We defy you not hear the theme music from “The Godfather” playing in your mind, as you read Matt Watson’s thoughts on North Melbourne’s “impossible” task in Perth. Can they get out alive?
Preliminary Final – West Coast v North Melbourne Preview: Difficult, not impossible
Finals Week 2 – Sydney v North Melboourne: An empty forward line, space in cupboards
Matt Watson had played the Semi-Final over dozens of times before the match. It unfolds here.
Crazy fantasies about victory
There are many different ways in which North Melbourne could win on Saturday night. Matt Watson has fantasised about them all.
Finals Week 1 – Richmond v North Melbourne: The Tigers of old – for the vanquished
Matt Watson enjoyed North’s win over the Tigers, but with close family ties to Richmond, he was more than able to empathise with the LSPRF (The Long Suffering Punt Rd Faithful – to borrow from The Wrap).
Finals Week 1 – Richmond v North Melbourne preview: Do Tigers eat kangaroo?
Matt Watson uses a past experience and knowledge about Tigers and Kangaroos (the animals) to explain what may happen between the two clubs with said animals as mascots.
Round 23 – Richmond v North Melbourne: Desperation without demand for victory
Matt Watson had a fundamental disagreement with the strategy employed by North Melbourne at selection last week, so he too had a less than full-strength commitment to supporting North against Richmond. Friday night’s result was hardly a surprise, but the self-imposed additional pressure it now places on the club heading into an Elimination final showdown with the same opponent nine days later is unwelcome and distracting, argues Matt.
Building a sustained platform…
Carlton Football Club has a new coach. Matt Watson wonders about Brendon Bolton’s platforms, honesty, game plan, his blank canvas, his preconceived ideas and his open mind (among other things).
The Quandary of Michael Clarke
Michael Clarke has gone. Matt Watson reviews Clarke’s career and his time in the public gaze.
Looking After a Mate’s Bat
Matt and Russ remember their departed Oak Park mate, Jason “Jabba” Ball. (Beautiful – Ed.)
Round 17 – Brisbane v North Melbourne: The curse is dead; long live the curse.
As Almanackers will appreciate from previous years, for Matt Watson, this weekend was all about The Curse. Russ was in town. For a North Melbourne game…
Brisbane Lions a cinch to win
Iron Mike reports on a 20 year old sporting curse that threatens to ruin Boomer’s 400th this weekend.
Oak Park Football Club – dreams on offer
A touching memoir in which Matt Watson recalls his childhood dreams – formed on the J P Fawkner Reserve – of playing in the big time. But there were other Oak Park players who made it. And we also discover how it came to pass that Matt is a North Melbourne fan.
Clichés of the press conference
Staying “on message”, Matt Watson lets Footy Almanac readers in on what really happens behind the scenes of your average footy presser.
Round 14 – Gold Coast v North Melbourne: Unreasonable demands
Matt Watson taps into every fans’ visceral hatred of losing. And this one’s made all the more hurtful through the realisation that it’s time for Arden St to go back to re-building mode.
My (absent) left foot
Matt Watson discusses how players in this day and age have lost the art of having a left foot.
Round 11 – North Melbourne v Sydney: The lapse – two quarters of football?
Taking nothing away from the Swans, Matt Watson laments North Melbourne’s ability to fall asleep at the wheel at crucial stages of games.
The bloody brutality of boxing – Daniel Geale
Iron Mike on the contrasting fortunes between two boxers who met on Saturday: Australian Daniel Geale and Puerto Rican Miguel Cotto.
Killer instinct?
North supporter Matt Watson shares his disappointment as he discusses how North Melbourne may lack that killer instinct.
Round 8 – Geelong v Carlton: Dog Eat Dog
Matt Watson notes how AC/DC’s ‘Dog Eat Dog’ could well have been written with foresight to describe the predicament that Mick Malthouse and Carlton FC currently finds themselves in.
North Melbourne free zone
Matt Watson finds the inner (footy mad) child within all of us? What women couldn’t approve of home decorating by team colours?











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