Melbourne v North Melbourne: Christian Petracca, Clayton Oliver dominate as Demons smash Roos

A despondent Rhyce Shaw has lashed the performance of his players in North Melbourne’s shocking defeat to Melbourne, calling it unacceptable, and not “up to standard or befitting of our football club”. WATCH

Liz Walsh

5 min read

August 10, 2020 - 12:17PM

Dejected North Melbourne players after the game. Picture: Sarah Reed

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“Not good enough” was how a visibly disappointed Rhyce Shaw summed up his side’s 57-point thrashing at the hands of Melbourne.

The North Melbourne coach said after executing the game plan well in the first term and having a 10-point quarter-time buffer over the Demons, his side “decided to go a different path” and the game ended with his team playing a brand of footy that was “not up to standard”.

SCROLL DOWN TO WATCH SHAW’S FULL PRESS CONFERENCE

North Melbourne coach Rhyce Shaw says the performance was not “befitting” of the club. Picture: Matt Turner/AFL Photos

“Our display tonight for the majority of the game wasn’t acceptable, it wasn’t up to standard or befitting of our football club,” he said.

“I think we’re at a point now where this is unacceptable and it’s not the way that we want to play our football and for our members and fans they need to hear that and the reality is that we’re not good enough at the moment.”

With six games left in the season, Shaw said he would find out a lot about his players and his list.

“We’re at that stage I think now where that’s just the reality of it, I don’t think I’m saying anything that’s going to be a shock to anyone now,” he said.

“But in saying that, I don’t give up. That’s not me, that’s not this football club and it’s not what we’re about.

“We’ll look to produce good football over this period of time, but we’ll certainly find out about a few players.”

The Kangaroos were hampered by injury during the Sunday game at Adelaide Oval: Jed Anderson copped a poke to the eye, Josh Walker had a corked thigh, Robbie Tarrant had a cork in his calf as did Majak Daw, and Aiden Bonar had an AC injury in his shoulder.

They will spend the next couple of days in Adelaide before returning to the Gold Coast and Shaw said the next 24 hours would be “not very nice” as the team reviewed its loss.

But he said he had confidence his side could turn it around.

“I’d expect to see some fight, some adherence, the willingness to keep going,” he said.

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Dejected North Melbourne players after the game. Picture: Sarah Reed

NOT PERFECT, BUT DEES DOMINATE

In the end it was a rout, but that doesn’t mean Melbourne will walk away from its 57-point win over North Melbourne entirely satisfied.

The Dees turned a 16-point lead at three-quarter time into a veritable walk-in-the-park, as the Roos seemed to put up the white flag.

North had control early and was leading at quarter time, but you can never judge a game by its first stanza and the Demons wrestled back control thanks to North errors.

Melbourne rested captain Max Gawn (shoulder/back) and was without vice Jack Viney (concussion), so Jake Melksham stepped up and his third-quarter goal was good reward.

But it was Angus Brayshaw (29 touches), Clayton Oliver (31) and Christian Petracca (29 – and goal of the night) who were matchwinners.

For the Roos, Luke McDonald’s 33 disposals were important as were Nick Larkey’s four goals, but all in all, North put on a poor display and slumped to its eighth loss of the season.

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Kysaiah Pickett impressed for Melbourne against the Kangaroos. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty Images

Demons coach Simon Goodwin praised the maturity of his team for turning around the missed opportunities from the first term and converting them into the win overall.

“I thought our young emerging leaders really stood up and it was a real character victory in the end.

“We’re excited by our young kids. I thought Luke Jackson tonight, his first full game as a ruckman and Trent Rivers down back all showed glimpses of what they’re going to become.

“Kysaiah Pickett’s got a lot of ability and everybody sees that … he’s just so clever.”

Goodwin also praised his side’s defensive pressure and superior fitness that was on show, particularly in the last quarter.

“We’ve been really calm as a footy department around what our footy was looking like,” he said.

“We are starting to get those results now.

“We defended really strongly again and we’re becoming a really hard team to play against defensively and that’s what’s pleasing us most.

“A lot of our attack is built off the back of good defence and good contest stoppage work and we think our game’s coming together nicely.”

Goodwin added Gawn would be given right up until game time to prove his fitness for the Demons’ next test against Collingwood at The Gabba on Saturday.

Demon onballer Clayton Oliver hunts the footy against the Kangaroos. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty Images

Ruck battle

Goodwin decided against bringing in ruckman Braydon Preuss to cover Gawn and instead stuck with 18-year-old Luke Jackson, who broke a four-year drought at Melbourne by being named Rising Star for his Round 10 efforts against Adelaide.

But taking on Kangaroos’ 244-game veteran Todd Goldstein (and his No. 2 Majak Daw) in only his sixth game of AFL was always going to be a tough ask.

Jackson was aided by the returning Tom McDonald, but they were severely beaten.

Jackson won two hit-outs to half time – compared with Goldstein’s 10 – and Melbourne lost the hitout count 7-30.

Todd Goldstein and Luke Jackson contesting the ruck on Sunday night. Picture: Sarah Reed

Home ground advantage

This was a historic occasion with two Victorian teams clashing on Adelaide Oval, the Demons the home team.

The oval has a current crowd capacity capped at 10,000, and on a crisp winter’s night perhaps a couple of thousand supporters came out to witness the 12th versus 15th clash.

When Dees’ South Australian export Kysaiah Pickett manufactured a spectacular first-term goal by stealing the ball from a pack and snapping around his body, the cheers were just as loud as those when Daw soccered the opening goal off the game with a toe poke from the goalsquare.

Standard criticised

After a weekend of thrilling spectacles (a la Port/Richmond), the Demons/Roos clash proved something of a let-down, with an uninspired, error-filled display, especially in the first half.

Commentators called it “unforgettable”, while social media users were savage: “Is the correct description for this game “bin fire” or “bin juice”?” one user said on Twitter.

There were a combined 139 turnovers.

Sure, it wasn’t pretty, but the win was vital to the Demons’ season.

It puts them 5-5 with a game in hand and the fact the Demons did it easy in the end, is a percentage booster for them.

Sparrow put the cherry on top of a great night for the Dees ðŸ’

First goal for the young man! #AFLDeesNorth pic.twitter.com/Jh4BJey5aI
— AFL (@AFL) August 9, 2020