Roar Guru
North Melbourne coach Brad Scott’s only lament after his team’s promising AFL season ended with a 23-point win over St Kilda was that Ben Brown couldn’t snatch the Coleman Medal.
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Final score
St Kilda Saints 14.10.94
North Melbourne Kangaroos 17.15.117
It is a somewhat subdued end to the AFL 2018 home and away season, with St Kilda finishing off their season at Etihad Stadium against North Melbourne. Join The Roar for live scores and updates from 4:40pm (AEST).
Truth be told, it was a curious decision by the AFL to finish the home and away season with this fixture.
No disrespect to either of these sides, but when the Round 23 fixture was released, it was clear that St Kilda, at the least, were not competing for much by way of any finals impacting goals.
St Kilda showed a flicker of life last week in a commanding performance over Hawthorn that deserved more than the result showed. As Alistair Clarkson noted in his press conference, the better team lost.
The dual storyline here for St Kilda will be the players showing to their coach that they are worthy of another go-around in 2019, while for Alan Richardson, he will be hoping for a strong final game to give his club some faith for one more year.
If Jack Lonie can go anywhere close to repeating his form from last week, then the Saints should be largely more than competitive.
As for North Melbourne, what a season this could have been.
They started the season like a team possessed, alas that form simply could not be sustained, and they will watch on in September.
As with the Saints, players will be playing for contracts next year, and no doubt a last loss to the Saints to finish the year would leave an unnecessarily sour taste in the mouth going into the off-season.
Can Ben Brown chase down the Coleman Medal? Maybe.
You would think if he is a chance, with a quarter to go, then that should be the driving force behind the Kangaroos game plan to finish the year off with a little bit of style.
Prediction
I am not convinced that the Saints can bottle last week’s lightning and manage to strike twice. The Kangaroos are for intents and purposes a stronger team, and should give Brad Scott something to think about for the new year and another tilt at finals.
Kangaroos by 26.
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