North Melbourne v Melbourne
by Steve Healy
What a season for the Demons, so many ups and downs- the pattern had been a fantastic effort followed by coach-threatening loss. On this afternoon at Docklands I was convinced that pattern would continue.
The sun was shining, the sky was mostly blue, so I wasn’t surprised to see the roof was closed as I got inside the stadium I like to call Away. Sometimes footy just sucks, and there was simply no better way for a Dees supporter to describe it. After the jubilation of a 96-point thumping, Trengove of all people was cited for ‘A tackle’ which cost him three weeks under the Tribunal’s new system of ‘Make no sense of the incident whatsoever’. He joined Scully on the sideline, who is suffering from a rare knee injury in which the week number never seems to drop with the corresponding weeks that pass by. To add to this, Jamar (our most important player) injured his knee and Grimes (not our most important player) added to his injury-cursed career and will now miss the season.
On a positive note, you cannot worry about injuries when all footy is really about is the games that are played (the media don’t seem to understand that). Thankfully, a trait that the Demons have is that they will surprise you quite regularly. And the start of this game was no exception. The most unlikely of anyone on the ground starred in the first quarter. Michael Newton- in for his first game of the year, silenced criticism of his selection by making a startling impact in the first slice of the match. He took two marks inside fifty in the opening few minutes for 1.1. With a goal from each side in between, he then was hit in the face by Pratt (Come on, it was genuine!) and was awarded a fifty in which he nailed his second. With Newton playing well, we looked unstoppable. Petterd kicked one. Jurrah kicked a couple in a row, already his 16th and 17th goals for the year. The Roos got a couple back but Bartram nailed one just before the siren to give us a comfortable four goal lead. All looked well.
But the Dees just floated away, as they tend to. Aaron Edwards thrived on Melbourne’s poor marking inside fifty and kicked a few cheap ones for the quarter. Brent Harvey kicked a Brent Harvey goal to celebrate his 33rd birthday. Jurrah flew and kicked our only goal of the third quarter for some breathing space, but it was back to seven points and things were looking ominous. Brent Moloney was just held to six possessions in the first half, astounding given his amazing season.
The second half started and things began to look worse and worse. Our defence was vulnerable, ridiculous free kicks were being given away (Such as the one that gifted Harvey the goal). Aaron Edwards, a player who I have always highly rated, continued his goal feast with a couple more including one where he wheeled to the right superbly. While an old woman to my right tried to keep me entertained (and failed, although she was nice to me) the game slipped away. Wonaeamirri missed a couple of crucial shots. We did have a semi-fight back, with Maric snapping superbly (what an improver he is!) and Petterd driving home, but it was simple defensive errors and failed goal attempts that were killing us.
Maric stood up in the last quarter to kick two more, but the Roos ran rapid, and a goal from Aaron Edwards, running in to goal in an open fifty just summed up the day. Kieran Harper was showing some good signs for the Roos too, although he just had eight possessions he kicked a classy goal in the last quarter and looked good. Daniel Wells was the real hero, after being lost for a few years he has finally found his place. Goldstein dominated as well, although Martin was pretty good he was still well beaten. Late in the game, we dropped Dunn and Watts in defence, a regrettable coaching move.
As is turns out, Garland will now miss 6-8 weeks with an ankle injured, Bail will miss 4-6 with a knee, and Dunn is suspended for two for a fairly soft incident on Daniel Pratt. The cruelness of footy continues…
North Melbourne—3.2—7.5—14.7—19.10 (124)
Melbourne—7.2—8.6—10.10—12.11 (83)
Goals
North Melbourne: Edwards 6, Harvey 3, Wells 3, Hansen 2, Goldstein 2, Speight, Harper, Adams.
Melbourne: Maric 3, Jurrah 3, Newton 2, Petterd 2, Bartram, Watts.
My Votes: 3. D.Wells (NM), 2. T.Goldstein (NM), 1. A.Edwards (NM). Crowd: 23,536.
Steve, where do you see the Demons finishing, given the injuries and mixed form?
LOVE IT BABY! <3
Well Gigs, It’s hard to pinpoint, but as long as every up is equivalent to every down (and we have an exact 50% winning record), out of the 17 teams we will finish 8.5..which unfortunately rounds up to 9th. But 9th for us is about 12-13th.