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Since the North Melbourne Tasmanian Kangaroos joined the AFLW competition in 2019, all of our matcheshave been close and all have been played at our fortress, Casey Fields. Would today be any different at the ‘G? North supporters, while happy they were not playing at ‘bloody Casey’ again, had a reasonable gripe about ticketing prices following the late venue switch for our Round 2 clash, a curtain-raiser to the AFL Qualifying Final between Melbourne v Sydney. Both teams selected unchanged line-ups from their strong Round 1 wins against Adelaide and Gold Coast, respectively. This game is a contest between two of the best midfields in AFLW at the home of footy, so what’s not to like? Well, at 5pm it’s really cold sitting here in the stands. Meggs sees Kim Rennie, North’s ruck, wearing long sleeves and thinks that’s a smart move. Q1 Dees start off with some excellent centre clearance work and we look like we’re on. However, North’s pressure is strong, forcing the Dees into defensive handballs and the quarter turns into a slugfest. We seem a bit flat this week compared to the Adelaide game. C’mon girls. Heath is not marking up Kearney this time, it’s Casey Sheriff’s turn in her new role as CHF. Tayla Harris is doing more ruck work. A good idea to keep her involved. Tahlia Randall out marks Birch, then with a beautifully weighted pass, hits up Emma King on a lead and she duly converts for North’s first goal. North’s two new Irish girls, O’Shea and Wall, have adapted quickly to the speed and physicality of our game. Hopefully we get to see our girl, Blaithin Mackin, making her debut soon. Siren sounds. It’s quarter time. Roos up by 5 points. Q2 Mick’s quarter time pep talk about how to ‘take it forward’ was immediately put into action. While the Roos get the clearing kick from the starting ball-up, it is quickly mopped up at halfback and the Dees work it well with a chain of handballs through the middle. Paxman kicks it to Hore who deftly collects and handballs to the running West who bombs it forward to a contest and follows up her work eventually handballing to Daisy who snaps a clever left foot goal. On the board, finally. And from the very next ball up, Riddell miskicks and Paxman intercepts. The ball is gathered by Bannan who handballs to Daisy for her second. Two goals in two minutes. The Dees have momentum, but North is certainly not giving up. Hanks gets clear in the forward arc and kicks a long bomb on the run but her shot strays to the right for a point. Melbourne’s handball game is strong. Running machines, Paxy and Riddell are everywhere for their teams. Purcell getting busy and our midfield is now on top. Sherriff outmarks Kearney and her shot on goal is marked by Harris right on the points line. Unfortunately, Tayla misses her banana. Darren Croker, North coach, has placed Irish speedster, O’Shea on Alyssa Bannan. A good matchup for pace. Chaplin and Johnson continue to show they belong out there, getting involved. North held scoreless that quarter, a good job. Dees up by 10 points at HT. Q3 North come out strong and it’s a continuation of the arm wrestle and good to watch. From a ball up Kate Hore bends and snaps but misses left, another point. Maddie Gay limps off with her jarred knee. She’s now talking to the medicos, she’ll be right. Next Amy Smith, a North lesser light, takes her chances and kicks her first-ever AFLW goal, a ripper. North is well and truly in this 5-point game. West has been quieter since the first term. Birch has taken 4 intercept marks this quarter. Heath, lays a great tackle. She’s shown her relative impressive speed on several occasions tonight and made a number of excellent runs. Ivey tries the impossible and gets caught. Harris clunks a great mark, but the game continues to seesaw. Harris clunks another big mark and plays on. The ball spills over the pack to Paxy who snaps on her left but misses. A sixth point. Dees with 92 handballs and 104 kicks to Roos 49 and 104. Roos winning the clearances 23 to 13. It’s no warmer sitting here but it is ¾ time. Dees by 6. Q4 All set for a nail-biting last quarter. Tayla Harris takes a strong mark at 35 metres kicking to the Punt Road end. Meggs’ son asks whether can she kick it? Yes, absolutely. But she kicks it from 45 metres out, well short of the mark and Emma King gets her fingertips on it for another point. On the next play, Rennie wins a ruck contest at half forward and Ellie Gavalas manages to break free and snap an excellent goal for North. A one-point game. Game on. Lampard clears. Harris bumps O’Shea with a strong body. Welcome to AFLW Erica. Paxy continues her outstanding game and creates an opportunity for Sherriff which ends up being our eighth point. Down the other end, Birch misses a mark and goes to ground, Maddie Gay falls also (she’s back on now) and Emma King toe pokes a goal. North in front by 4 points. Is our inaccuracy (2.8 to 4.0) again going to bring us undone? What happens next is the play of the day. On the Members’ Wing and with the game in the balance, Casey Sherriff gathers a loose ball and instinctively turns into traffic, handballing to Purcell. She gives it to Hanks who weights a long handball to West who kicks quickly to a Daisy and Sarah Wright marking contest. West follows up her work, roving the pack and excellently directs her kick so that Bannan can run onto it. Alyssa is up for the task. With poise, she quickly controls the bouncing footy and slams it on her boot under huge pressure from Brooke Brown. It sails through the middle, post high and the Dees are back in front. What a play! The crowd applause is noticeably louder now with over 17,000 people registered having filtered through the gates. There are now 4½ minutes left. Dees up by 2 points. The balance of the game is very tense as we try andhang on. Inside the last 2 minutes, Emma King has a chance to kick a goal from the forward pocket but Gillard smothers and we clear the back fifty via Lampy. North comes again but this time Harris marks in defence. We take some time off the clock before Zanker emerges with the footy and kicks to three unmarked North defenders. They then head up the middle where Kate Hore takes a nice, contested mark just as the siren sounds. Whew, great job, undefeated. Time for our song. Coach Mick Stinear said it was an exciting night for the club with both Men’s and Women’s playing on the ‘G. He cited North’s contested game pressure and explained that we never quite got our game going. He praised our backs who held up well and felt the way we moved the ball forward was clunky. He loved Paxy’swork, especially in that last quarter, and mentioned how impressive Jas Garner’s last quarter efforts were too. On the injury front he said Maddie Gay will be right for next week. Our unbeaten record in Season 7 is intact, just, but another interesting challenge awaits against the improving Saints next week at Moorabbin. Go Dees ! MELBOURNE 0.1.1 2.4.16 2.6.18 3.8.26 NORTH MELBOURNE 1.0.6 1.0.6 2.0.12 4.0.24 GOALS MELBOURNE D Pearce 2 Bannan NORTH MELBOURNE Em King 2 Gavalas Smith BEST MELBOURNE Paxman, Hanks, Purcell, Birch, Heath NORTH MELBOURNE Rennie Bruton Riddell Garner Wright INJURIES MELBOURNE Nil NORTH MELBOURNE Tess Craven (left foot) REPORTS Nil CROWD 17,851 at the MCG

Feel free to post questions or comments relating to the match or the upcoming Semi Final against Brisbane.

Join @george_on_the_outer, @binman & I on the Demonland Podcast Monday night 5th September LIVE @ 8:30pm for breakdown of the Qualifying Final loss to Sydney. Listen & Chat LIVE: https://demonland.com/podcast Call: 03 9016 3666 Skype: Demonland31

Happy 18th

Who are you tipping this week? Winner Dees vs Lions plays the Cats presumably on the Friday Night at the G. Winner Magpies vs Dockers plays the Swans on Saturday/twilight/night at the SCG on Saturday.

Bulldogs 16 frees to 10. Away How do they keep doing this?

Wow

Gary Rohan the hero.

Lol Ginnivan

Selwood deadest throw.

Loser has to go through Sydney in Sydney.

Collingwood will kick themselves out of the game. Terrible inside 50 kicking and terrible goal kicking.

Nick Daicos has been rattled the last few contests.

Pies couldn’t miss against us. Can’t get them from straight in front today.

Not just the ones paid. Pies getting crucified on frees not paid as well.

Pies high pressure First Quarter now biting them in the bum.

And the winner with an unassailable lead is … 263. Clayton Oliver 188. Christian Petracca 151. Angus Brayshaw 131. Jack Viney 105. Max Gawn 98. Steven May 76. Ed Langdon 53. Kysaiah Pickett 52. James Jordon 40. Bayley Fritsch 37. Jake Lever Harry Petty 36. Luke Jackson 26. James Harmes 24. Michael Hibberd Tom Sparrow 22. Jake Bowey 18. Ben Brown 17. Jake Melksham 11. Alex Neal-Bullen 8. Tom McDonald Sam Weideman 5. Jayden Hunt Charlie Spargo 4. Christian Salem 3. Joel Smith 1. Trent Rivers

Once again the Sydney Swans followed the recipe for cooking Melbourne’s goose. Slowly with pressure, add some more pressure and surely the goose will be cooked. And so it was in the 2022 Qualifying Final, when the same recipe that Carlton and Collingwood used was brought out again with success. Just put pressure on the Demons and the suspect players that perform when the team is running hot, just get cooked The ability to operate, do the fundamentals and execute at these times is shown up, but in finals it matters. Alex Neal-Bullen, Jake Melksham and Jayden Hunt were unable to supply anything of value to the side when needed. Be it delivering with a simple kick, converting from 20m or putting in a tackle for the whole game, these guys went missing again. This is finals football, and the same pressure will come again in the next game. Will the coach continue to reward this recurring theme In the same manner, the recurring problem in the forward line continues to raise its ugly head. Once again Melbourne were unable to kick sufficient goals to win a match, despite 6 more i50’s than the opposition. The resting ruck in the forward line theory should now have been exposed as a complete failure, with both Gawn and Jackson failing to take a mark in that area, and Gawn posting a major only after a free. They continue to block the path for Fritsch and Brown, and when the ball comes to ground are unable to provide any defensive pressure. And it only compounds the lack of pressure from the forwards. Gawn is no racehorse, Melksham doesn’t chase, Fritsch isn’t fast, Brown can’t get out of a trot, ANB doesn’t know where the ball so it’s all left to Pickett. Small wonder the defence of Sydney held strong all game, and kept Melbourne goalless in the final quarter. All along this game was going to be one of contest and defence. The Demons were hampered when Christian Petracca took a heavy knock in the first quarter which limited his output. That only opened up the gates for Parker in the middle with 25 touches and 9 clearances, with 8 touches alone in the 2ndquarter when the game was on the line. Clayton Oliver was the saviour for the Demons in and around the ground, but was also heavily banged up, and to be sure Sydney made sure of that. The Swans’ game plan is about continuous support to their teammates. It doesn’t matter where you play it is essential to contribute. There is always another Swans player on the outside. It eliminated the role of defensive pressure which Melbourne employ. It is a reversion to one on one football, where you back your players against a system which employs role players who don’t have the skills. Small wonder the Sydney goal kicking list includes backmen like Lloyd with two majors or a host of their mids. The Demons rucks put in a completely sub-standard game. Jackson a solitary mark for the whole 100 minutes, a number which has been happening all too often in recent weeks. Max was soundly beaten by Hickey, both in the middle and around the ground, while his kicking when needed returned to the doldrums of years past. The one shining light for the fans and the side was Stephen May in the backline, who gave Franklin a complete football lesson holding him scoreless, while amassing 23 touches 7 marks and 583 metres gained. A couple of silly errors blotted his copybook, but overall it was a commanding performance and should have been the inspiration for those further up the field. The forward problem has been mentioned around the resting ruck scenario, but it is more than that. Unless Fritsch or Pickett kick big bags, the side doesn’t kick a winning score since Tom McDonald went down. We simply need another target in front of goal, and cannot depend on opportunistic chances to score. Ben Brown is double teamed every week, and there is no leading, up the ground pair of hands that McDonald provided. We simply need a true forward, and sadly that chance (“JVR”) should have been playing in the side weeks ago. Now we have to roll the dice in a do or die game, but chances are we won’t do that. And this will be in a game against Brisbane where goal kicking will be an absolute necessity. If we continue to follow this same recipe using the same ingredients against the Lions, then Joe the Goose will come out smiling and our season will be well and truly cooked. MELBOURNE 4.1.25 5.4.34 10.5.65 10.9.69 SYDNEY SWANS 2.3.15 6.4.40 12.5.77 14.7.91 GOALS MELBOURNE Fritsch 3 Oliver 2 Brown Gawn Pickett Spargo Sparrow SYDNEY SWANS Hayward Lloyd Papley Reid 2 Heeney, Hickey Mills Parker Rowbottom Stephens BEST MELBOURNE May Oliver Fritsch Viney Petracca Langdon SYDNEY SWANS Parker Lloyd Rowbottom Mills Papley Fox INJURIES MELBOURNE Christian Petracca (leg) SYDNEY SWANS Oliver Florent (ankle) REPORTS MELBOURNE Nil SYDNEY SWANS Nil SUBSTITUTES MELBOURNE Joel Smith (unused) SYDNEY SWANS Braeden Campbell (unused) UMPIRES Matt Stevic Andrew Stephens Craig Fleer CROWD 78,377 at the MCG

Who comes in and who goes out?