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The North Melbourne Kangaroos have a chance to stamp themselves a genuine premiership chance on Saturday when they take on reigning premiers, the Hawthorn Hawks at Etihad Stadium. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage from 7:20pm (AEST).
After a disappointing season opening loss to the Crows, the Roos are starting to hit their straps and match their lofty pre-season expectations of a top four contender.
North followed up their Crows loss with a thrashing against the flailing Lions, a courageous narrow loss to the Power and last week overwhelmed Geelong at Simonds Stadium.
Led by Sam Wright, captain Andrew Swallow and ruckman Todd Goldstein the Roos overran the Cats to win by 16 points.
The Hawks are coming off their second loss in their last three matches, going down by eight points to Port Power after nearly pulling off one of the biggest comebacks in history after being down by as much as 58 points.
Despite the comeback coach Alistair Clarkson would be very concerned that his team could be so comprehensively beaten for half a game. To add to his problems the Hawks lost another key defender when Brian Lake went down early with a knee injury that will keep him out for a month. The Hawks are already without tall defenders James Frawley and Matt Spangher.
Ryan Schoenmakers returns to the team to give the defence some badly needed height. Schoenmakers along with Josh Gibson and Ben Stratton will have a huge task against North’s tall forwards, Jarrad Waite, Drew Petrie and Ben Brown.
However to take advantage of their height advantage the Roos will have to counter the dominant Hawks midfield led by inspirational captain Luke Hodge and the in-form Jordan Lewis who is averaging an astonishing 36 disposals per game.
The Hawks also rank number one in average inside 50s and rank fourth in clearances compared to the Roos who rank tenth.
The Roos will need to keep a close eye on the Hawks forwards, in particular Roughead, Gunston and Breust who have kicked a total of 30 goals between them this season.
Despite this, the Hawks will have to improve on their forward efficiency. Last week against Port they won the inside 50 count 79-43, nearly doubling Port’s entries, but scored on only 29% of forward 50 entries compared with Port’s 51%.
Prediction
North won their last clash in Round 16 last year by 20 points, their first win over the Hawks since 2010. They dominated possession finishing with nearly 100 more disposals in a game more remembered for Brian Lake’s brain fade when he grappled on the ground with Drew Petrie.
Petrie dominated that night with five goals and he will be a key to his team’s chances again.
Whilst the Hawks will be hoping Jack Gunston can repeat his six goal effort the last time these two teams met.
Roos in a close one by 5 points
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