Preview Round 14 - North Melbourne vs Brisbane Lions @ Bellerive Oval - Saturday 19/6/2021 4:35pm

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Last time
Round 12, 2020. We were still pursuing our spray-and-pray strategy in front of goal, kicking 1.5 in the first - plus a few shots missing entirely, and struggled to establish any sort of margin. A free on the final siren allowed North to narrow the margin from 7 to 1. It kicked off a streak of rather ugly wins.

Player watch
Aaron Hall

Hall's career has been revitalised by a move back, now playing as a quick, rebounding defender. He even attracted the attention of de Boer in his last game, which did not particularly deter him from racking up the possessions or the meters gained. He has his flaws as a defender, but his ability to start an attack is genuine.

Robbie Tarrant
The experienced defender has returned from kidney surgery and played a pretty decent game too. North's backline seemed a little unsettled by the addition but they'll be better for the live-fire exercise.

Ben Cunnington
While Cunnington is getting long in the tooth he's still a contested beast and was on fire - especially in the first half - against the Giants. This is something to watch - especially with Zorko out and Neale still building match fitness.

Harris Andrews
Nick Haynes was superb against North, racking up 14 marks, including 9 intercept marks. This incident early in the match was illustrative - the Giants gave the appearance of space for North to kick into and then Haynes is able to peel off his opponent and cut off the entry.
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To make these graphs, I have assumed that the only change will be Mathieson in for the suspended Zorko.
Screenshot 2021-06-14 at 01-16-59 AFL Stats - Upcoming Games.png


Form watch
North Melbourne: LWLLD, 18th, 61%
Brisbane Lions: WWWWL, 4th, 127.3%

It's obviously very much a rebuilding year for North. They have been improved of late, but off a very low base. They won narrowly against fellow rebuilders Hawthorn, got belted by the Bombers, stayed within cooee without ever really challenging the struggling Saints and gave up a solid lead to draw against the Giants.



We're fresh off our bye, having won seven on the trot before running out of steam completely against a rampaging Demons side in the second half.
Screenshot 2021-06-14 at 00-39-05 AFL Stats - Brisbane.png


IP watch
This is our first match against former football manager David Noble. North profoundly struggled to execute his gameplan in the first few rounds. While they have improved since it might be a bit too early for implementing much specificity.

Score watch
North have coughed up an average of an incredible 105.6 points per round so far this year. This should make the first week of the new goalkicking competition (thread coming soon) pretty easy!

Summary watch
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Oh, wait, that's not what this thread is about. It's about the game, which we should be winning comfortably.
 
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Oh, and that goalkicking competition now exists, so go pick someone to kick at least 6 of those 105.6 points

Note: 6 behinds does not count
 

jackess

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Expecting more of the same from the past 2 months. Hopefully Madden comes in at the expense of Birchall or Lester if unfit.

Matho likely to replace Zorko

Hopefully Berry and Payne can come back and show something in the 2s
 
We’ll win, but I won’t be surprised if there’s a period where they dominate purely based on Nobel’s inside knowledge. We did it to the hawks, so it can happen.
Dominate is a big word.
I would go with, periods where they are in the game.
 
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Great review Jivlain
Hall to half back was a good move by Noble.
Hall was always able to find the footy just not an inside player. Averaging 33 disposals the last 6 games
His disposal can be excellent to very bad.
Our forwards will need to apply better pressure this week than they did in the last half against Melbourne
Noble knows our players so this is no gimmie game
Their midfield is basically Cunnington, Simpkin then LDU so we should get on top in this area. Run with roles for D. Robertson, Mathieson & Lyons
Goldy (33 years old 1/7/21) is still very serviceable in the ruck and still averages 93% TOG. Probably still in the top 8-10 rucks in the comp

I think this is the game Madden should play in to see how he is progressing. Give Lester another week or longer
Hope we can find someone with pace to take one spot in our backline as i feel a GF appearance may go out the window without this type of player

For me IN: the M&M's Mathieson & Madden - OUT: Zorko & Lester
 
Great review Jivlain
Hall to half back was a good move by Noble.
Hall was always able to find the footy just not an inside player. Averaging 33 disposals the last 6 games
His disposal can be excellent to very bad.
Our forwards will need to apply better pressure this week than they did in the last half against Melbourne
Noble knows our players so this is no gimmie game
Their midfield is basically Cunnington, Simpkin then LDU so we should get on top in this area. Run with roles for D. Robertson, Mathieson & Lyons
Goldy (33 years old 1/7/21) is still very serviceable in the ruck and still averages 93% TOG. Probably still in the top 8-10 rucks in the comp

I think this is the game Madden should play in to see how he is progressing. Give Lester another week or longer
Hope we can find someone with pace to take one spot in our backline as i feel a GF appearance may go out the window without this type of player

For me IN: the M&M's Mathieson & Madden - OUT: Zorko & Lester
With a follow up Hammy, you would have to think we give Lester more than 2 weeks surely.
 

bato

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North played very well against Melbourne and again yesterday. They're honestly a 5-6 goal better side when they play in Tasmania.

Danger, danger, danger game.
 

fugitive

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North played very well against Melbourne and again yesterday. They're honestly a 5-6 goal better side when they play in Tasmania.

Danger, danger, danger game.

Isn’t the game at Marvel? Still agree bit of a danger game although we have come out firing after the bye last couple of seasons.
 

bato

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Isn’t the game at Marvel? Still agree bit of a danger game although we have come out firing after the bye last couple of seasons.
They’ll get a bigger crowd in Tassie so it’ll more than likely be moved there.
 

Wilbur23

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Hopefully.
Lester (inj), Zorko (stupidity) and Birchall (passed used by date) out.
Payne, Mathieson and Madden in.
 

bato

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It’s their home game so they get to make that call, cats decides to stay at home and play without crowd.
I think that's only because they're already in Tassie. Probably would've been a little different had they been in Perth or somewhere else.

:(
 
Apr 4, 2015
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I guess we assume there's no hope of Birchall missing now that it's in Tassie.

I see there are plenty of calls to move him on but I just keep harking back to that final against Richmond last year where he really lifted his level and was crucial in the last half.
 
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