A season opener against a quality side has left North Melbourne with plenty of talking points.
In his post-match media conference, Brad Scott was open about both the positives and areas of improvement for his side going forward.
Generating opportunities
“I didn’t get the sense that we were taking pot shots from poor positions, they were pretty simple shots and pretty simple opportunities.”
North’s inaccuracy was a hot topic after the final siren.
Often a final total along the lines of 13.15 indicates the quality of scoring shots were an issue; but that wasn’t the case against the Eagles. 23 of the 28 scoring shots were from what Champion Data classifies as the corridor, but the end result was only 12 goals, 11 behinds.
Nevertheless, it was a clear sign that North’s ball movement was able to generate quality opportunities against a very good side, which was what Scott was referring to when he mentioned ‘simple shots’.
In Adam Simpson’s 71 matches as head coach of the Eagles, they have only conceded more scoring shots from the corridor on two other occasions.
If North can continue to take the same quality of scoring shots in future weeks and convert at a slightly higher rate, it’s a winning recipe.
On the outside
“The other part they really got on top of us, particularly the longer the game went on, was they dominated uncontested possession.”
North finished Sunday’s match with 81 fewer uncontested possessions than the Eagles.
The flow-on effect from that was the Roos were in possession for more than six fewer minutes than their opponents, making it tougher to play the game on their terms.
Scott’s identification of ‘the longer the game went on’ is reflected in the numbers.
The uncontested possession count was almost dead even at quarter-time, while the time in possession for the first half was much the same.
But after the main break, the Eagles were able to take command in both areas and it ended up showing on the scoreboard.
Defending in the back half
“I didn’t think as a defensive group we covered ourselves in glory. By our own admission we were poor with our one-on-one defending.”
Sunday was a departure from the norm for North’s defending close to the opposition’s goal.
Numbers from previous years have shown the Roos can defend much more efficiently than Sunday, when West Coast was able to score with almost half of its entries inside 50.
Considering much of the defensive unit (Robbie Tarrant, Scott Thompson, Jamie Macmillan, Luke McDonald, Lachlan Hansen) has familiarity with each other, the natural assumption is they will improve on the season opener.
Combine the improvement with a better performance in front of goals at the other end, and there is plenty for North to build on heading into Round 2’s clash against Geelong.
