v's 
Sunday, April 13 (MCG)
v's
North Melbourne 2.3 5.5 6.8 12.8 (80) Essendon 3.6 9.8 11.13 18.14 (132)
Goals
Nth Melb: Roberts 3, A Stevens 2, Bell 2,
McKernan 2, Archer, Sholl, Allison
Essendon: Cockatoo-Collins 4, Lloyd 4, Hird 3,
Calthorpe 2, O'Connor, Lucas, Alessio, Bomford, Caracella
Essendon too strong
Essendon moved to the top of the AFL Ladder, by easily defeating North Melbourne. The win leaves the Bombers as the only undefeated team. North Melbourne struggled in the forward line, and had few winners on the ground. Essendon's backline was superb in holding North - late goals in the final quarter were all too late for North. Without a player that could take a mark in the forward line, Essendon cleared the ball on countless occassions. Even the Essendon forward line dominated the air, leaving North looking flat-footed.
Only McKernan, Pike and King had good games for North. Few other players beat their opponents, and Glenn Archer was well held by Fletcher. Pike did a good job on Hird, being moved on to him after he had kicked 3 first half goals.
North had no options up forward, and did not look capable of scoring for much of the match. Archer was too short for Fletcher, and Mark Stevens injured an ankle early on. North couldn't even bring the ball to ground to give the rovers a chance. Time after time North kicked the ball in to the forward line, only for an Essendon player to mark uncontested. It was one of the worst team performances for a long time.
Essendon looked impressive, and blooded new players, that immediately were able to slot in to the forward line and goal. After an even first quarter, which saw North in attack on more occassions Hird kicked two opportune goals. By half time the writing was on the wall - North was struggling, and there were few moves that Pagan could make. Longmire was ineffective at full forward and Schwass had a game he'd prefer to forget. Quite simply, North lacked the firepower to kick a winning score, and showed how important Wayne Carey is to the side.
North needs a forward to stand up in Carey's absence. Daniltchenko and Groom are injured, which means either Longmire, Sholl, Roberts or Mark Stevens need to fill the void. Archer can play a cameo role up forward, but is best suited to defense.