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Who: North Melbourne vs Adelaide
Or is it The Kangaroos? Or North kangaroos? Perhaps they will soon change their name back to The Hotham Football Club? Interestingly enough this club was once called "Albert Park cum North Melbourne" and perhaps even slightly more interesting, this time 100 years ago North Melbourne were in the middle of a sexy 58 game winning streak in the VFA. But, once they were finally invited into the VFL, North had to wait a long long looooong 25 years before making their first VFL Grand Final and an even longer 50 years before winning their first flag.
What is the point of all this dribble? It kind of puts our 6 game winning streak and 20 year premiership drought into perspective right? Some North supporters went from being born to being a grandfather before seeing a flag... Ouch.
When: Saturday, 6th May 2017 at 13:45
Where: Blunderstone Arena in good ol' Tasmania.
Will coming off a 6 day break impact Adelaide's game? I think not.
The Recent Relevant History:
So, what is the history between these two clubs? Well, I think every face off in the last 14 years has included some version of Wayne Carey's shagtastic adventures, and every face off in the last 20 years has included the 1998 premiership triumph over the inaccurate North side. So, ill post some images to bring back the happies!!
Now that that's out of our systems, lets look at the real stuff. North have taken a fall off a cliff that the Coyote would be jealous of. This time last season, undefeated at round 7 and looking like a contender. Then all of a sudden the wheels fell off, the engine fell out, the doors blew off, the steering wheel broke off and the car stereo started playing songs by various fat ladies. Norths shell of a car came to a screeching halt in the finals when Adelaide crushed them by 62 points. Fast forward to 2017 and North are struggling to piece their car back together again. However, 3 of their 5 losses have been by a handful of points and had they kicked straight on goal 3 more times this season, they could be sitting pretty at 4-2.
This time in 2016 Adelaide were looking OK with a 4-2 win loss record. The season continued on that trend, but failed when it counted in the finals. The trend of building up supporters hope, increasing our passion, giving us a taste of victory then crushing our dreams, breaking our spirits and tearing our hearts out continued. The Adelaide boards went into meltdown, posters were demanding trades, discussing delistings, tearing players contracts up. Jump forward to today and these same players have stepped up. In fact, there would be very few players whose player ratings have stagnated or dropped on last years ratings, theres been a lot of "organic growth". The team has grown like sour sobs on the first sunny day in winter, and what we are seeing today is a step above what we have seen in more than a decade - a team playing for each other with lightning speed, fast accurate scoring, team defence and perhaps the most scary part - so much room for improvement. The reporters are struggling, they have to write articles on the Crows which means they have to learn our players names...
LAST FIVE TIMES
1EF, 2016, Adelaide 21.15 (141) d North Melbourne 12.7 (79) at Adelaide Oval
R14, 2016, Adelaide 12.28 (100) d North Melbourne 10.7 (67) at Adelaide Oval
R1, 2016, North Melbourne 16.11 (107) d Adelaide 14.13 (97) at Etihad Stadium
R1, 2015, Adelaide 21.14 (140) d North Melbourne 9.9 (63) at Adelaide Oval
R22, 2014, North Melbourne 14.17 (101) d Adelaide 13.16 (94) at Blundstone Arena
Likely line ups:
Will North recall the dirtiest, duckiest acting player in the AFL? Or perhaps their Big, not-so friendly Giant in Pruess? Will Adelaide finally drop MacKay and thus reach complete footy enlightenment? Will 2017's greatest revelation, Mr Fix it Andy Otten get dropped for "not fitting the structure" as many have called for? The poor bloke has played more positions in 6 weeks than he has in his whole AFL career and won or at least proven passable in each.
North Melbourne
B: Williams, Tarrant, Atley
HB: Hanson, Thompson, Vickers-Wills
C: MacMillan, Cunnington, Turner
HF: Garner, Brown, Higgins
F: Anderson, Wood, Thomas
Foll: Goldstein, Gibson, Ziebell
Int: Hrovat, Mountford , McDonald, Dumont
IN - Mountford, Thomas
OUT - Mullett, Simpkin
Adelaide
B: Brown, Talia, Lever
HB: Smith, Hartigan, Laird
C: Cameron, Sloane, Atkins
HF: Lynch, Walker, Knight
F: Betts, Jenkins, Otten
Foll: Jacobs, Mrouch, Brouch
Int: Douglas, Hampton, Kelly, Milera
IN - Knight
OUT - MacKay*
*MacKay probably wont be dropped but a guy can have dreams right?
Ones to Watch:
The man with the greatest hair on the planet. Im sure in decades to come it will be revealed that it was in fact his hair controlling the man, much alike the wig from the simpsons episode.
Anyway, Sloane was well held in the final last year, watch for him to make amends.
Of course, how could we not watch Eddie Betts? I predict within 15 minutes he will be slotting his 500th goal, North and Adelaide supporters alike will applaud him as the Eddie-love is not just felt by Adelaide supporters, but AFL supporters all round. Just incase you havent quite watched his various highlight reels more than a dozen times each yet, heres a link:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=eddie+betts
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=eddie+betts
And if you havent watched these videos a dozen times each yet, what the hell is wrong with you? Forget going to work, forget feeding the kids, lock yourself in the private confines of your man cave, grab a roll of toilet paper, close the curtains and go crazy... You can thank me later.
And for North Melbourne, here is a picture of Lindsay Thomas at diving practice. Watch this guy, if he plays I expect him to have 4 shots on goal from dives alone. The rubber neck will be warm, flexible and ready to jerked back at will after being dropped for the Gold Coast game.
Prediction:
Beware, Norths losses haven't been by huge margins, don't poke the bear (or big Grey Kangaroo in this instance). Adelaide are gazing down on all below them from the top of the ladder like Sauron, the all seeing eye. But in that story a little Hobbit, against all odds, defeated the seemingly unbeatable. Maybe it is my fears of history repeating itself, or the repeated build ups and let downs over the years, but I think Adelaide's first loss will come quite unexpectedly at the hands of a much lower team... But not this week!!!!
Adelaide by 42 points!!!
Go Crows!
Or is it The Kangaroos? Or North kangaroos? Perhaps they will soon change their name back to The Hotham Football Club? Interestingly enough this club was once called "Albert Park cum North Melbourne" and perhaps even slightly more interesting, this time 100 years ago North Melbourne were in the middle of a sexy 58 game winning streak in the VFA. But, once they were finally invited into the VFL, North had to wait a long long looooong 25 years before making their first VFL Grand Final and an even longer 50 years before winning their first flag.
What is the point of all this dribble? It kind of puts our 6 game winning streak and 20 year premiership drought into perspective right? Some North supporters went from being born to being a grandfather before seeing a flag... Ouch.
When: Saturday, 6th May 2017 at 13:45
Where: Blunderstone Arena in good ol' Tasmania.
Will coming off a 6 day break impact Adelaide's game? I think not.
The Recent Relevant History:
So, what is the history between these two clubs? Well, I think every face off in the last 14 years has included some version of Wayne Carey's shagtastic adventures, and every face off in the last 20 years has included the 1998 premiership triumph over the inaccurate North side. So, ill post some images to bring back the happies!!
Now that that's out of our systems, lets look at the real stuff. North have taken a fall off a cliff that the Coyote would be jealous of. This time last season, undefeated at round 7 and looking like a contender. Then all of a sudden the wheels fell off, the engine fell out, the doors blew off, the steering wheel broke off and the car stereo started playing songs by various fat ladies. Norths shell of a car came to a screeching halt in the finals when Adelaide crushed them by 62 points. Fast forward to 2017 and North are struggling to piece their car back together again. However, 3 of their 5 losses have been by a handful of points and had they kicked straight on goal 3 more times this season, they could be sitting pretty at 4-2.
This time in 2016 Adelaide were looking OK with a 4-2 win loss record. The season continued on that trend, but failed when it counted in the finals. The trend of building up supporters hope, increasing our passion, giving us a taste of victory then crushing our dreams, breaking our spirits and tearing our hearts out continued. The Adelaide boards went into meltdown, posters were demanding trades, discussing delistings, tearing players contracts up. Jump forward to today and these same players have stepped up. In fact, there would be very few players whose player ratings have stagnated or dropped on last years ratings, theres been a lot of "organic growth". The team has grown like sour sobs on the first sunny day in winter, and what we are seeing today is a step above what we have seen in more than a decade - a team playing for each other with lightning speed, fast accurate scoring, team defence and perhaps the most scary part - so much room for improvement. The reporters are struggling, they have to write articles on the Crows which means they have to learn our players names...
LAST FIVE TIMES
1EF, 2016, Adelaide 21.15 (141) d North Melbourne 12.7 (79) at Adelaide Oval
R14, 2016, Adelaide 12.28 (100) d North Melbourne 10.7 (67) at Adelaide Oval
R1, 2016, North Melbourne 16.11 (107) d Adelaide 14.13 (97) at Etihad Stadium
R1, 2015, Adelaide 21.14 (140) d North Melbourne 9.9 (63) at Adelaide Oval
R22, 2014, North Melbourne 14.17 (101) d Adelaide 13.16 (94) at Blundstone Arena
Likely line ups:
Will North recall the dirtiest, duckiest acting player in the AFL? Or perhaps their Big, not-so friendly Giant in Pruess? Will Adelaide finally drop MacKay and thus reach complete footy enlightenment? Will 2017's greatest revelation, Mr Fix it Andy Otten get dropped for "not fitting the structure" as many have called for? The poor bloke has played more positions in 6 weeks than he has in his whole AFL career and won or at least proven passable in each.
North Melbourne
B: Williams, Tarrant, Atley
HB: Hanson, Thompson, Vickers-Wills
C: MacMillan, Cunnington, Turner
HF: Garner, Brown, Higgins
F: Anderson, Wood, Thomas
Foll: Goldstein, Gibson, Ziebell
Int: Hrovat, Mountford , McDonald, Dumont
IN - Mountford, Thomas
OUT - Mullett, Simpkin
Adelaide
B: Brown, Talia, Lever
HB: Smith, Hartigan, Laird
C: Cameron, Sloane, Atkins
HF: Lynch, Walker, Knight
F: Betts, Jenkins, Otten
Foll: Jacobs, Mrouch, Brouch
Int: Douglas, Hampton, Kelly, Milera
IN - Knight
OUT - MacKay*
*MacKay probably wont be dropped but a guy can have dreams right?
Ones to Watch:
The man with the greatest hair on the planet. Im sure in decades to come it will be revealed that it was in fact his hair controlling the man, much alike the wig from the simpsons episode.
Anyway, Sloane was well held in the final last year, watch for him to make amends.
Of course, how could we not watch Eddie Betts? I predict within 15 minutes he will be slotting his 500th goal, North and Adelaide supporters alike will applaud him as the Eddie-love is not just felt by Adelaide supporters, but AFL supporters all round. Just incase you havent quite watched his various highlight reels more than a dozen times each yet, heres a link:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=eddie+betts
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=eddie+betts
And if you havent watched these videos a dozen times each yet, what the hell is wrong with you? Forget going to work, forget feeding the kids, lock yourself in the private confines of your man cave, grab a roll of toilet paper, close the curtains and go crazy... You can thank me later.
And for North Melbourne, here is a picture of Lindsay Thomas at diving practice. Watch this guy, if he plays I expect him to have 4 shots on goal from dives alone. The rubber neck will be warm, flexible and ready to jerked back at will after being dropped for the Gold Coast game.
Prediction:
Beware, Norths losses haven't been by huge margins, don't poke the bear (or big Grey Kangaroo in this instance). Adelaide are gazing down on all below them from the top of the ladder like Sauron, the all seeing eye. But in that story a little Hobbit, against all odds, defeated the seemingly unbeatable. Maybe it is my fears of history repeating itself, or the repeated build ups and let downs over the years, but I think Adelaide's first loss will come quite unexpectedly at the hands of a much lower team... But not this week!!!!
Adelaide by 42 points!!!
Go Crows!
