North Melbourne have, in recent memory, been trapped in a whirlpool of youth and inexperience. Unable to break free. Frantic paddling, one armed in the North canoe, achieving not much other than going in circles. There’s no fun to be found there, except for maybe flipping the bird. West Coast-style. Faced on Sunday afternoon with a home ground ‘no way your gunna beat us’ vibe from the Crows faithful, this contest was always going to be a significant challenge for North.
It was a sunny, windy Adelaide Oval, the playing deck looked terrific with 45000 crows fans and 14 supporting North. Those aren’t the official numbers, so I may be slightly wrong. If there were more for North they must have been heavily disguised in full Crows kit and false beard/sunnies, and not using any big words to give themselves away to the locals. The Heritage scoreboard still defies demolition, and sadly appears someone stolen the giant arse-end of the Hilux; maybe it was repossessed.
These teams last met in Hobart R7 2024; a lazy ten-goal win to the Crows. Post that game, North coach Alastair Clarkson’s’ first comments were that the club needed to ‘stay the course’ and that improvement would come in the same way Adelaide had evolved over recent years. Evolution is by definition something that occurs incrementally over generations, so let’s hope improvement by North is not too glacial.
Adelaide have launched their 2025 campaign in fine fashion with two very convincing wins, and the endless chatter about coach Matthew Nicks bleak future has instantly subsided. They appear a well settled line-up that means business, and it’s hard to see them not influencing who does what in September. The Crows, slightly imperious after last week’s away demolition of Essendon (at the MCG), would be feeling confident the North resistance would be dealt with quickly and harshly. Four points pencilled in.
For North, the new and improved 2025 version, this fixture represented an opportunity to take another step to being competitive. To build and get experience. To maybe get in the face of a more fancied opponent.
So to the game.
Adelaide deployed a conventional game plan based on maintaining possession, passing the ball between players from the defensive end to the scoring end. Not terribly new age. It involved running fast, kicking or handpassing to a target, and repeating as long as required to get inside the 50m arc.
They are pretty darn good at executing this part of plan.
In the firs,t this was enabled by the likes of Peatling, Soligo, Laird, Keays and Worrel. Might seem like a long list, but they were all out and about. Once in that 50m arc, Adelaide’s great strength, because it will test all teams this year, is the snarling three-headed monster of Fogarty/Thilthorpe/Walker all of whom are large and powerful forwards prone to take a mark and kicking a goal. They will be referred collectively henceforth as the 3HM.
Good luck defending that.
The Crows booted four in the quarter through Curtin, Keays, Neal-Bullen and Walker. Unluckily, Josh Rachele wore a knee to the ribs in the first quarter and was subbed out shortly after and was replaced by Sid Draper. This is the only silver lining of the injury – Draper getting solid game time.
North deployed a similar version of the game plan except that in it included instances of kicking over the boundary, or to the opposition, or falling over. Not doubting their determination or intention, but some of the execution was just plain woeful. I noted coach Clarkson had to avert his eyes a couple of times and speak with his hand covering his mouth. All game plans will turn to dust if the fundamental kick/handpass skills are not well executed; poor execution is highly contagious. Caleb Daniel continued his rebirth at North with a nine disposal first term, and late in the quarter Curtis goaled and Larkey kicked a couple, which halted the momentum of Adelaide, with a bit of assistance from a harsh holding the ball call on Lachie Sholl inside defensive fifty. Those late goals were from hard work by North and possibly a result of some competitive progress they have started the season with. They also made the scoreboard and the game look a lot more even than it really was.
A quick side note to the efforts of Taylor Walker. My view is that at 34 he’s in a golden era. Maybe not relied on to be the spearhead anymore, deferring to younger weapons in Fogarty and Thilthorpe, but he still has the mojo happening. Takes a good grab. Takes anything resembling an opportunity to kick a goal, dangerous in the ruck near goals. Took the ball clean out of the ruck twice in this game to snap a goal. Weirdly now, as maybe second or possibly third fiddle, he’s unleashed some skills that are so very damaging. He’s just great to watch. Also, he’s not shy to marshal the troops and point the finger at teammates. It will be a sad day when he hangs them up with flags at half-mast in SA.
Conveniently for Adelaide, the 3HM is also very well dimensioned in terms of career length. Thilthorpe has 56 games, Fogarty is on 105 games, and Walker clocks in at 281 games; there’s a natural progression evident being early, mid and late career. Adelaide will benefit for years to come. (Compare this to the Pies’ TripleM of Mihocek, McStay and Membrey who are arguably late, late and late. Maybe that’s worth two years? I digress.)
So it was in the 2nd quarter the 3HM kicked four. Thilthorpe with two, and one each for Fogarty and Walker. Rory Laird got off the leash collecting 12 disposals (for 20 in the first half).
North hung in there during the 2nd quarter, adding goals from Zurhaar and Simpkin. It did feel very much like the wind, tide, crowd and football gods were pushing the Crows to an inevitable victory.
In the 3rd quarter, North displayed what has become a new feature in each of their three games this year. They regrouped and fought their way back into the contest, getting within eight points of the Crows early, and sending a sizeable ripple through the suddenly-concerned Adelaide crowd. The likes of Parker, Simpkin, Davies-Uniacke, Daniel all willed the ball forward and North, in general, responded. Young Finn O’Sullivan in his third game (2nd in the draft and just an 18 year-old) looked like he belonged, and finished the day with 19 touches. We will be reading a lot about him over the next decade I guess. North put on four goals through Darling, Curtis, Konstanty and Larkey (who finished with four for the day).
As much as North toiled, and they did toil, Adelaide were able to fire right back, finishing the term with five goals including another couple to the 3HM (Thilthorpe, Walker) and singles to Curtin, Draper and Keays. The 4th went pretty much the same way, North trying, and doing okay, but Adelaide doing more, running out winners by six goals.
As crazy as this sounds, and I’m confident North supporters will be tired of hearing it, but it could have been a whole lot worse. The basic team set up and components for North are all there, just need tuning and more time, and lots of emphasis on not giving the ball up through dumb skill errors.
Adelaide fans will be looking closely at their calendar commitments in September. They have a strong and improving back 6, the 3HM up front and a raft of mids and running players including the likes of Rankine (30 touches). It’s going to be a challenge for all teams this year.
Not much consolation for North fans. A loss is a loss. Not a bath, but another loss. A loss contributed to by Norths own errors that they will need to deal with. Coach Clarkson noted post game that “we found a way to muck up the handball, or muck up the kick” and “couldn’t replicate the polish and endeavour we showed last week”. If North can find that polish and endeavour, they could account for Syndey at Marvel next week. Time will tell.
A quick note on the game of Dan Curtin, who continues to sneak under the guard of opposition teams. Playing as the fourth forward, or rotating through the wing, he gave quite an example of how versatile he could be, kicking two goals, applying run-down tackles, and generally doing whatever the club required. He is mooted to perhaps become a midfielder at some stage, and with his combination of agility and size, he will be a handful. Adelaide have quite a few handfuls – possibly far more than the opponents have hands.
This game was under control of umpires Leigh Fisher, Justin Power, Leigh Haussen and Peter Bailes. I thought they were effective and unremarkable; as they should be. Well done.
