Chook

Cut the margin by another 8 points, but we should really be in front after dominating the last half of footy. I hope this doesn’t end up as a gallant loss or a North runaway train.

See, THAT’S how you defend. Brayshaw drops back into the hole and sweeps up the defensive mark. We need Gawn to get back to his marking form. We’re falling down coming out of defence because North’s rucks are outmarking us.

Captain’s goal! That is massive for our confidence, and for Jones’ game.

Melbourne has just never quite figured out what the zone defence is for.

Hogan picks up the ball deftly and passes off to Viney for another goal. Beautiful! Two point margin.

Great releasing handpass from Bernie Vince, and Brayshaw capitalises. This kid is the true package. He has so much awareness—knew the set shot would be hard so he took Ziebell on and kicked it.

Cross showing his age today.

If we fall apart on the back of that sliding door moment, I will be very sad. Jeff Garlett...

Jeff Garlett owes us two goals—the one he cost us and the one he should have marked and kicked.

Jeff Garlett. I want to puke.

North have absolutely shat themselves. If things keep going the way they have for the past 25 minutes of game time, we could win by 40 points. I’ll take any kind of win though after what we’ve been through.

Hogan you star. Kicks the drop punt too. I think Jason Dunstall is in love.

Biggest quarter of the last 7 years. Biggest quarter since the Elimination Final.

Umpires have been nice to us inside 50 though. All the frees were there, but they still had to pay them. Sometimes it doesn’t happen in front of goal.

North Melbourne go to water when the pressure it put on them, so if we can do that in the 2nd half we should be in with a shot. Really missing Vandenberg for that reason.

Fox Footy showing highlights of our last win against the Roos (back when Neitz was playing, that’s how long ago it was). It was a comeback from 5 goals down. Sound familiar? I hope so.

So after all that, we are just 3 goals down at half-time. Colour me impressed.

This is free kick city from North inside our attacking 50. Getting us right back in it.

For a team that displays absolute disdain when playing against Melbourne, North seem to be really worried about our forward line. Giving away a lot of frees. But any chance we have of getting back in this game will rely on not missing any of our half-chances.

Cross was about 15 metres away from Brent Harvey when he got that ball. Want to play a slightly closer tag there, Crossy? I’d appreciate it.

Melbourne’s having a shocker and Chris Dawes of all people is our BOG. Dawes’ opponent is giving him way too much credit and giving away all these frees. Doesn’t he know that he can just provide a slight contest and Dawes will fumble?

Key to beating Melbourne—tag Nathan Jones out of it and hope Bernie Vince doesn’t play a blinder. Do that and the rest will play like training cones.

So…how much of this is North being a horrendous matchup problem for us, how much is it us being outclassed by a top-8 quality team, and how much is our poor effort? Any takers?

Momentarily forgot how to count. Thanks.

Our backline “zone” is pathetic. It’s not an excuse to stand guarding space; it’s a way for multiple players to be able to help each other out. Nobody in our backline seems to understand this.