An emphatic statement in the opening quarter by North Melbourne to not only stun the undefeated Adelaide Crows who have been averaging a league high 130 points a week, to keeping them scoreless has been one of the many jaw dropping outcomes of the Round 7 which ended with a thumping ten goal hammering of the top of the ladder team. 145-86.
North Melbourne Stuns Top of the Ladder Adelaide Crows 145-86 in AFL Round 7
The vital coin toss victory was the catalyst as North took full advantage of the strong breeze to open up the first quarter with an incredible ten goal to zero burst. It was a complete domination as Jarrad Waite played an incredible game in the forward line early after returning back to the team from a lengthy injury lay-off, to snaffle three first quarter goals before finishing off strongly with a bag of six and now faces a one week suspension for a heavy tackle on the Crows big man, Tom Lynch who left the field with concussion.
Midfielder Ben Cunnington opened up the game with an impressive boundary set shot goal and ended the goal rout with a clever snap in the closing stages of the game when he extended the North lead to a game high 72 points, as one of the many players to bring his A-game.
Even though the Crows scored 5 goals to 2 in the second quarter, it was North’s persistent pressure with a season high 90 tackles and smarter team play for most of the game which didn’t allow the Crows a chance to get back into the contest as the half time lead of 42 points was marginally whittled back to as close as 32 points early in the third quarter. However, North were not prepared to let this lead slip as forward Mason Wood and Jarrad Waite scored goals late in the third term to break out the margin to 53 points. A Ben Brown dribbling goal early in the last quarter pushed out the lead to 59 points which basically killed off the contest.
Veteran Shaun Higgins proved to be very elusive all game with his creative play which included two goals along with marking forward Mason Wood who had ten marks and two goals. Midfielder Trent DuMont and utility Luke McDonald maintained the resistance with plenty of midfield control allowing the hard nut of the team, Ben Cunnington to extract 13 clearances. The unheralded Sam Gibson was given a monumental task in shutting down the dangerous Rory Sloane who is the engine room for the Crows along with 21 year old Kayne Turner, who put his small body on the line continually, taking some very courage marks and taking some nasty hits yet contributed exceptionally well to the victory.
A season high tackle count of 90 along with having a dozen individual goal scorers underlined why North dominated this game from the get-go. The Crows managed 50 tackles which would tame most lower ranked teams. With a handful of starters missing including Taylor Garner who was a late change, North seem to built a belief that their finals aspirations are strong possibility despite starting 0-5. To get back to playing this uncompromising brand and the results will speak for themselves.
North’s head coach, Brad Scott who orchestrated the perfect gameplan to nullify the Crows dangerous weapons said post game, “The defenders were fantastic, they stuck to their task really well. But I think that any defender will tell you that the supply of ball coming down is going to be probably the number factor in whether you’ll defend effectively”. The Crows could only muster 46% of opportunities in which 23% were successful. North on the other hand, were 54% successful.
It was very much like the Round 7 meeting of the 1999 game after Adelaide’s ’98 Grand Final shock victory in which the North players wanted to rectify the embarrassing second half performance with a statement quarter from the first bounce. Ironically the totals at the end of the game mirrored North’s big scoring victory this week.
Next week, North host the Grand Finalist, The Sydney Swans, who finally broke thru for their first win this week with a nine goal towelling of the hapless Brisbane Lions. The Swans always seem to bring their best against North and if North are not switched on, the Swans will make it a dour and difficult contest on Mothers Day.
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