v's
Saturday, August 23 (MCG)
v's
North Melbourne 1.7 5.10 7.17 10.21 (81) Hawthorn 2.2 4.4 5.6 6.7 (43)
Goals
Nth Melb: Allison 4, Schwass, A Stevens, Archer, Longmire, Simpson, D Stevens
Hawthorn: Lord 2, Kappler, Chick, Langford, Platten
North Melbourne ran away from Hawthorn after halftime to extend to a 9 game winning streak against the Hawks. Before this streak began Hawthorn had won the previous 14 encounters.
Before the bounce of the game North lost Roberts, due to a back related hamstring injury. His loss left all the ruck duties to Longmire. Rock missed due to a torn lateral ligament in his knee. The loss of Roberts was further emphasised by the return of Salmon for Hawthorn.
Salmon dominated the ruck from the outset, and gave Hawthorn first use of the ball for the opening minutes of the game. His adept palming of the ball set up early opportunities for the running Hawks. But North stepped up and made up for the depleted ruck stocks by attacking the ball with typical hardness. This allowed North to overcome Hawthorn's good start. Conditions were shocking - it was a real Melbourne winter day. Few goals would come the way of set shots, and most scoring shots were snaps from packs. This was evident by the inaccuracy of North.
Hawthorn maintained the lead until time-on in the second quarter. North managed to level the scores with 3 minutes left, and then kicked two goals to take the lead. Given Hawthorn's poor second half performances recently it looked that North had finally broken the Hawthorn spirit. After the half Holland had a chance to narrow the deficit to 7 points, but hit the post from an acute angle on the goalline. Immediately North "rebounded" and goaled to seal the game with over a quarter left to play.
Best players for North were Pike, Carey (played the entire game at centre-half-back), Stevens and Simpson. Simpson's form was particularly good - and won praise from coach Pagan for his courage in attacking the ball. His clever tap set up a classic Allison goal. Allison proved how valuable he is in wet and windy conditions. He was the major goalkicker, with 4. His performances over the last four weeks has seen him the major goalkicker recently. Longmire battled admirably in the ruck all day, taking on three opponents in Salmon, Bone and Robran. Longmire made one crucial mistake, dropping a chest mark from the Hawthorn kick out which led to a Hawk goal. But he made up for the error by putting North in front with a snap from 35 metres out.
Blakey shut down Crawford, as did Scott on Platten. Archer, still not 100% fit, played in the forward line for the entire game. For next week Roberts should return. King gave North an early scare, being escorted by two trainers in the first quarter. But he returned to finish the game, and will play next week.