First, I’d like to acknowledge the effort put into this game. The sheer guts, determination, and boundless optimism on display were undeniable… by the supporters. The fact that both clubs have fans willing to shell out their hard-earned when both teams have given them so many reasons to follow a different sport shows that the supporters of both teams are as loyal as they come.
Or perhaps they have some sort of sado-masochistic BDSM tendencies that they need to admit to themselves. Either way, they seem to enjoy watching people toss some leather around.
If only the players turned up in the same way the fans did.
For North, it may not have been a win that most players will bring up in contract negotiations, but they still managed to break a decade-long streak of losses to the Bombers. Ten years. Twelve consecutive losses. And then, on a Saturday night at Marvel Stadium, it finally ended. The 12-point margin probably should have been more, but it’s a key win they would have targeted for this year.
North led at every change, ran away with a dominant third quarter, then survived a spirited Essendon last term to hold on.
For the Bombers, 0-3 and counting, and the draw doesn’t get easier for some time yet. With the Dogs, Suns and Lions all coming in the next five weeks, they’ll need to find a whole new level of grit if the season isn’t going to be yet another one to regret.
Recent form
Essendon (0-2)
The Bombers have started 2026 the way a lot of us feared they might. Two games, two losses, and a scoreline in each that would not have made many fans happy. They conceded triple figures in both outings, going down to Hawthorn in Round One and then handing Port Adelaide a comfortable win in Round Two as Brad Scott’s rebuild continues its messy, unlovable phase. The only vaguely encouraging thing you can say is that Nate Caddy kicked four goals against Port, which is the kind of silver lining that requires a very squinted perspective. They’ve been in this sort of hole before and dug their way out, but right now, the shovel has gone missing.
That said, there’s one stat in this fixture that Bombers fans would have been clutching like a life raft: Essendon had beaten North Melbourne twelve times in a row. Twelve. The streak stretches back to 2017, and North’s last win against Essendon came in Round Eight of 2016. To put that in perspective, at the time of that match, North small forward Lachy Dovaston was keenly awaiting his ninth birthday in a few weeks, probably zipping around in “Teen Titans Go” jarmies while practising hotwiring a Commodore or something.
North Melbourne (1-1)
The Roos are speedrunning their supporters into a conniption. They opened the season with a really promising win over Port Adelaide, looking sharp and organised, before heading to Perth, where West Coast outmuscled them in the contested ball battle and handed them an embarrassing defeat where the squad just didn’t look up for a physical contest. The result against the Eagles stung and reignited the flame wars from some sections of the media.
Interestingly, the early tip across most outlets has North by a healthy margin, which tells you everything about how much the perception of these clubs has shifted in recent seasons. North, who once seemed perennially doomed to lose this fixture are now able to enter games as the favourites to win it. If that doesn’t make Essendon fans grind their teeth, I don’t know what will.
Ins and Outs
Essendon
In: Jye Farrow, Jade Gresham, Saad El-Hawli, Archie Day-Wicks
Out: Mason Redman (knee), Jayden Nguyen (omitted), Max Kondogiannis (omitted), Hussien El Achkar (omitted)
Late change: Brayden Fiorini (back) replaced by Matt Guelfi
Four changes for the Bombers, and the one that hurt most wasn’t the one people were talking about. Losing Mason Redman to a knee injury was a real blow to Essendon fans and keen supercoach players alike. He’s one of the few defenders Essendon have who can do meaningful work off the ball and generate momentum going the other way. In a backline that was already paper-thin at the best of times, his absence was the kind of thing that impacted the whole structure of the team, with rebounding from the back half so important in modern footy.
Jade Gresham’s recall was the headline inclusion. An experienced head who could run and carry, and give the midfield some craft when things got scrappy. Saad El-Hawli also got a run after finding some form at VFL level, and Jye Farrow and young Archie Day-Wicks completed the changes. It’s worth noting that the trio of Nguyen, Kondogiannis, and El Achkar being omitted together suggested Scott was doing a bit of a reset after the first two rounds rather than just making tactical tweaks.
And then, just to pile on, Brayden Fiorini pulled up with a back complaint minutes before the opening bounce and was replaced by Matt Guelfi. Fiorini is in his first season at the Bombers after a decade at Gold Coast, and losing him pre-game was another small irritant for a team that is already swatting away conjecture about their footy ability, coaching ability, board synergy and generally fielding concerns about every aspect of the club. Guelfi came in for his first game of 2026, which wasn’t quite the debut preparation either of them would have wanted.
North Melbourne
In: Aidan Corr, George Wardlaw, Callum Coleman-Jones
Out: Griffin Logue (hamstring), Jacob Konstanty (omitted), Jack Darling (omitted)
Three changes for the Roos, and all three told a bit of a story. Griffin Logue going down with a hamstring was unwelcome, but unfortunately par for the course. He was brought into the club to replace Ben McKay down back, and when fit, he proved to be a handy defender in a backline severely lacking much in the way of big man muscle, even if Comben has helped in that regard.
Aidan Corr stepped in to cover that void, which was a reasonable like-for-like swap even if Corr is a touch less… everything than Logue.
George Wardlaw’s return was the one North fans would have been most keen on, and he justified the faith. Sixteen disposals, nine contested possessions and seven clearances — including four from the centre bounce — was exactly the kind of contested grunt the Roos had been missing from him. He looked a touch rusty, but without the VFL team having a match until earlier today, he had no way to get into match form without just getting on with it, which kind of suits his vibe anyway.
The axing of Jack Darling was the decision that raised an eyebrow or two going in, and Callum Coleman-Jones didn’t do a great deal to put the argument to bed either way with just six disposals and two hitouts and a largely irrelevant effort. Whether that vindicates the Darling call or just means CCJ is on his last chance to show something is still a question that North’s match committee will be asking on Monday.
The Start
Before the bounce, both teams farewelled Todd Goldstein. As a North supporter, I don’t think I can ever get used to seeing him in Black and Red, but I am glad he had a chance to extend his career. Oddly enough, as good as his time in the AFL was, the current rule changes would have suited him to an absolute tee. He always had trouble with the big bruisers like Sandilands, and his gas tank was extraordinary. Still, he walks away knowing that he was one of the best for a very long time, and he’ll be invaluable in coaching future rucks.
The first quarter was all the things you’d expect when two teams of roughly this calibre and form play each other: scrappy, intense, occasionally brilliant and frequently terrible. North got out of the blocks with a bit of purpose, Zane Duursma kicking the first of his three goals early, but Essendon kept themselves in it and actually led briefly in the second term after a Nate Caddy set shot from outside fifty that was as composed as it was unexpected.
Then Essendon shot themselves in the foot in the manner that has become their signature. Sam Durham stood and watched as North moved the ball through the forward line, apparently awaiting a holding-the-ball free kick that the umpire had no intention of paying. The ball tumbled through for a North goal, Brad Scott stared down from the coaches’ box with the expression of a man who knows he’s about to be memed to hell and back. The moment summed up everything that is wrong with this Essendon side right now. It’s not that they can’t score. It’s that they make catastrophically poor decisions at the worst possible times, with the reliability of a bloke who shows up late to his own intervention.
At the other end, a similar poor defensive effort had Stephens drop an easy handball from Comben, giving Saad El-Hawli a scrambling chance to kick a goal, but Luke Parker dived for the spoil, using his face to stop a goal. That summed up Luke Parker in an instant. It wasn’t his mistake that led to the problem, but he gave 100% effort to help his team anyway.
The second quarter had a bit of back and forth, with North getting the better of it, but no one will remember that because of Xerri wiping his bloodied nose on McGrath’s face, but I’ll go into that later.
The second half
The third quarter was where North Melbourne buried Essendon, and it wasn’t remotely close. The Roos kicked five goals to one, stretching the lead from twelve points at the long break to thirty-six by the final change. McKercher, Davies-Uniacke and Sheezel were relentless through the guts — a midfield trio that by game’s end would amass 35, 31 and 33 disposals respectively, and even though the disposal efficiency could be improved, it’s a stat line that will please the selection committee. Larkey kicked his second, McKercher goaled, Trembath had his second too, and each time Essendon tried to mount something resembling a reply, North’s defensive structure folded back and suffocated it, though it has to be said that Essendon’s frequent inability to hit targets helped as well, although North’s backline clearance efforts were equally shocking at times.
The Bombers did get a goal back through Nate Caddy, who continued to be the one Essendon player who looked actually bought into the game. But one bright spot in a quarter isn’t going to help much in the long term.
The finish
Down by 36 at three-quarter time, Essendon decided that , which is at least something. They kicked four goals to none in the final quarter — Wright, Kako, Gresham and Merrett made it genuinely interesting again with a couple of minutes left, closing to within 12. There was a moment where you could almost see Essendon fans across the country daring to believe, which is the cruellest thing football does to you. It’s the sporting equivalent of the missus saying she forgives you for coming home drunk after ‘just a couple of beers’ just before you find the Playstation in the washing machine.
But North held on. They’d done the work in the third quarter to buy themselves enough insurance, and a Zane Duursma goal with six minutes left was the one that finally put a lid on it. A late rushed behind closed the margin to 12 at the final siren. North Melbourne celebrated like they’d just won a premiership, which just shows that to a starving man, even a dry Cruskit can look like a banquet. Essendon’s sixteen-game losing streak continues. The 2016 record of seventeen is now one Bulldogs hiding away.
Controversial moment
We all know this one.
Tristan Xerri. The man. The myth. The biohazard.
The sequence goes like this: Jaxon Prior gives Xerri a hit that bloodied his nose. The umpires somehow manage to penalise Xerri’s remonstration via a fifty-metre penalty (or it might have been two. It ended up being about 75 metres, so they might have added GST and Super to the value). The Bombers get the ball in attack and promptly lose it on the rebound, because of course they do. North find Xerri unattended in the goal square, still bleeding freely from his nose, and he kicks the goal. Then he has an altercation with Andrew McGrath, probably where Xerri suggests that he better think twice about smacking him again, because he’s happy for him to Fe-Fi-Fo-Fck around and find out. McGrath seems to throw some words back calling bullshit on the whole thing, they get into a wrestle, and in the midst of it, Xerri appears to reach for his bloody nose and very deliberately wipe the contents across McGrath’s face in a ‘what the hell is this then’ sort of surprise evidence introduction you’d normally see on bad courtroom drama.
I’m sure there are already a million words written about the incident by now. The AFL media machine loves a bit of controversy, and all the better if it can get some rage bait and non-footy commentary. Some of it will mention that if he hadn’t been hit, there’d have been no blood to wipe, or that it didn’t seem to be any blood to smear.
But the fact is, even if it’s a tiny amount of blood, or even if it’s just snot, it’s still not on.
I’m a massive fan of Xerri’s work. Rebuilding his craft in the new ruleset can’t have been easy, but he’s turned himself into a monster in the middle.
But wiping your blood on someone’s face. In 2026. With cameras at every angle. That’s incredibly stupid, and I’d be stunned if there isn’t an underpaid PR advisor handing him an apology speech the moment he came off the field. It’s the kind of act that makes you wonder what was going through Xerri’s mind, and then immediately wonder if anything was going through Xerri’s mind at all. The MRO is probably going to come down hard on him, and it’s hard to argue against it.
In Xerri’s defence — and I say this very loosely — he was provoked. Prior’s hit drew blood, the umpires penalised the wrong bloke, and McGrath apparently had a go at him while he was down. None of that justifies the biohazard response. Still. Blood. On a man’s face. Deliberately. That’s going to cost him, and it should.
Midfield matchup
North had the better of it, and by the end the margin in disposals told a story: a 405 to 328 thumping. McKercher led all comers with 35, Parker and Sheezel both finished with 33 apiece, and Davies-Uniacke was everywhere with 31. That’s four players in the top five disposal-getters for the game, all in blue and white. For the stat nerds keeping track at home: yes, that’s 132 disposals between four blokes. North had time on the ball, space on the ball, and largely did what they liked with it, even if that occasionally meant kicking it out on the full or just bashing it forward with a hope and a prayer.
They won the clearance count 31-21, which is where the game was functionally decided. North’s midfield won the hard ball, moved it quickly, and trusted their forwards to be in the right spots. It worked.
For Essendon, Archie Roberts led with 25 disposals, McGrath and Caldwell both had 22, and Parish and Durham each got to 19. The problem wasn’t effort, we saw the Bombers tackle ferociously, laying 54 to North’s 39. The problem was what happened after. Goal accuracy of 37.5% compared to North’s 57.1% is the single number that explains this entire football game. And here’s the one that should keep Brad Scott awake at 3am: Essendon had MORE inside 50s than North. 52 to 49. They were getting the ball into the danger zone. They just couldn’t convert once it got there. It’s the football equivalent of getting more job interviews than anyone else and bombing every single one.
The most impactful matchup though was young Finn O’Sullivan on Zach Merrett. Merrett was the difference-maker in the last match between these sides, with 35 touches nine score involvements, and almost 500 metres gained. O’Sullivan was given the task of keeping him accountable, and did his role perfectly, holding Merrett to 10 touches and a late goal while amassing 24 disposals for himself.
Ruck Battle
Here’s a fun one to untangle: Essendon actually won the hitouts. 25 to 13. Lachie Blakiston did the heavy lifting with 18 of those, Peter Wright chipped in with 7, and between them they got first use more often than Xerri did for North. Which means that for all the heat Xerri generated, he was arguably on the losing end of the tap-work too finishing with 11 hitouts from what was clearly a reduced ruck load as North leaned on their midfield at contests.
But, Xerri led all-comers in clearances, which is the desired outcome of winning the hitouts. You don’t need to win the tap if you’re going to be first to ground every time the ball gets near you.
North’s answer to the hitout deficit was simple: their mids were better. Clearances 31-21, game over. Nod to Essendon’s rucks on the tap count, nod to Xerri for impact and infamy, and nod to North’s midfield for making it irrelevant.
I’ll give Blakiston enormous respect here, because he was far better than he had any right to be, but based on impact, I’m giving the nod to Xerri.
The Stats that Sting
- Essendon: 0-3. Sixteen consecutive losses and counting. At this rate, the 2016 record of seventeen is a week away from being equalled. The Western Bulldogs await on Easter Sunday. You don’t need to be religious to feel the symbolism there.
- North won the disposal count 405 to 328. For context, 405 disposals for one team in a game is substantial. North had time on the ball, space on the ball, and used both. Essendon had 328 disposals and nine goals. That’s 36 touches per goal, which is not a sustainable business model.
- Clearances: North 31, Essendon 21. Every time the ball hit the deck, North got it first and went forward. This is the football equivalent of someone constantly winning the coin toss and you can’t work out how.
- Goal accuracy: Essendon 37.5%, North 57.1%. Essendon actually had MORE inside 50s — 52 to 49. The ball was getting there. Nine goals from 24 shots is the kind of return that makes a forward coach look in the mirror and question their life choices.
- Marks: North 138, Essendon 85. North’s players were finding each other cleanly all night. Essendon too often went sideways, short, or straight to a North defender.
- Essendon kicked 9.15. Nine goals, fifteen behinds. That’s two and a half behinds for every goal. If kicking accuracy were a driver’s licence test, half this squad would be catching the bus.
Debutant watch (how they actually went)
No true debutants in this one, but young Tom Blamires kicked the first goal of his AFL career tonight, slotting one from a difficult angle and celebrating with the kind of gusto that only a bloke happy to no longer have to hear about dead people’s wills in the Collingwood Marketing department can. Seventeen disposals, a goal, one tackle and six contested possessions. That’s a tidy return. Rookie players kicking their first goal with genuine passion is one of football’s most reliable pleasures, and Blamires delivered. The angle made it hard, the kick made it look easy, and the celebration suggested he’d been waiting a very long time for that moment.
Good on him. Given everything else that happened tonight, the league needed something wholesome.
Final thoughts
North Melbourne breaking this streak matters more than the twelve-point margin suggests. The psychological weight of twelve consecutive losses against one opponent is a heavy thing to carry, and the young Roos under Clarkson have now lifted that weight off themselves. For a club that is genuinely building something, ugly, grinding, fiery, contested, wins like this are just a cross you have to bear.
For Essendon, the scorecard continues to be brutal reading. Three games, three losses, sixteen straight. The inaccuracy in front of goal — nine goals, fifteen behinds — is symptomatic of a team still figuring out how to execute under pressure. They fought back in the last quarter, which is at least something Brad Scott can point to in the review. But fighting back from 36 down in the last quarter isn’t a positive. It’s a sign you weren’t good enough in the third.
The Xerri incident will dominate the coverage, and probably rightly so. It was bizarre, unnecessary, and the kind of act that earns a suspension regardless of context. The MRO will have its say this week, and Essendon fans will be hoping the punishment is severe enough to feel like justice, which is a sentence that probably applies to a lot of things in their lives right now.
Next up
Essendon host the Western Bulldogs on Easter Sunday. The Bulldogs are undefeated, are averaging over 100 points per game, and have Bontempelli, Richards, Naughton and Darcy all firing. For a side already 0-3 and leaking confidence by the week, I know Jesus rose from the dead on Easter Sunday, but I think he had an easier time of it than Essendon will here. Unless the Bulldogs get stuck in the ventilation shafts during an egg hunt, they’ll take this home easily.
Bulldogs by 57
North Melbourne head into the Good Friday SuperClash against Carlton in their only marquee match in the fixture. Previous efforts have meant the kids who benefit from the Good Friday appeal have had a lovely time seeing that someone has it worse than them when they watch the faces of the fans. In the last five Good Friday matches since the Covid break, North have conceded a total of 703 points, with the 2025 game seeing Carlton smash them by 82 points; 24.9 (153) to 11.5 (71).
With the Essendon streak already snapped, and Carlton coming off their own loss North need to treat this like a grand final, because a lacklustre effort could see AFL HQ decide that the marquee match would be better off without them. Any player in a North strip leaving the field not utterly spent has not done his duty in this one.
Carlton will likely start favourites, and could easily run away with this one, but I think North will show something and finally get their second Good Friday win since getting the slot.
North by 11.
