North Melbourne Kangaroos - Must Win Saturday Night Game!

With 2 weeks to go North Melbourne sit 6 points out of the 8. That is 1 and a half (draw) wins for those of you who aren't used to the simple scoring systems of the Australian Football League. A win is worth 4 points, a draw is 2 points, a goal is 6 points on the scoreboard and a behind is 1 point. Yes that's right if you miss the target but are pretty close you get rewarded.

Well now that you've caught up, the Kangaroos need to win both of their last 2 games to be a chance to play finals. Their first opportunity comes this Saturday against St Kilda. This will be their biggest challenge then they finish off the regular season against Richmond which should (sic) be an easier offering. Like a virgin (which I'm assuming Jack Riewoldt is!) sacrificed into the volcano (which is Eddie McGuire).

North Melbourne accounted well for themselves in their last meeting in round 15 falling just 9 points short after kicking 1 goal 4 in the last quarter and keeping the Saints scoreless. The Roos have been a much more successful playing an up tempo game since then culminating in the 98 point drilling of the Fremantle Dockers last Saturday night. What most bouys me most (apart from my unusually high fat %) is the fact it was such a team game. 10 players had 20+ possessions, another 8 had 15 -19 and every player registered 10 or more apart from Jack Ziebell who received a bruised lung early (he still tried to play for almost a quarter before coming off, what a hard man he is. At 20 give him 2 pre-seasons and the AFL will have to introduce a new Ziebell rule for his crunching tackle sand shirt fronts). Another promising sign was the debut of Aaron Mullett who looked at home with 17 possies, 3 tackles and 4 inside 50's. He was also cleaned up and jumped to feet adding to the strong mind strong bodies of the new age Roos. Former All-Australian Hamish McIntosh has also recovered from Achilles issues to push for selection. Brad Scott will never drop AA contender Todd Goldstein so will he play 2 feature ruckmen who can go forward and kick goals?

Where the game will be won:

Total Disposals: 11th in the AFL - Dal Santo (StK), 14 - Swallow (NMFC)
Goals: 6 - Milne (StK), 11 - Petrie (NMFC), 18 - Edwards (NMFC)
Tackles: 7 - Jones (StK), 9 - Swallow (NMFC)
Hit Outs: 1 - Goldstein (NMFC), 7 - McEvoy (StK)
Inside 50's: 11 - Wells (NMFC), 14 - Swallow (NMFC)
Total score for: 1932 - NMFC, 1670 - StK
Total score against: 1541 - StK, 1856 - NMFC

Most does it mean? Both teams are about average in total disposals and tackles. North kick a lot of their goals with their 3 tall forwards, Petrie (42 goals), Edwards (32) and super mature aged rookie of the year Cameron Pederson (17 from 13 games) (who since solidifying his position in the team has kicked at least a goal 8 of the last 9 weeks, the one week off being the slapping by Collingwood where the team kicked only 3 goals total.) and evergreen Brent Harvey's 29. Whereas St Kilda have dangerous small forward/serial pest Stephen Milne (48 goals) with Nick Riewoldt kicking 30 and Adam Schneider (another small forward) kicking 23.

Goldstein should have the advantage over St Kilda's Ben McEvoy in the ruck and if he gives the Roos midfield first use of the ball they need to spread and run up a score. North have scored 250 more points and St Kilda have been winning by keeping the score down. So North are more likely to win a high (100+) scoring game where the Saints will win if they keep the score down.

Both teams matched up pretty well earlier in the year so this is likely to be an intriguing clash for the non-involved spectator and a real white knuckle encounter for us Roos and Saints supporters.

Until then hail to the high hat!

North Melbourne Kangaroos - Round 22 Review

Round 22 @ Etihad Stadium vs Fremantle Dockers

North Melbourne Kangaroos 6.1 10.7 16.10 21.17 143



Fremantle Dockers 3.1 3.4 5.7 6.9 45

With both teams sitting in 9th and 10 spot with a slim chance of slipping into the top 8 this is literally a make or break game. Loser = out and the winner can keep their marginal hopes alive. Sure the Dockers have had their share of injuries and more but they came into this game as full strength as they have all year including skipper Pavlich and perennial All-Australian ruckman Aaron Sandilands. This was always going to be a good challenge for the young and hungry Roos as they had battled valiantly bust lost their previous two games against top 4 teams.
 
Fremantle scored the opening goal in the first 45 seconds but the Roos didn't shirk winning the first quarter with 6 goals to 3. Andrew Swallow was getting lots of it including important contested stuff. Cam Pederson chipped in with 2 important goals while Petrie was having a quiet one.
 
In the second quarter what became apparent was the stiffling defence and the midfield making it hard to Fremantle to get any quality inside 50's. Scott 'Hunter' Thompson and Michael 'Spud' Firrito were particularly stingy! The Roos won the quarter kicking 4 goal to none and opened up the margin like a pinata.
 
This is where I was worried the Roos would take their foot off the throttle and either win by a slim margin or heaven forbid lose. Instead they stepped on toes and necks winning the quarter 6 goals to 2 and putting the result out of reach.
 
The Roos kicked 5 goals 7 to 1 and if not for slight inaccuracy in front of goal would have won by 100+ points instead having to settle for a 98 point victory.
 

What was most interesting was the absence of Drew Petrie on the score sheet and the evenness of the contributors across the ground. Andrew Swallow was best a field with 30 possessions including 16 contested, 7 inside 50's and 7 tackles. Aaron Edwards and Cam Pederson finished with 3 goals a piece and Todd Goldstein battle 2 200+cm giants alone and finished with 20 hit outs, 16 possessions, 4 inside 50's and 2 goals. 10 players registered 20+ possession games on the way to achieving the greatest winning margin for the Kangaroos since 2003.
 
Stats of interest: The Kangaroos scored 10 goals from marks and 10 from general play. Fremantle were 4 and 1. Fremantle also fielded more than player with 100 or more games under their belt. 7 to 5. It must also be noted that match winner Matthew Pavlich left the game for the Dolce and Cabbana red vest which did not help the Dockers. However one of our most important midfielders for the last 2 months Jack Ziebell was hurt in a heavy collision very early in the game and left also before being able to even register 1 possession. Not a straight swap but please don't use injury to argue a 98 point pounding.
 
Roo Rating: 9 1/2 / 10
 
Daniel Wells
 

Daniel did have some quiet patches but stood up when it counted finishing with 25 possies, 2 goals and a stunning 10 inside 50's. A far cry from Wellsey's best but after a couple of quiet weeks this is what he needed to remind All-Australian selectors he can play.
 
Wells Rating: 8 / 10
 
St Kilda are playing Sydney as I type this and 'we' play St Kilda next Saturday Night. These 2 games are crucial for the Kangaroos to get a sniff at the panties of the voluptuous siren I call Mistress Finals.
 
Until then hail to the Purple People Eater!