Roar Guru
A last-minute goal from captain Jack Ziebell has seen North Melbourne snatch a two-point win from the Western Bulldogs on Saturday night.
Final score
Western Bulldogs 11.9.75
North Melbourne Kangaroos 12.5.77
The Western Bulldogs host the North Melbourne Kangaroos in the inaugural ‘Harmony Game’ at Etihad Stadium. Join The Roar for live scores and a blog of the match from 7:25pm AEST.
The Western Bulldogs will look to respond after a tough Thursday night loss to Port Adelaide, by 57 points.
Their night got worse when skipper Easton Wood and in-form midfielder Jack Macrae went down with hamstring injuries.
North Melbourne are coming off their bye weekend, a break well deserved after their positive start to the season.
Currently just inside the top eight, the Kangaroos are doing much better than tipsters predicted.
The Bulldogs have made four changes for this clash, three of those forced.
Jack Macrae (hamstring), Lukas Webb (hand) and Easton Wood (hamstring) are out with injury, while Shane Biggs has been omitted.
Marcus Adams, Josh Dunkley, Dale Morris and Aaron Naughton have been brought in to the side.
Dale Morris returns after knee surgery only a fortnight ago to repair some meniscus damage.
At North Melbourne two changes have been made to tackle the Bulldogs.
Billy Hartung and Cameron Zurhaar have been omitted after poor performances against Geelong before the bye; Jed Anderson and Nathan Hrovat the two inclusions.
Jed Anderson will return from a hamstring injury, while Nathan Hrovat earned his recall after spending time in the VFL following a fractured thumb.
North will still be without Jarrad Waite, who was ruled out with a calf injury.
The last time these two teams met was 364 days ago in round 14, where the Bulldogs took a nail-biting one point victory.
Prediction
In recent times they’ve had some close encounters, but this season Kangaroos are putting up far better performances than the injury-riddled Bulldogs.
With Ben Brown leading the charge, the Kangaroos forward line to be too tall and strong for the Bulldogs, it’ll be a cruisy victory for North.
North Melbourne by 31.
Join The Roar for live scores and a blog of the match from 7:25pm AEST.