North Melbourne had lost a lot of goalkicking experience over summer in the departures of Nathan Thompson and Shannon Grant. With Corey Jones in the VFL, it fell to David Hale to provide the score.
And he stepped up to the plate with four majors that could have been more but for some misses, including a wayward shot late in the final quarter.
“It would have been good to ice the game with that kick but unfortunately I missed it. I missed one from the goal square as well,” Hale said after the game.
“I could have ended up with a couple more so it was a bit disappointing, but it was good to get the confidence up and take some grabs again.”
Hale spent much of the first half on young Essendon defender Darcy Daniher before taking on Tayte Pears and then Dustin Fletcher.
The sight of the two long-limbed no. 31s was one of the key match-ups as the game unfolded and Hale said he knew he had a challenge on his hands.
“He’s got a wealth of experience, Fletch. He’s got those long arms and it’s hard to break away from him. I guess you try to bypass him and take him out of the play. That’s what the game plan was,” he said.
“They like to play Fletcher on the third tall. We went into the game knowing that. We tried to create a bit of space and get him out of the play and isolate their other two smaller defenders which helped in a way. We went into the game thinking that would be the case.”
Hale said the win over Essendon was crucial to a playing group that had struggled to cope with the scrutiny that followed the infamous chicken video.
“We’ve copped a little bit from the media and a couple of players have been down as well. It was good to unite this week and come out as a group and play the sort of footy we did. To play the contested brand of footy and come away with a win was all we wanted all week.
“Hopefully we’ve got a bit of pressure off the back and can come out next week and have another one.”
