Round 6: North Adelaide v West Adelaide

Unusual stat from the first term of this game.

North's first four scoring shots in the match - and 8 of their first 9 in total - were all scored by players whose surnames began with H.

Mitch Harvey and Billy Hartung kicked it off with behinds before Lewis Hender kicked his 1st goal. followed by Dyson Hilder's first major.

Sam McInerney then goaled before the next four North scores - goals to Hender; Cam Hewitt; Hender for his 3rd goal and then his behind to finish their scoring for the term.

To make it even more unusual - the last two scores for West in the term were goals to Hamish Ellem and Hugh Haysman.

Huh?

The game itself showed a huge difference in class. West had a few good patches, but missed Beech and Lovell. Several West players are finding their way in League football and we don't yet know if they'll be up to the standard.

North were much quicker and precise, while West often messed around with several possessions gaining little ground while allowing the North defence to organise and get numbers behind the ball.

I thought West's defence held North's tall forwards reasonably well given the amount of ball inside North's 50, but West had no answer or smarts to contain Hender, the pace of Hartung and the direction of Spina.

Because of West's slow play into the 50, North's defence had no trouble picking off West's sporadic attacks.

Strangely, given the result, I've seen North play better and I think they're still a bit off the very top teams, but have time and will make the five.

Lee wrote:
Strangely, given the result, I've seen North play better and I think they're still a bit off the very top teams, but have time and will make the five.

I agree completely. North played much better when they thrashed Norwood.
On what I have seen North are very competitive with the Eagles and South but are certainly a fair bit behind Glenelg who are easily the best side I have seen this year.
A lot with North, too, will depend on Alex Barns' knee injury. He was on crutches with an ice pack on his knee at half time but at 3/4 time and after the game he just had the knee bandaged but was limping quite badly. If it is a long term injury North are no hope this year. He is vital as a ruckman/forward. Ideally both Harvey and Barns should play forward as happened at the end of 2018 when Jordon Sweet came in as a ruckman and Harvey and Barns both were very hard to match up on for opposition defences.
With Barns potentially out, Harvey has to ruck leaving North with very little marking strength up forward.

Another nice % Booster !

Only 2 wins with a % of 55

Country Cock ! wrote:Another nice % Booster !

Only 2 wins with a % of 55

I hope it is not a repeat of 1984 where North won 6 games, lost 16 games and yet had a percentage of over 50%.
I guess, though, that was the start of a very good side that won 2 flags and was runner up 3 times in the next 7 seasons.

rocket_rooster wrote:

Lee wrote:
Strangely, given the result, I've seen North play better and I think they're still a bit off the very top teams, but have time and will make the five.

I agree completely. North played much better when they thrashed Norwood.
On what I have seen North are very competitive with the Eagles and South but are certainly a fair bit behind Glenelg who are easily the best side I have seen this year.
A lot with North, too, will depend on Alex Barns' knee injury. He was on crutches with an ice pack on his knee at half time but at 3/4 time and after the game he just had the knee bandaged but was limping quite badly. If it is a long term injury North are no hope this year. He is vital as a ruckman/forward. Ideally both Harvey and Barns should play forward as happened at the end of 2018 when Jordon Sweet came in as a ruckman and Harvey and Barns both were very hard to match up on for opposition defences.
With Barns potentially out, Harvey has to ruck leaving North with very little marking strength up forward.

Thankfully Barns' knee injury turned out to be bruising on the bone (or kneecap). He would have been unable to play last weekend but is OK for tomorrow.
You never can tell with knee injuries.