North Melbourne’s best final quarter of the season allowed it to leave Etihad Stadium with the four points on Saturday night.
It was a match where both sides had their periods of momentum. North’s came at times where it had been on the defensive earlier in the season, while Gold Coast used a monstrous game from Gary Ablett.
Brad Scott touched on multiple topics in his post-match media conference, and it’s all explained in the post-match wrap.
Hitting the scoreboard
“We talked about believing in what works and while we have been outscored in last quarters, we also haven’t scored ourselves.
“That’s been as much the problem – there have been defensive problems – but the fact that we haven’t been able to score when we’ve scored heavily prior to that has been an issue.”
Heading into Round 6, North ranked second last in points scored during the last quarter.
After the Suns had cut the margin to seven points with goals late in the third quarter, clearly the Roos had to hit the scoreboard with regularity to come away with the win.
The message was taken on board. 15 inside 50’s for the quarter was a season-high, while the scoreboard result of 4.2 was just one point behind the effort against the Western Bulldogs in Round 4.
It was also North’s best defensive final quarter of the year so far, holding the Suns to three goals from their 15 entries.
The influence of Gary Ablett
“I thought our midfield overall did pretty well and that’s the way we’ve got to look at it.
“We tried a couple of different things (on Ablett), but it was about, ‘what’s the balance to the midfield here?’.
“If their midfield is on top of you and he’s (Ablett) the sole reason, you need to make changes and then if that’s not working you need to change it again.
“But we didn’t think we lost the midfield ascendancy … and we felt that we could control it.”
Gary Ablett’s game of 45 disposals (27 contested), 18 clearances, 14 score involvements, 10 inside 50’s and 9 tackles understandably took the headlines post-match.
But overall, the midfield battle didn’t slant dramatically towards Gold Coast. The clearance count (39-34) and scores from stoppages (36-27) were close to even, even allowing for Ablett’s incredible tallies.
With the scores from stoppages close, North was able to take advantage of opposition mistakes, tallying a season-high 74 points from turnovers.
Team changes
“Lindsay (Thomas) kicked four, Andrew (Swallow) had his 20+ possessions and 10 tackles as he does, and they went back with the attitude that we would expect.
“We’ll keep picking the side on form and if those guys warrant selection then they’ll play, but if other guys are ahead of them then we won’t change it.
“We’re in a position where we’ve got a lot of players to pick from and a lot of players who are pretty even come selection. It doesn’t take much to tip the balance one way or the other.”
Both Thomas (four goals, 15 disposals) and Swallow (25 disposals, 12 tackles) performed well in the VFL on Saturday, raising the question on whether they will come straight back into the AFL side.
But the likes of Mitchell Hibberd (28 disposals, eight marks), Declan Mountford (22 disposals, 10 tackles), and Corey Wagner (two goals, 14 disposals) all put their hands up for a promotion, making selection for the trip down to Hobart a tough process.
