Round 4 – North Melbourne v Carlton: The Premiership Quarter.

April 5, 2026 by Greg A Leave a Comment

Round 4

North Melbourne v Carlton

3.15 pm, Good Friday 2026

Marvel Stadium

Patti Smith sang “Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine”. Maybe those sins were mine?

Was it because I had forsaken Carlton during the Pagan and Malthouse eras, having earlier revelled in the success of the 80s and 90s?

I had embraced the star-studded teams yet gave it away when the salary cap and draft put the brakes on them. (Recruiting was so much simpler when you just jumped on a plane with a bag full of cash …)

In our glory days they used to call the third quarter the ‘Premiership Quarter’.

It still holds true today.

Nearing the halfway point of the third quarter, Sam Walsh tackles Toby Pink on the wing. Walsh wins the free kick and receives the gift of a 50m penalty. Walsh duly slots the long goal, like good players should, and the Blues are 20 points up.

Carlton has scored the first three goals to start the second half. They made a total of 13 tackles in the first half but have already laid 16 tackles to this point of the third quarter. The Blues are on top.

Then what?

An unnecessary downfield free kick is immediately given up by Heyward (his second for the match). It may have been touch and go, but he was late and took the body with a swinging arm. It’s a fine line between necessary and unnecessary aggression, but he erred on the wrong side. North goals through Larkey and the momentum is halted.

A Carlton clearance through Walsh comes to Kemp, his long shot looks good for a long way but hits the post. The first case of what if …?

A slow, patient buildup by the Blues, working the ball back and across the ground, finds its way to big Harry on the lead. The big bloke is 40m out, just off centre but favouring a left footer.

And … he misses it!!!

Now, if you are a key forward that has been starved of good service for a long time, when a second gamer like young Byrne hits you with a beautiful stab pass that gives your opponent no chance (until you juggle it), you must, MUST, go back and slot the goal.

Carlton should be up by 21 with 6 minutes left in the quarter.

Another what if …?

But this time it is just not good enough. Just kick the bloody goal!

The talented Duursma butchers the chance to punish the Blues immediately but gets another chance from the goal line two minutes later.

In between, Ainsworth misses another kickable set shot, just a touch harder than McKay’s shot.

Although I mark key forwards harder, if you are a career half-forward you need to take chances like this when they come up, or risk starving to death! What if …?

A late scrappy goal worked by Cripps and Jagga on the goal line puts the Blues out to a 16 point lead in the shadows of three-quarter time.

Then big Harry clunks another contested mark from a Hewett clearance (another double grab though!). He redeems himself by goaling after the siren.

These two late goals leave Carlton 22 points up at three-quarter time.

But the way the last 11 minutes have played out you can’t help but think they could have been 30+ points in front by now.

Carlton should have iced the game during the third quarter, but a couple of bad misses means that when your key defender is knocked out of the game 20 seconds into the final quarter, the game is back on.

North is relentless in the final quarter, and the Blues are left chasing jumpers. Game over.

Still, it should not have come to this, 22 points seems a lot more gettable than 32 points.

Bad kicking is bad football.

NORTH MELBOURNE 3.3 5.7 7.9 14.12 (96)
CARLTON 3.4 6.4 11.7 13.8 (86)

GOALS
North Melbourne: Duursma 3, Trembath 3, Larkey 2, Curtis 2, Darling, Zurhaar, Sheezel, Simpkin
Carlton: Kemp 3, Pittonet 2, McKay 2, McGovern 2, Newman, Walsh, Hollands, Smith

BEST
North Melbourne: Davies-Uniacke, McKercher, Duursma, Larkey, Trembath
Carlton: E.Hollands, Pittonet, Kemp, McKay, Hewett

INJURIES
North Melbourne: Nil
Carlton: Weitering (concussion)

Crowd: 45,919 at Marvel Stadium