AFL 2025: North Melbourne without George Wardlaw for Essendon clash
North Melbourne will be without one of its prime movers after he hit a “savage” roadblock.
AFL
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North Melbourne will face Essendon on Thursday night without young gun George Wardlaw after he failed to recover from a “pretty savage corky”.
Wardlaw has been one of the Kangaroos’ shining lights in recent weeks after returning from his complex pre-season hamstring injury.
He was taken from the ground during North Melbourne’s narrow loss to Port Adelaide on Saturday and won’t tackle the Bombers at Marvel Stadium.
“No, no, George got a pretty savage corky in the game and has been unable to train,” North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson said.
“He was pretty close, to be fair, but we don’t think he’s recovered fully to be able to play at the level that’s required tomorrow night.
“He won’t be playing tomorrow night, unfortunately.”
North Melbourne is set to unveil high-flying forward Finbar Maley.
The 21-year-old was taken by the Kangaroos with pick No.2 in the 2023 rookie draft after an impressive run of VFL form at the Northern Bullants.
The Roos suffered another loss last weekend, their sixth for the season, but positively overturned a five-goal deficit with 11 of the next 18 goals after quarter time.
Clarkson said North Melbourne showed it had the capacity to challenge teams and was now tasked with sustaining that level for four quarters.
“They put a margin on us in the back-end of the first quarter where they kicked four quick goals. We were playing catch-up from that point in the game,” he said.
“We were really pleased with our endeavour and application to get ourselves back into the contest.
“We were right in it in the last few minutes of the game, we peppered the front half of the ground, we just weren’t able to find a way to put it though the big sticks.
“In terms of a contest and giving ourselves a chance, we did that, but we need to do it for four quarters. We did it for three last week … we work on that again tomorrow night.”
North Melbourne has not beaten Essendon since round 8 2016.
Originally published as AFL 2025: North Melbourne without George Wardlaw for Essendon clash
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