Sydney defeats gutsy North Melbourne by nine points at Blundstone Arena to seize top spot

SYDNEY has held on against a gutsy North Melbourne side to record a nine-point victory at Blundstone Area, seizing top spot in the process.

Isaac Heeney celebrates a goal. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)

IF IT wasn’t for the grey sky and the crowd’s chattering teeth, you would have thought it was September.

North Melbourne played like its precarious position inside the eight suggested it had to and Sydney, which sat top ahead of the Adelaide-Port Adelaide clash last night, showed how desperate it is to secure a home qualifying final.

It was ugly, it was tense. The pressure was on, particularly on North.

And that pressure will only intensify now as North Melbourne’s ninth loss in its past 12 games gives Melbourne the chance to displace it in the eight in Round 23.

If the Demons beat Carlton on Sunday they’re one win behind the Kangaroos with a round to play.

People say the Swans aren’t fast, but that must mean their leg speed because their ball movement was lethal in the opening term, as was their midfield.

North Melbourne was gallant, but that won’t mean much.

Ageing champion Brent Harvey bobbed up — just give him that contract will you North — with three second-half goals, two to get the Kangaroos within three points.

But as he willed himself to give the Kangaroos the lead in the final term, an outcome that looked impossible in the third term, he coughed the ball up inside his forward 50 and Tom Mitchell quickly cleared to an unusually quiet Lance Franklin who raced the ball forward where Dan Hannebery made the most of the play to kick the Swans away again.

North Melbourne finished on top in clearances, tackles, inside 50s 63 to 49) and contested possessions but not on the scoreboard and defender Jamie Macmillan said it was a “sombre mood” in the dressing rooms post-match.

“Little errors at costly times proved the difference,” Macmillan said

“That’s probably the difference between the two teams at the minute. They’re clearly the best team in the competition in my opinion. They’re as clean as anything, we fumble one or two balls, they pick it up and go bang, bang down the other end.”

Macmillan said the Kangaroos weren’t concerned they hadn’t sealed a finals place yet.

“The funny thing is the last couple of years we’ve been in worse positions where we’ve had to rely on others to lose,” he said.

“We’ve still got a game next week, we win the game, we’ve playing finals, it’s as simple as that.

“At least the ball’s in our court.”

Swan Luke Parker was superb. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)

North Melbourne was gone 19 minutes into the third term. The Swans kicked three consecutive goals to go 28 points up, the biggest lead of the match.

But through Harvey, Nick Dal Santo and Daniel Wells, North pegged it back and when Wells picked out Ben Brown, who kicked truly, suddenly it was a seven point ball game just before three-quarter-time.

The Kangaroos stayed in the game early through the class of midfielder Dal Santo who kicked two late quarter goals, he covered the length of the ground to play a crucial role in defence too.

Sydney’s midfield was dominant in the opening quarter, with Luke Parker picking up 16 possessions before the first break — George Hewett’s first quarter goal seemingly scored just a minute from centre bounce to Parker clearance.

The Kangaroos shut the Swans down in the second, the team’s mid-week tactic of “team defence” resulting in 14 inside 50s to the Swans’ seven.

The Kangaroos forwards, virtually unnoticed in the first term, found the ball in the second but the teaming of Brown, Drew Petrie and Majak Daw just didn’t get the results.

North Melbourne players rue one that got away. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)

Brown started slow in his return from a knee injury, but warmed to his home state crowd, taking several strong marks in front of Dane Rampe.

Franklin, who famously kicked 13.4 against the Kangaroos back in 2012 when he was a Hawk, had little influence in the first half after copping a bump to his hip mid-way through the first term.

Franklin was forced from the ground and was treated in the rooms. He battled on but was clearly in pain, most noticeably when he was crunched in a contest between North Melbourne hard nuts Jack Ziebell and Ben Cunnington.

Robbie Tarrant went to Franklin and was again impressive for the Kangaroos.

Kurt Tippett hadn’t played any footy since Round 12 but looked lively and like he’d lost none of his touch.

He started forward and helped out in the ruck contests around the ground, his deft touch to Dan Hannebery inside 50 resulted in Jarrad McVeigh’s second goal.

SYDNEY 5.4 6.8 11.9 12.13 (85)

NORTH MELBOURNE 3.4 4.8 9.13 10.16 (76)

GOALS:

SYDNEY: D Hannebery 2 G Rohan 2 J McVeigh 2 B McGlynn G Hewett I Heeney J Kennedy J Lloyd T Papley.

NORTH MELBOURNE: B Harvey 3 B Brown 2 N Dal Santo 2 B McKenzie D Petrie T Goldstein.

BEST

SYDNEY: Hannebery, Parker, Kennedy, Heeney, McVeigh, Tippett

NORTH MELBOURNE: Harvey, Dal Santo, Wells, Ziebell, McMillan

VOTES

3 Dan Hannebery

2 Luke Parker

1 Brent Harvey