‘Goal assist of the year’ stuns AFL world as North topple Gold Coast

A North Melbourne star has left jaws on the floor after he wound back the clock and delivered a highlight moment for the ages.

Tom Powell unleashed a monster barrel

North Melbourne’s Tom Powell wound the clock back and left jaws on the floor on Saturday afternoon as the Roos toppled the Gold Coast Suns at Marvel Stadium.

While the win snapped a three-game losing streak, it was Powell’s moment of brilliance in the first quarter that stole the show.

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The 22-year-old marked the footy on the defensive 50 before strolling into the centre square as he assessed the options ahead of the play.

After a handful of steps and with no pressure coming from any Gold Coast Suns player, Powell elected to go old school and unleash a torpedo.

The ball sailed through the air under the Marvel Stadium roof and went over the head of every player into open space.

Tom Powell unleashed a monster barrel

Powell launched the ball from 10m inside the centre square with the ball landing around 30m out from goal in open space.

North forward Liam Shiels ran onto the bouncing footy and dribbled the goal through from 15m out to give his team an early 19-1 lead in the first quarter.

“Powell saw they were out goal side and he’s kicked a 70m bomb to set up Shiels, one of the great goal assists of the season,” Leigh Montagna said on Fox Footy.

Powell’s moment of magic added to a stunning afternoon for North as they held on against a fast finishing Suns outfit.

After leading by 18 points early in the final term, North survived a late scare as Ben Ainsworth’s set shot to put the Suns in front with less than 90 seconds remaining missed left as North secured the 13.9 (87) to 12.11 (83) victory.

The win came as reward for effort after gallant losses to Collingwood, Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs in their past three outings.

Harry Sheezel had 35 disposals including 11 in the final term to go with a game-high ten clearances for the match, while Colby McKercher returned from a foot injury with a career-best 37 disposals including 12 in the last quarter.

Sheezel was on fire on Saturday. (Photo by Morgan Hancock/AFL Photos/via Getty Images)

North came out firing with the first three goals of the game in the opening six minutes and despite five unanswered goals from the Suns in response, they never seemed phased.

A five goal second term got the Kangaroos back on track as Sheezel, Luke Davies-Uniacke and Jy Simpkin dominated in the middle, while McKercher played the role of chief architect of their ball movement from half back.

Sheezel’s leadership was on show with a crucial set shot goal - he has a perfect record of seven from seven set shots this year - late in the third quarter and a strong mark deep in defence in the final term.

Davies-Uniacke was similarly dominant at the stoppages with nine clearances and a goal among his 30 disposals, and he almost blew the roof off with a running shot that missed in the last quarter.

The Suns won the centre clearance battle 15-12 with Matt Rowell having seven of his own and it resulted in them having 16 more inside 50s but they have been the worst side in the competition at generating shots at goal from their inside 50s in the past four weeks and the trend reared its head again.

North’s defenders held firm led by Charlie Combden - who racked up ten intercept possessions and nine marks in yet another strong showing - which allowed North’s midfielders to go to work around the ground as they won the clearances 45-29.

For Gold Coast, they continue to be the AFLs’s Jekell and Hyde with an unbeaten record while being winless away.

- with Dane Heverin, NCA Newswire

Originally published as ‘Goal assist of the year’ stuns AFL world as North topple Gold Coast