaincy has been criticised over the past couple of years, with his playing output dramatically dropping off since his B&F win in 2020, however, he was magnificent in this game, throwing his body into harm’s way time and again and showing the on-field leadership missing over large chunks of this period.
- Liam Shiels might be wondering why he’s still playing several years past his best, while playing an important role in guiding and protecting the precocious youth in the Kangas line up, he copped a couple of painful head high shots as well as being dumped in a tackle or two. I’m sure the coach will highlight these efforts to his impressionable teammates while the club medical staff are charged with putting this batter weary body back together.
- Umpiring – while the strict adjudication of holding the ball might have softened in the ensuing weeks since the correct decision to change the interpretation back to the originally intended outcome, one lesser highlighted side effect has been the umpire’s willingness to call ball up more quickly, immediately as soon as the ball has stopped moving. This has been a massive improvement and credit to those decision makers for addressing this long-standing problem.
- Quirky stat – for a game featuring ferocious pressure both teams were remarkably accurate on goal. After half time tonight Melbourne kicked 5.0 while North kicked 7.0.
Where to from here?
Melbourne travel to the Gabba to face the streaking Lions who are starting to look like the team who fell agonisingly short of premiership glory last year. The Demons will start massive outsiders in this one and it would require a turnaround of epic proportions to win on the road.
North host the enigmatic Bulldogs at Marvel, while desperate for a win a continuation of this four-quarter competitiveness would be a welcome step forward for their long-suffering fans.
