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Sunday afternoon football takes us to Etihad Stadium for a clash between North Melbourne and Adelaide that could easily be seen as an early season elimination final. Live scores and commentary coming up from 3.20pm AEST.
North Melbourne is coming off a heartbreaking loss to West Coast in Perth last Friday night, while the Adelaide Crows will be looking for three wins in a row following their win against the Saints last Sunday.
The Kangaroos will still be stinging from their final quarter fade out and now find themselves in a precarious position for the season.
The chances of making the finals rest now on these 50-50 games that have to go their way.
It’s no doubt North Melbourne has had a tough draw so far, but if they want to get back into the finals, they have to start beating some of last year’s fellow finalists.
So far this season, they are yet to beat a top eight team from last year in five matches.
There’s no doubt the team is potent up forward, with the team with a percentage of 108 in the first eight rounds.
Coach Brad Scott will know his team’s recent record against the Crows is solid winning all three games since he took over (before that, it was an eight-game losing streak).
If they can bring the same pressure as they did against West Coast last week, they should be right in this game up until the final siren.
Adelaide on the other hand is starting to find a little bit of form, following their win against St Kilda last week.
Despite a tense and close opening half, Adelaide broke away halfway through the third quarter and bounded away with a lot of run and carry through the midfield.
There were concerns on Josh Jenkins being fit for today’s game, but he seems to have recovered from his hyper-extended knee, an injury that looked frightfully similar to the injury that sees Taylor Walker out for the season.
Despite two wins on the trot, the opposition has not been flash, so this match on the road is the perfect litmus test for the Crows and we’ll finally be able to gauge their real potential for 2013.
Even though the Crows defence has stood up strong (they have the third-fewest points scored against them), that needs to be tempered with the fact they’ve beaten the Giants and the Bulldogs, who are both near the foot of the ladder.
A win here for the Crows is so very important, with their road ahead in the next two months very rocky as they take on sides like Collingwood, Geelong, Sydney and Fremantle.
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