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When you think of ‘North Melbourne football’, what’s the first thing that comes to mind?
Most likely, it’s the ‘Shinboner spirit’; hard, blue-collar football, where effort and intensity make up for a lack of more conventional football talents.
It’s nothing more than a stereotype, of course, but there’s no doubt that it’s been a long time since North Melbourne have had a team able and willing to bring those fighting qualities to the table. But if the Roos’ supremely gutsy, effortful, admirable win over a pretty rank West Coast in Alastair Clarkson’s first proper game at the helm is any guide, returning to those old values is a pretty good place to start turning this ship around.
The Roos weren’t perfect at Marvel Stadium, played in blessedly cooler conditions than the 37 degrees forecast under the roof. Their ball use was still scrappy at times, their style of play rough and occasionally completely unhinged, and you’d have been forgiven for thinking some of them had both Jeremy McGovern and Tom Barrass in their SuperCoach teams with the way they kicked the ball inside 50.
But weight of numbers told: the Roos created so many turnovers, so many chances to get the ball in dangerous positions, that they didn’t need to capitalise on all or even most of them to take control of this game.
They did it through one of footy’s oldest truisms: they went harder at the ball when it was in dispute, and tackled and pressured like maniacs to win it back.
It was Liam Shiels going back with the flight to take a courageous contested mark.
It was consecutive handball smothers from Luke Davies-Uniacke in the second quarter to force a turnover.
It was Griffin Logue standing strong under the high ball again and again in an ultra-impressive first outing in blue and white.
It was Tom Powell’s tackling, Charlie Comben’s second efforts, Curtis Taylor’s forward pressure, Cam Zurhaar smothering a defensive-half handball to set up a teammate’s goal.
Most of all, it was Hugh Greenwood, bruised and battered after a long day as a pseudo-ruckman, running down Bailey Williams for the holding the ball that ensured the Roos wouldn’t lose.
150 contested possessions is an obscene amount of hard ball to win, and 34 more than the Eagles – impressive for a side that ranked 16th in that stat last year.
So too was their 42-25 clearance domination, made all the more impressive by the loss of sole ruckman Tristan Xerri in the first quarter. Admittedly, Williams is a lot less imposing a West Coast ruck than Nic Naitanui would have been, but with Comben, Nick Larkey and Greenwood basically splitting the contests for the last three quarters, to find a way to not just hold their own but utterly dominate whenever there was a contest is a major feather in Clarkson’s cap.
Notably, the Eagles shaded centre clearances 12-10, where a top-line, reliable ruckman is more necessary than most. That disadvantage ended up nearly costing the Roos the game when the visitors had their run on in the second half, but better teams than North have been exposed by an injury to the number one ruck.
The Eagles’ leading contested possession winner was Tim Kelly with 11. The Roos, in contrast, had four players equal or ahead of that – Tom Powell and Hugh Greenwood (11), Jy Simpkin (12), and Davies Uniacke (19!). More on him later… but for now, you’ll notice Ben Cunnington, the hardest man in the AFL, isn’t in that group.
Clarkson could have easily given run of the midfield to the veterans – Cunnington, Greenwood and Liam Shiels alongside Davies-Uniacke and Simpkin. It would be dour, and wouldn’t help he next generation one bit, but you’d basically know what you get with that group, and they’d be able to not be blown apart by most oppositions.
Cunnington finished with just one clearance, as did Shiels: I’d love to see their centre bounce numbers, because I reckon they’d be about the same. Both still had a crucial role to play, but for Cunnington especially, this isn’t his midfield anymore.
Instead, it was Powell, and the activated sub Will Phillips, and Simpkin, and Cam Zurhaar in patches, who ran the show. Plus, of course, LDU.
To be sure, there was polish on the outside to match the grunt work – that’s what made this game so captivating to watch throughout, and far from the skill error-laden affair many predicted heading in.
Luke McDonald and Alastair Clarkson celebrate North Melbourne’s victory. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
Harry Sheezel’s debut at half-back was a Clarkson masterstroke: a damaging small forward for much of his junior years, the first-gamer played a Nick Daicos-esque role hanging out the back of contests for handball receives, and the Roos already love the ball in his hands.
That’s not a dig, either – Daicos won a Rising Star last year playing that outside game, and while both he and Sheezel’s kicks might be easily won, every team needs a clean ball-user in defence.
Sheezel would end up with 34 disposals, 631 metres gained, and went at a perfectly reasonable 73 per cent efficiency. Barring a calamitous first kick in the big time, I didn’t spot a major mistake with his ball use. If he doesn’t get the Rising Star nomination this round, the judges can’t have watched his game.
Then, of course, there’s Davies-Uniacke: play another 22 games like this one, and it’ll be hard to dispute the growing claim (okay, it’s my claim) that he’s the Roos’ most gifted talent since Wayne Carey.
He’s basically if early-years Scott Pendlebury was built like early-years Patrick Cripps, though in his sixth season, it’s probably time to ditch those ‘early-years’ riders. I had him at 30th in my top-50 list pre-season, and it looks like I might have undersold him.
This was the perfect midfielder’s game: a demon at the source with 10 clearances, he explodes from the coalface remarkably for someone who isn’t blessed with ridiculous pace. He moves through congestion so wonderfully as well: where Pendlebury’s stoppage slipperiness comes from his incredible footy brain, Davies-Uniacke creates his space with a sidestep that wouldn’t look out of place on an NRL field.
He doesn’t waste a touch, either: a couple of times in the first quarter, running towards goal, he chose to handpass instead of having a flying shot at goal, and set up majors both times.
He’s also a dangerous prospect forward of the ball, kicking an early goal after keeping his feet when two Eagles lost theirs in a marking contest. Strong, skilled and dynamic, he’s got every single attribute you’d want if you were Frankensteining a perfect midfielder.
Davies-Uniacke’s most vital stat, in the end, was his seven inside-50s – another area of rapid improvement for North from last year, and evidence of how quickly things can change if you get the hands on the ball.
The Roos finished 17th for average inside 50s last year, and while a 49-46 edge over the team that ranked 18th isn’t earth-shattering, it was noticeable just how dangerous those entries were.
They looked to move the ball with pace, whether emerging from contests or rebounding from defence; a stark contrast to the often frustrating slow builds under David Noble. With far more handball than last year – 54 per cent of the Roos’ disposals were kicks on Saturday, compared to nearly 60 per cent last year – the Roos put their foot on the accelerator, sped from stoppages and, for the first half at least, made the Eagles look sluggish.
It suits North far better than the old way, because they just aren’t a good kicking team. Indeed, the times where they tried to slow the game down in the second half with the Eagles surging, they turned the ball over to an alarming degree. Indeed, if it hadn’t been for their attacking mindset early, and willingness to take the game on, they’d have been overrun.
This speedy ball movement was manna from heaven for Nick Larkey, whose effort to kick 38 goals last year despite minimal, terrible supply was quite remarkable.
Because he’s played for a rubbish team pretty much his whole career, plenty of people don’t realise just how good he is. This is a key forward who is lightning on the lead, has strong hands, and is almost as dangerous at ground level as he is in the air.
He has a lot of tricks in his book, and, buoyed by one-on-ones against Barrass and McGovern, cashed in superbly with six goals.
McGovern and Barrass, to be fair, couldn’t have done much more; with 12 and eight intercept possessions respectively, pretty much any ball that wasn’t meticulously directed inside North’s attacking 50 was ruthlessly repelled. But both are ideally suited to being the second, intercepting tall; neither are that adept as pure, key forward-stopping defenders.
It all makes for a more than decent blueprint for Clarkson to work on, limited list be damned: fight tooth and nail for the hard ball, spread from the contest with fast handballs, get the ball in the hands of your best kickers, and try and find Larkey in attack. Then without the ball, tackle fiercely, force a contest or a free kick, and then insert Plan A. Rinse, wash, repeat.
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Easily said; difficult to maintain across four quarters, especially for a young team. What was equally noticeable was that the instant that manic intensity dropped, the Eagles surged back into the game. From 34 points clear and dominating midway through the second quarter, a Luke Shuey-led West Coast finally got a good run of things out of the centre.
Across the next eight minutes, the Eagles won the contested possession count 13-5, having been almost doubled in the first half. For the first time all day – despite the Roos having no recognised ruckman after Tristan Xerri went down in the first term – they shaded the clearance count 3-2, with two of them from Shuey.
Up forward, reinvigorated by the contest up the ground, Liam Ryan emerged from his slumber to loom large. Opposed for much of the game – and soundly exposed – by Sheezel, the Eagles’ improved ball movement, and getting it inside 50 quicker from the centre as opposed to needing to transition from their own defence, space started to open up for him to work his magic.
Rarely sighted in the first half, Ryan would touch the ball six times in that stretch, kicking a goal himself and setting up another; he’d go on to be the most dangerous player on the ground in the final term. Suddenly, Sheezel had something to think about, having won the footy at will with not a care in the world earlier on.
Inspired on all fronts, the Eagles would duly kick three goals to no score in those eight minutes, and at a stroke flip the game on its head. Winning the first clearance of the final term, surging it forward, and ending with a Ryan mark deep inside 50 for a fourth successive goal, the momentum had well and truly shifted.
Defensively, the Eagles lifted too: Dom Sheed running down big Charlie Comben within a kick of the goals showcasing the sort of intent we hardly saw from the visitors in the first half.
It wasn’t enough, though – not even the Kangaroos could give up a 34-point start. Whenever the Eagles got truly close, North always had an answer.
And more than anything else, that might be the strongest sign of all. North Melbourne have an ordinary list, aren’t great by foot, and are almost certainly not going to make finals this year because of that.
But by golly, do they have heart.
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