At halftime in all three of their opening games this season, North Melbourne found themselves in strong positions against quality sides, only to go on and lose.
Against Brisbane at Etihad Stadium on Sunday, the Kangaroos were again in a commanding position.
Coach Brad Scott made sure his side would not let the moment slip.
A seven-goal third quarter was the icing on the cake as the `Roos coasted home for their first win of the year and ran out comfortable 18.17 (125) to 9.8 (62) winners.
"We have had poor third quarters in the opening month but that has been a result of some pretty fundamental mistakes," said Scott.
"So at halftime we focused on making sure our organisation was really good. I was never in any doubt about our attack on the footy or our ability in the contest.
It was just about staying organised and not getting confused as we did last week."
The `Roos were never challenged by the Lions. In the opening minute of the game debutant Majak Daw took a spectacular mark and goaled to ignite his side.
The Kangaroos had winners across all the lines, with Jack Ziebell, Daniel Wells and Ryan Bastinac dominant in the midfield.
Even when Daw was forced from the field with concussion in the opening quarter, North had too many avenues to goal.
They had 12 different goal kickers, including spearheads Drew Petrie and Lindsay Thomas who both kicked four goals.
Petrie was reported for rough conduct on Brisbane's Rohan Bewick, while Lions midfielder Jack Redden faces a report of high contact against Leigh Adams.
"The Kangaroos really dominated ever facet from the start of the game so that puts you under enormous pressure to try and manufacture something," Brisbane coach Michael Voss said.
After winning the pre-season competition, the regular season had promised much for the Lions but now they have just one win from the opening month and Voss was worried about what he labelled an "unacceptable" performance.
"I think the last couple of weeks we've been building our form back so to come to the game today and not be able to have a good account of ourselves is just hugely disappointing. In the end we just got a lesson in work rate."
For Scott and the Kangaroos, the 63-point victory was their first of the season after losing to Collingwood, Geelong and Sydney in the opening rounds.
Scott said despite the defeats, the team had stayed its course.
"We just had to stay in the moment, stay in the present and not worry too much about those things," Scott said.
"It sounds boring but we had to fix up some fundamental errors in our game, which were really killing us.
"But as I have said in the previous weeks, 80 or 90 percent has been pretty good and today 90-95 percent was pretty good."
Next week the Kangaroos face another major test when they play Hawthorn, while Brisbane host Melbourne.
No comments:
Post a Comment