North Melbourne defeats Brisbane Lions by 34 points, Round 2 2016 at the Gabba

NORTH Melbourne held off a gritty Brisbane Lions in hot conditions at the Gabba on Saturday evening, with Jarrad Waite kicking four goals.

AFL Rd 2 - Brisbane v North Melbourne

OLD heads were too hot for a fumbling, bumbling Brisbane at the Gabba on Saturday night with North Melbourne’s evergreen veterans guiding the Kangaroos to a 34-point win in sweltering conditions.

Jarrad Waite (five goals, six marks and 23 possessions), Daniel Wells (23 possessions and seven clearances) and Brent Harvey (two goals, 24 touches) were at the forefront of the tradesman-like win that leaves last year’s preliminary finalists with a perfect start to 2016.

Brisbane’s ham-fisted attempt at run-and-gun football backfired far too often as they either turned the ball over on a silver platter for the Kangas or missed gettable shots at goal.

The Lions were robust early but there were no excuses for the series of schoolboy errors littered throughout the match – especially in the second term when North Melbourne took hold.

Fans and ice packs were the order of the day on the interchange benches as the mercury soared to 30 degrees and the Kangaroos scorched Brisbane when it really mattered as the most experienced list in football schooled the youngest list.

Brsbane showed some fight in the fourth quarter but it was too little, too late after the Kangas dominated the middle two terms.

A Nick Dal Santo goal extended North Melbourne’s lead to 28 points after halftime but goals to Ryan Lester, Tom Rockliff and Josh Green brought Brisbane back into the contest.

North Melbourne re-asserted their authority through Dal Santo again but caught Brisbane’s goalkicking yips and started to spray shots in front of the sticks.

The Kangaroos straightened themselves up and kicked away again through Jack Ziebell and Waite to surge away to 37-point lead at the last change.

Nick Dal Santo of the Kangaroos celebrates a goal. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

A long-range effort from Sam Gibson at the start of the fourth quarter was the nail in coffin.

Brisbane gifted North Melbourne a 21-point lead at halftime after a horribly inaccurate and ill-disciplined second term.

The Lions led by four points at the first change after enterprising effort and dominated the early stages of the second term.

However, Brisbane failed to cash-in on their superiority with four behinds from five set shots in the opening exchanges.

Stef Martin, Lewis Taylor, Claye Beams, Ryan Lester and Pearce Hanley all had legitimate chances to punish the Roos but could not convert.

North Melbourne had no trouble taking their chances with Jarrad Waite booting three goals in the second quarter and Ben Brown and Todd Goldstein also kicking truly.

North Melbourne had 16 scoring shots (8.8) to Brisbane’s 15 (4.11) but were the best part of four goals in front.

Lions defender Daniel Merrett was guilty of giving away four free kicks in the first half, all within goal-scoring range.

The Lions also got very little out of midfield stars Daniel Rich (three), Tom Rockliff (five) and Tom Bell (four) who had 12 disposals between them.

Rich finished with seven touches after getting owned by tagger Ben Jacobs while Rockliff had 10 possessions.

North Melbourne made two late changes with Scott Thompson (soreness) and Kayne Turner (hamstring) replaced by Lachlan Hansen and Ben Jacobs.

NORTH MELBOURNE: 17.15 (117)

BRISBANE LIONS: 11.17 (83)

Goals

North Melbourne: J Waite 5 B Brown 3 B Harvey 2 N Dal Santo 2 S Gibson 2 D Petrie J Ziebell T Goldstein.

Brisbane Lions: D Zorko 2 J Green 2 L Taylor 2 C Beams J Walker R Lester T Bell T Rockliff.

Best

North Melbourne: Jarrad Waite, Daniel Wells, Jack Ziebell, Brent Harvey, Ben Brown, Andrew Swallow.

Brisbane: Lewis Taylor, Dayne Zorko, Pearce Hanley, Stef Martin, Rohan Bewick, Allen Christensen.

Umpires: Chris Kamolins, Mathew Nicholls, Curtis Deboy.

Venue: Gabba.

Votes:

3: Jarrad Waite

2: Daniel Wells

1: Jack Ziebell

Originally published as North Melbourne defeats Brisbane Lions by 34 points, Round 2 2016 at the Gabba