Eight rounds left in this year’s AFL season and North Melbourne are one of the seven teams (GWS Giants, Melbourne, Geelong Cats, Hawthorn, Adelaide Crows and Essendon) who can still make the eight.
With only percentages separating four teams from the seventh to the tenth spot on the ladder, it shows how tight the competition has been this AFL season.
North Melbourne currently is outside of the top eight and is ninth on the ladder. They have continued to be the surprise packet of the season as they were tipped to finish close to the bottom.
The last three weeks North’s form has been up and down against two opposition teams (Western Bulldogs and Essendon) they should have really come away with the four points over.
After North’s Round 15 clash against Essendon, young forward Mason Wood injured his hamstring and will be sidelined for up to a month. North have been really lucky with injuries this season compared to the other teams.
They will find it hard with Wood out. However, I believe with players such as Nick Larkey and Will Walker playing solid up forward in North’s VFL side one of them could be selected to replace Wood.
North have two consecutive winnable matches at the Etihad Stadium. Their first winnable match at Etihad will be in Round 16 against the Gold Coast Suns. North will go in as heavy favourites over the Suns and should get the win.
The following week North will face the Sydney Swans at Etihad. This will be a tough clash for North. I believe North have the young team to get the four points and the win similar to how they did in Round 7 at the SCG by two points. If Ben Brown and Jack Ziebell are potent up forward they will both cause headaches for the Swans’ defence.
Also if Shaun Higgins, who is a Brownlow smoky, continues his great form through the middle of the ground, North will no doubt make the final eight if other results go their way. This match could go either way like back in Round 7 when the two sides played at the SCG and North just won by two points over the Swans.
(Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
In Round 18 North will play the in-form Pies at the MCG who currently sit second on the ladder. It will be a tough task for the young North side who have only played one match at the MCG and that was a loss against Melbourne in Round 3.
North will give it their all but I believe the Pies will get a five-goal win.
Then in the following week in Round 19 North will go up against the Eagles at Blundstone Arena in Hobart. The way the Eagles are playing at the moment I believe North can come away with the win, as Blundstone is becoming a fortress for North. Jack Darling and Josh Kennedy expected to possibly be back for the match, this could make it interesting.
It will be a tight finish at Blundstone.
North will play against the Lions at the Gabba and this match will be a match full of young talent. At the start of the season, I saw this match as a certain percentage-boosting win however the Lions have been playing well in the last few rounds. It has been promising from the up and coming Lions side.
I believe North’s experienced heads such as Shaun Higgins, Ben Cunnington, Jack Ziebell, Robbie Tarrant and Todd Goldstein will be able to get the job done against the Lions.
North will face the Dogs at Etihad in Round 21 and it will be another close match between the two sides like in Round 14. Also if the two teams’ Round 14 match is anything to go by then this will be another close contest. I believe North would have learnt from Round 14 that the Dogs are a fast young side.
The Dogs were all over North and they played the brand of footy not expected of a 14th spot on the ladder team. They played great fast free flowing footy for the first half of the match and continued to play this way for the second half but ran out of legs. North were able to come away with the win in the second half, as their experienced players in Higgins, Ziebell and Cunnington stepped up in the crucial stages of the match.
North should get the win over the Dogs comfortably.
It will be a tough clash for North against the Crows at the Adelaide Oval in Round 22. North will find it hard to get the win over the Crows, as they have struggled to secure a win at the Adelaide ground in recent years. So this match will be an interesting encounter between the two sides.
If North fancies their chances of making the finals this year they should get the win against the Crows in a close one or just lose in a tight match.
In the final round, North will play the Saints at Etihad and this match will be a percentage-boosting win for North like in Round 2. I believe this will be the match that could possibly decide if North play finals in 2018, because at the conclusion of the season the final spots in the eight will come down to who has the higher percentage.
If North for some reason do not make the top eight at season’s end, I believe it has still been a successful season for a young list.
They were tipped to not even be in contention to make the finals for another couple of years, let alone this season.
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