KANGAROO COURTS

[Demonland 73,326]

KANGAROO COURTS by The Oracle

There's not much to write about a game in which , for three of its four quarters, one of the teams was playing at such a disadvantage. Reeling from injuries to key men in Mark Jamar and Jack Grimes and a handful of others who might have been handy replacements and a ridiculous suspension to Jack Trengove that was played out publicly over the course of the week, Melbourne was bound to struggle even without incurring further injuries to players during its game against North Melbourne, without some of its players leaving their brains and their form at home and without the umpires turning the game into a farcical benefit match for the Kangaroos.

In the beginning, the Melbourne players started the game at Etihad Stadium as if they were on a mission to show their fans and the football world at large that they would not be distracted by the events of the past week. The team that has been known for some time for its slow starts, began like a house on fire with born again rookie Michael Newton taking some strong marks in the forward line and kicking two goals, Liam Jurrah doing likewise and Jack Watts also proving troublesome in attack. For most of the first term the ball was in the Demon forward half with Stef Martin proving a formidable foil to his taller counterpart in the North Melbourne ruck. The Demons were winning the clearances and, 24 minutes into the opening quarter, they held a 31 point lead having scored six of the first seven majors of the game. North's only goal to that stage had come from a stupid turnover when a misdirected Melbourne pass across the ground was gobbled up and passed to Leigh Adams who sent it through the big sticks.

Ominously, the Demons released the pressure valve ever so slightly late in the quarter to concede a couple of goals but they came back with a late goal of their own.

It was one of the team's better starts for the year and it dominated most of the game's statistics, the most impressive being the 15 inside-50s. North was the winner in the free kick count, leading by 6 to 5 but, at this stage of proceedings it was too early for Kangaroo fans to rally to the catch cry of Round 8, "Thank you umpire" although that time was coming.

There was already another cloud on the horizon for Melbourne after Colin Garland rolled an ankle and hobbled off the ground. He game back for a while but had to be subbed off in the third quarter and was replaced by a smaller player in Jamie Bennell.

The injury curse and the lack of a backup ruckman for Martin was to cause Dean Bailey to recast his team over the remainder of the game, and from early in the second quarter, the momentum of the game swung dramatically in North's favour. It didn't help that Brad Green and Brent Moloney were struggling to get into the game or that a number of others had little or no impact. Or for that matter, that the team began to take the same brain dead, mistake-riddled course punctuated by hesitation, loose play and poor execution of basic skills that had we had seen previously against Hawthorn and the West Coast. Or that the umpires were as inept in their adjudication as Melbourne was in the way it played. After all, it only takes a goal gifted here or taken away there to bring a team back into the game.

Despite all that, the Demons still led at half time but only by seven points although they were behind in the free kick count by 10 to 14. It was still too early for the North fans to say, "Thank you umpire".

The Kangaroos cut loose from the start of the second half with Goldstein now dominating in the ruck, Wells playing a blinder and Edwards dominant up forward. With Garland off the ground and Jared Rivers still on the injured list, the Demon defence was stretched to the limit. It was now also time for North Melbourne to pay homage to the umpiring fraternity. Two of the four goals their team kicked in that blistering opening burst were assisted by the men in green. The confusion in terms of what was a legitimate tackle and what was not was manifest and a Brent Harvey dive was seen while the three blind mice somehow missed some of the more blatant indiscretions that might have changed the course of the game had they been noticed. By the final break, North led the free kick count by 24 to 16. It was bad enough that Melbourne was playing wounded and playing poorly but the icing on the cake was the sling tackle with head high impact that the game's adjudicators were delivering to the team.

On the scoreboard where it really counted, North held a 21 point lead and Rohan Bail, who ironically was injured early in his debut game on the same ground and against the same team two years ago, was off with a posterior cruciate knee injury. Liam Jurrah was also hobbling.

With limitations on the Demon interchange bench, the game was just about over anyway but it was iced by two early goals to ensure a ninth consecutive win for the Kangaroos over their whipping boys.

James Frawley, Nathan Jones, Colin Sylvia and a handful of others continued to try, Addam Maric popped in with three goals and the thank you crowd were consistent adding another 6 frees to North's tally against 4 (three in the space of a minute when the game was well and truly buried) to finish with 30 to 20 making a significant contribution to a week in which Demon fans could well and truly say they were done in by the Kangaroo Courts.

Melbourne 7.2.44 8.6.54 10.10.70 12.11.83

North Melbourne 3.2.20 7.5.47 14.7.91 19.10.124

Goals

Melbourne Jurrah Maric 3 Newton Petterd 2 Bartram Watts

North Melbourne Edwards 6 Harvey Wells 3 Goldstein Hansen 2 Adams Harper Speight

Best

Melbourne Frawley Martin Jones Sylvia Watts Jurrah

North Melbourne Wells Edwards Goldstein Harvey Swallow Ziebell

Injuries

Melbourne Garland (ankle) Bail (knee)

North Melbourne Nil

Changes

Melbourne Nil

North Melbourne Ben Cunnington (illness) replaced by Cruize Garlett

Reports

Melbourne Lynden Dunn (rough conduct on Daniel Pratt)

North Melbourne Nil

UmpiresNil Bowen Donlon Wenn

Crowd 23,536 at Etihad Stadium