AFL round 13: North Melbourne breaks through for first win of 2024 against West Coast
North Melbourne has broken its 288-day winless drought – but the Roos almost blew it. Enter Jy Simpkin, to give his side a much-needed win to take the pressure off.
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During the week, North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson said he wanted the effort from his players to last longer against West Coast than it had in their previous 11 games.
That effort came and held on for just long enough, the Kangaroos claiming a thrilling nine-point win over the Eagles at Optus Stadium; their first victory for the season.
The Roos looked home when they led by 33 points early in the final term after captain Jy Simpkin kicked the first goal of the quarter.
They had to overcome an onslaught from Elliot Yeo and Jake Waterman, who got their team in front with six minutes still to play, before they could celebrate though.
Cruelly, a free kick against Yeo, under the tough holding-the-ball interpretation, gave Simpkin a second final-term goal and his side the win.
When Luke Davies-Uniacke is dominating through the midfield and Nick Larkey is kicking a handful of goals, the Roos look a lot more dangerous.
North hadn’t kept a team under 100 points before Saturday.
West Coast got nowhere near that in the 11.8 (74) to 8.17 (65) defeat, courtesy of some poor kicking.
With the new interpretation of rule not taking long to impact the result of a game, Eagles coach Adam Simpson had to bite his tongue post-match.
Simpson acknowledges the reasons why the AFL has made a tweak, but said it was difficult to adjust to on the fly.
“It’s hard to ask after what happened tonight,” he said after the loss.
“I think it was settle. Players adjust, but on the fly, it is difficult.
“We can’t coach differently, so I don’t know what to say to Elliot, ‘don’t win the ball?’
“I get why we made the tweak, but it seems like it will take some time to get it right.
“Players will work it out, but we have to work it out on the fly.
“They are pretty smart and normally work their way around it and it won’t be a talking point.
“At the moment, it’s a talking point because the game looks different on occasions.”
But when another question came, Simpson cut it off.
“I’m not talking about that free kick anymore because I’ll get in trouble.”
ALL EFFORT, NO REWARD
North Melbourne was kept goalless in the opening term, but should not have been.
The Roos had the first 10 clearances of the game, but couldn’t turn their dominance into scores.
They kicked just 0.1 in the first term, from 10 inside 50 entries.
West Coast finally got going and only led by nine points at quarter-time because of Jack Darling’s inaccuracy.
The Eagles veteran booted 1.3 in the opening term, his goal coming from a free kick in a ruck contest against Tristan Xerri. It was one of the few errors from Xerri all game.
Clearances ended up 13-6 in favour of North at quarter-time.
It is the first quarter this season when North failed to kick a goal.
WEIGHT OF NUMBERS
The Roos made up for the lack of scoring in the second term though, booting four for the quarter.
They just had to score, based on the parts of the game they were dominating.
By halftime, that clearance advantage had grown to 18, including 6-0 in centre-clearances. The Eagles may have been missing Harley Reid and Tim Kelly, but they still had Yeo.
The Roos had put on 19 more tackles and had earned 12 more contested possessions.
North provided the effort in the opening half, and held an eight-point lead.
Nick Larkey kicked two for the term, the first time he’s kicked multiple goals since round 8, against St Kilda.
The only other time the Roos have led at halftime this season was against Fremantle in round 2.
They fell away after the main break in that game, losing by 26 points.
They fell away this time, too – but did enough to hold on.
“It’s great that we’re able to get the win and just get a little bit of a reward for effort,” North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson said post-match.
“Our boys have been working hard, the spirit and morale of the group has been really strong for the whole of the year despite the losses.
“It didn’t look like it was going to be that way 25 minutes into the last quarter when Waterman kicked that goal to get them in front.
“I think the Duggan concussion might have helped us a little bit, because it just sapped a little bit of momentum out of the game and that just allowed us to settle a little bit.
“We actually needed that when the momentum was so strong.
“It’s so hard in games now to stop opposition momentum and you’re usually hoping that it’s a three-quarter-time siren or something like that, that allows your side to settle.
“But I just thought over the course of the game, we were able to sustain that effort in the middle of the ground on a consistent basis.
“A lot of the stats that we’re searching for around pressure and our contested ball and our clearances were really really good over the course of the day.”
EMBRACING INNOVATION
All three of the Eagles mid-season draft selections played on Saturday – Jai Culley (2022), Ryan Maric (2023) and Jack Hutchinson, who was plucked from Collingwood’s VFL side only 11 days earlier.
All three play forward, but none of them were able to hit the scoreboard.
But almost every Eagle who did kick goals made their way on to the list in ways other than with regular national draft selection.
Darling joined the club as a priority pick in 2010, while Jamie Cripps was a part of a trade in 2012 with St Kilda.
Matt Flynn was an unrestricted free agent, picked up in the pre-season from Greater Western Sydney.
And Waterman, who booted three in the final term, was a father-son selection, following his dad, Eagles premiership player, Chris.
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