6 hours ago, hardtack said:

I guess everyone has covered the individual efforts and team efforts, the seemingly improved game plan and ability to execute etc, so I see no point in adding to that; not that I could anyway, having the short term memory span of a gnat. However, while I agree somewhat with those talking the match down because of the quality, well, lack thereof, of the opposition, the way that I see it is that an 80 point win against anyone playing in the AFL comp is pretty decisive and cannot simply be dismissed offhand.

All I can say is that this result and some of the plays, both individual and set moves, have given me great cause for optimism, to the point where I’m feeling like we might actually improve our position on the ladder by a couple of spots, up to 12.

I now only hope that Friday’s upcoming match against Richmond doesn’t bring me crashing back down to earth… if we can bring that same teamwork, energy, intensity and commitment to the game, and manage another win, albeit against a weak opposition, I’ll be over the moon!

Yes fair points Hard.

I was honestly expecting a pretty close encounter to be fair. So I am not entirely sure whether we just played incredibly well or North were simply trash.

Realistically the only player they were missing that would have maybe troubled us with his run was Colby McKercher... other then that, they were full strength whilst our outs had far more significance in terms of quality of players.

Something really stinks at North. They have been given talent on a platter and yet I dont see where the improvement comes from.

They have brought in Darling, Parker, Caleb Daniel and Griffith Logue who you have to question whether its been a good investment or not.

Luke Davies-Uniacke is going to be 27 this year and has been a major disappointment with all their hopes now pinned on Harry Sheezal.

Heat has to come down hard on Clarko this year if they dont show improvement.

Edited 7 hours ago7 hr by dazzledavey36

I had no idea Kentfield was initially going to play for Casey but then effectively replaced Mihocek after he was concussed.

So he may have forced his way into round 1 by accident (at the expense of Jeffo).

With the new rules for free kicks for out of bounds between the arcs, I think playing wings with their kicking leg on the boundary side will become more important. I wouldn’t play Langdon on the wing (better high half forward or on ball). Think it also means territory is more important and kicking to the pockets inside 50 MORE important. You don’t want to get split open on the counter attack.

1 minute ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Realistically the only player they were missing that would have maybe troubled us with his run was Colby McKercher... other then that, they were full strength whilst our outs had far more significance in terms of quality of players.

Paul Curtis was missing and he troubled us big time last year with about 7 goals in the 2 games. He’s the sort of small-medium forward that we have had trouble containing post the Nev Jetta era.

But yeah, him missing is not the reason they lost by 80 points.

11 hours ago, bing181 said:

Yes: leadership.

He is our Oliver replacement. We need to find someone who'll replace Petracca. Also Steele being a leader positively adds to our culture whereas the other 2 didn't.

30 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Paul Curtis was missing and he troubled us big time last year with about 7 goals in the 2 games. He’s the sort of small-medium forward that we have had trouble containing post the Nev Jetta era.

But yeah, him missing is not the reason they lost by 80 points.

Yeah true, completely forgot about him.

4 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Yeah true, completely forgot about him.

Wardlaw goes okay too.

12 minutes ago, Whispering_Jack said:

Wardlaw goes okay too.

When he is actually fit and can actually string together consistent games without doing a hamstring/head knock.

He goes okay for now, but his body is a massive worry. The game is getting quicker then we have ever seen before.

Whether his hamstrings can hold up is a different story. I read that he couldn't even get through a quarter at VFL level on Friday..

I thought we were much fitter than North. It was so hot out there & in the 4th qrt we were still running on top of the ground. Surprisingly I also thought that Heath gave first use many times to our midfielders. We are def a “work in progress “ but the takeouts for me were Pickett No 2..Heath & Luker. I didn’t expect them to be so competitive at this level. Win or lose this season I’m pretty sure we’ll be watching very entertaining football & it will be exciting to watch the team & the many young & new players evolve.

57 minutes ago, Fat Tony said:

With the new rules for free kicks for out of bounds between the arcs, I think playing wings with their kicking leg on the boundary side will become more important. I wouldn’t play Langdon on the wing (better high half forward or on ball). Think it also means territory is more important and kicking to the pockets inside 50 MORE important. You don’t want to get split open on the counter attack.

I actually think Langdon gets a bad rap for us for kicking out of the full. I think he has done it so often, precisely because our strategy had been to hug the boundary and he's so often the player receiving and then delivering the ball in this area of the ground. King has a quiet different philosophy moving the ball out of defence and so long as Langdon has bought into that, I think we'll be fine.

His ability to run all day and keep presenting as a option in the spots we need him to is a real asset and Langdon could have a great year for us with more space to move into in an attacking way, as well as his great defensive efforts.

Edited 6 hours ago6 hr by Rodney (Balls) Grinter

12 hours ago, Demonland said:

Too much emphasis on this idea that we're suddenly moving the ball quickly.

We've been moving the ball quickly for the best part of 12 months.

We had overlap last year, we tried to move the ball quickly, where we'd fall down is on entry.

So in that respect the quick chipping and trying to get to the fat side before entry is main difference and will improve entries. But that said, it's a small sample size and many of our entries were fast and quick to the 20m danger zone at the top of goal square, very similar to last year...

Edited 6 hours ago6 hr by Adam The God

7 hours ago, Fritta and Turner said:

The Dees ran harder in support of the ball carrier than Norf run in chasing

Yep.

We worked hard - King's gambit involves serious two way running, and we kept the focus and effort level up right through the game. That's a big, big positive.

But jeez, the Roos were poor, in lots of ways, including their woeful effort level (and Clarkson doesn't seen to have been able to implement an AFL standard defensive system).

To be fair, who knows where their program's at, but they chose to run with 24 players (as opposed to our 28) so I was assuming they had planned for a proper match sim hit out.

And why wouldn't they?

They need a big season - their crop of high draft picks are all coming into their prime and Clarkson has been in charge of this group long enough now to go to the next level.

North fans would have a justifiable expectation the Roos should be pushing for finals at this stage of their developmen. Time to get going.

But they look miles off - must be super frustrating for their fans.

Edited 5 hours ago5 hr by binman

Haven't read the whole thread or re-watched the game since Friday night, which admittedly I did assisted by a few good reds, but one of my biggest impressions was that we played well, without obviously big contributions from some our bigger name players that I was expecting. Asides from Kossie that is.

Mainly, I didn't notice alot of output or dominant performances from guys like Rivers, Windsor, Langford, Disco, Langdon, T Mac. That's not to say that they didn't nessacerilly perform well.

But I actually saw this as huge positive that we can play well, without relying on those players to carry the team and that we got good results from the team playing well across the board and with good systems.

Love the move it fast attacking ball movement. One thing I did also notice is that while we didn't always deliver the ball into our forward line, the chaos factor of delivering in there fast, meant that North's defence was under high pressure and often couched up goals from average forward entries, as opposed to the slow forward entry bomb that so often just ended up in a stoppage and/or a direct turn over to the opposition for us in the past.

Also contrary to some suggestions, this agressive attacking game didn't completely come at the expense of our defensive game, where we still set-up well, dominated their forwards and restricted their score. Probably also somewhat an artefact of attack being a good form of defence, because the ball still seemed to live more in our forward half.

Can't wait to see how we stack up against better teams.

Edited 6 hours ago6 hr by Rodney (Balls) Grinter

1 hour ago, samcantstandya said:

He is our Oliver replacement. We need to find someone who'll replace Petracca. Also Steele being a leader positively adds to our culture whereas the other 2 didn't.

A certain Bailey from the Suns would be a nice Trac replacement... 😉

22 minutes ago, Adam The God said:

Too much emphasis on this idea that we're suddenly moving the ball quickly.

We've been moving the ball quickly for the best part of 12 months.

Have we? Hoofing the ball long from all parts of the ground means the ball will travel quicker than a passing game will

So the stat that we move the ball quickly is total BS

For instance ...

A 50 metre kick might take 4 or 5 seconds from go to whoa

But 4 or 5 short kicks or handpasses covering the same amount of ground will take a lot longer

I keep hearing that we move the ball quickly but it is all based on our previous long bomb game. It's BS

Edited 6 hours ago6 hr by Macca

3 minutes ago, Macca said:

Have we? Hoofing the ball long from all parts of the ground means the ball will travel quicker than a passing game will

So the stat that we move the ball quickly is total BS

For instance ...

A 50 metre kick might take 4 or 5 seconds from go to whoa

But 4 or 5 short kicks or handpasses covering the same amount of ground will take a lot longer

I keep hearing that we move the ball quickly but it is all based on our previous long bomb game. It's BS

Did you see the Freo game at the MCG last year? Did you see the Bulldogs game later in the year?

Perfect examples of fast, overlap play...

3 minutes ago, Adam The God said:

Did you see the Freo game at the MCG last year? Did you see the Bulldogs game later in the year?

Perfect examples of fast, overlap play...

That's not my point

Did you read what I actually said?

I'll say it again ... from an overall perspective, we have previously moved the ball quite quickly, all based on a long bomb game

So in effect, with all those long bombs often eventuating in turnovers, we were wasteful (constantly)

And we more often than not kicked long down the line from half back

So the stats say we moved the ball quickly but it's another rubbish stat

Edited 6 hours ago6 hr by Macca

As a member of the Demon Diaspora for decades now I don't see much actual live football. Last match was Round 12 2023, a night game at the 'G. Described in Demonwiki as "...Melbourne bounced back with a win built on a strong defensive performance." Blues kicked 6 goals for the night, with Harry McKay and Charlie Curnow up forward. Goodwin's anaconda suffocating their spark.

On very limited viewing of Fox's extended highlights (turnovers and bloopers omitted), plus last weeks intraclub stream. The impression I'm getting is the new attacking game style is to the fore, lead by some highly skilled footballers. Smart kicking and the demanding long forward handball are 'in'. Exciting and goal scoring when it comes off, but punishing particularly against the more practiced polished practitioners if not.

The other impression I'm getting is after a long tough pre-season, is our aerobic fitness levels should be well up. Critical in close games which we've had the inopportune habit of losing of late. Adding consistent, strong, two-way team running would you'd think assist those players in defence. To regain possession and relaunch the attacking mode.

After an almost two year hiatus will visit family in Melbourne this April. Expect to get to the 'G for the premium Teddy Bears picnic and the following round's Anzac Eve fireworks. Go you mighty Kingsmen!

Edited 5 hours ago5 hr by Tarax Club

1 hour ago, dazzledavey36 said:

When he is actually fit and can actually string together consistent games without doing a hamstring/head knock.

He goes okay for now, but his body is a massive worry. The game is getting quicker then we have ever seen before.

Whether his hamstrings can hold up is a different story. I read that he couldn't even get through a quarter at VFL level on Friday..

It’s a big shame because I think he’s the guy who gives North what they so badly lack in some mongrel and energy around the contest.

Parker doesn’t have it as a mid anymore, LDU has always been better as the guy receiving the handball to then burst to the outside.

Wardlaw really fills the role Viney did for us until he was able to split it with Clarry and co of just winning it in close and letting the other team know there’s a physical presence.

When you’ve been dreadful forever that’s probably more important than the more skilled guys like Sheezel and McKercher.

On 21/02/2026 at 07:40, The Jackson FIX said:

It’s February, calm down folks.

It's that time of year where supporter optimism is at its highest level

37 minutes ago, Macca said:

Have we? Hoofing the ball long from all parts of the ground means the ball will travel quicker than a passing game will

So the stat that we move the ball quickly is total BS

For instance ...

A 50 metre kick might take 4 or 5 seconds from go to whoa

But 4 or 5 short kicks or handpasses covering the same amount of ground will take a lot longer

I keep hearing that we move the ball quickly but it is all based on our previous long bomb game. It's BS

We tried a very handball happy game that McQualter brought from Richmond in early 2024 then shelved it when we ran out of fit mids.

Last year we had our turn of trying to copy Brisbane’s short kicking from half back, without a midfield who ran for short kicks.

And yes both of those led to a lot of pieces of play that ended in bombs inside 50 not to advantage. I agree that they would’ve influenced the speed of ball movement stats to some degree. Although our half back movement did improve a lot from some of the late 2022/parts of 2023 glacial pace.

One thing I’ve liked the look at so far is that by switching so much and opening the ground up we can move the ball quickly whilst also giving time for deep forwards to gain position. The last few years our midfield have often outrun our forwards.

Edit: This is supposed to be quoting @Tarax Club’s post above.

Being as how I was always more of a Tarax kid than Marchants, how could anyone not be, after watching Gerry Gee suck that stuff down like a Hoover driven ventriloquist dummy, it was a given that this post would worthy of a big thumbs up! Couple that with the use of one of my favourite words of late, ‘diaspora’, and it was always going to be a winner.

Now, where was I?… oh yes, aerobic fitness…I agree, and this was one of the things that caught my attention as well; in 31C (is that right?) temperatures, to be able to bring that game home with a six goal quarter, was pretty impressive, despite there being some players subbed out at half the me.

With players like JVR, Sparrow and, if my eyes didn’t deceive me, Salem, all looking slimmer, trimmer and as a result, fitter, I get the impression that they’ve been working hard on that aerobic side of things; have they been doing a lot of ‘out of office hours’ work?

Additionally, Heath looks to have great stamina and should be a perfect replacement for Max, going ahead…the fact that he pretty much broke even with one of the comp’s best in Xerri, was really impressive; once Max gets his 9th (is it?) All Australian, I think we’re well positioned in the ruck stakes for quite a few years to come.

Ok, I think that the mental energy spent trying to post something witty, yet on point, has short circuited my grey matter. Thanks for your attention…

Edited 5 hours ago5 hr by hardtack

2 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

We tried a very handball happy game that McQualter brought from Richmond in early 2024 then shelved it when we ran out of fit mids.

Last year we had our turn of trying to copy Brisbane’s short kicking from half back, without a midfield who ran for short kicks.

And yes both of those led to a lot of pieces of play that ended in bombs inside 50 not to advantage. I agree that they would’ve influenced the speed of ball movement stats to some degree. Although our half back movement did improve a lot from some of the late 2022/parts of 2023 glacial pace.

One thing I’ve liked the look at so far is that by switching so much and opening the ground up we can move the ball quickly whilst also giving time for deep forwards to gain position. The last few years our midfield have often outrun our forwards.

And our mids should be sprinting into the forward line space as part of the chain of possessions (to create another option other than leading forwards or forwards that have created separation)

*The extra handpass or short pass should be the order of the day

So often we have seen 3 or 4 possessions ending with the hoofed kick from outside 50

The wastefulness was extreme and a good example was the KB clash against the Pies last year

Turnover after turnover from the hoofed kick into the F50. Not very scientific (to say the least)

Previously, it's like we were playing old style suburban football

1 hour ago, Rodney (Balls) Grinter said:

I actually think Langdon gets a bad rap for us for kicking out of the full. I think he has done it so often, precisely because our strategy had been to hug the boundary and he's so often the player receiving and then delivering the ball in this area of the ground. King has a quiet different philosophy moving the ball out of defence and so long as Langdon has bought into that, I think we'll be fine.

His ability to run all day and keep presenting as a option in the spots we need him to is a real asset and Langdon could have a great year for us with more space to move into in an attacking way, as well as his great defensive efforts.

There is definitely some truth here about game plans but Langdon definitely has weaknesses in his game. Especially when playing on the left wing. I thought these were covered up better last year when he played in ANBs old role. I hope he plays this role again because it allows Kossie to cheat forward after the centre bounce.

My point about the rule stands that the wings need to be even better at keeping their kicks in play when close to the boundary.

23 minutes ago, lorn said:

It's that time of year where supporter optimism is at its highest level

Not for North supporters