North Melbourne players celebrate a Jack Ziebell goal against Richmond Picture: Colleen Petch Source: News Limited
NORTH Melbourne's produced its most complete performance of the AFL season to dismantle Richmond today at Etihad Stadium.
The Kangaroos kept their faint finals hopes alive with the 62-point win, smothering the Tigers with a much-improved defensive effort.
While North coach Brad Scott struggled to find faults in the 19.14 (128) to 8.18 (66) win, Richmond counterpart Damien Hardwick was seething about his team's ball movement into attack.
As their inaccuracy suggests, Richmond could not adapt to North clogging them up inside 50.
“We made a real key focus this week of lowering our eyes inside 50 ... (it) didn't happen,” Hardwick said.
“If you bomb the ball to an outnumber, which we knew we were going to get, you're always going to get an arse-whipping and that's what happened.
“The second half we probably did a little bit better in that area, but it shouldn't be something that we focus on all week and take till half time to fix.”
Scott praised North key defender Lachie Hansen, who took a whopping 15 marks.
“He set up the game, I thought,” Scott said.
“For impact on the game, I don't think there were too many better players out there than him.”
Captain Andrew Swallow starred, while Levi Greenwood's tag on Trent Cotchin and Taylor Hine's role as a defensive forward against Brett Deledio were also crucial for North.
The Roos have made a shocking habit of being overrun this season and their fans would have been a little nervous when Richmond kicked the first goal of the third term.
But not even the Kangaroos could blow the 53-point lead they had amassed in the first half.
“My overwhelming feeling as the siren went is 'that's certainly our most complete performance',” Scott said.
“We've had some pretty well documented cases this year where we've haven't been able to adapt and today we did, so that was really pleasing.”
While North have a tough draw for the rest of the season, Scott remains upbeat about their finals hopes.
“There are going to be some huge challenges put in front of us,” he said.
“If we stand up to those and win them, we'll be worthy finals contenders.”
The loss means renewed debate about the Tigers, who will probably remain sixth despite Saturday's disaster.
It was their biggest losing margin and now they face Gold Coast in Cairns - a fixture they have lost for the last two years.
“You don't want to lump the whole season into one game,” Hardwick said.
“It's just disappointing that we come out and wanted to play a good style of footy and just couldn't get our game up and going.”
Adding to Richmond's woes, Bachar Houli was a late withdrawal with a hamstring injury.
Brandon Ellis (concussion) and Daniel Jackson (ankle) were hurt during the match.
NORTH MELBOURNE 3.3 11.6 15.8 19.14 (128)
RICHMOND 2.2 2.7 4.15 8.18 (66)
Goals: North Melbourne Kangaroos: R Tarrant 4 A Black 3 A Mullett 2 B Harvey 2 J Ziebell 2 R Bastinac 2 B Cunnington D Petrie L Greenwood S Gibson. Richmond: J Riewoldt 2 M White 2 S Morris 2 B Ellis D Jackson.
Best: North Melbourne Kangaroos: A Swallow L Adams T Hine L Hansen J Ziebell S Thompson B Harvey L Greenwood. Richmond: S Morris T Cotchin M White. Injuries: North Melbourne Kangaroos: Nil. Richmond: B Ellis (concussion) D Jackson (ankle) B Houli (hamstring) replaced in selected side by M Dea. Reports: Nil. Umpires: Chris Donlon, Dean Margetts, Jordan Bannister.
Crowd: 45,966 at Etihad Stadium.
AAP
No comments:
Post a Comment