Kangas get just reward for toil
NORTH Melbourne’s perseverance has paid off with coach Brad Scott claiming their thumping 59-point win over AFL competition leaders the Adelaide Crows shows his side’s true capability.
The Kangaroos dominated play from the opening siren at Blundstone Arena yesterday, kicking 10.4 in the first quarter and keeping the Crows scoreless. They continued on to win 22.13 (145) to 13.8 (86).
The win takes the Roos’to 2-5 and handed the Crows their first loss of the season.
“We’ve talked all year about how bright the future looks and hopefully our supporters got a good look at it today,” Scott said. “How we’ve gone about our footy this year has been pretty strong but we haven’t necessarily got the reward for effort ... but today a lot of things came together for us.” Returning from a shoulder injury suffered in Round 1, Jarrad Waite booted six goals.
But Waite’s effort might be clouded with officials expected to review a possible sling tackle on Tom Lynch, who left the ground concussed just before half-time. Waite was the Kangaroos’ leading goal scorer, also finishing with 22 disposals, while Ben Brown booted three goals.
Scott also noted Sam Gibson’s efforts against Adelaide’s midfield star Rory Sloane.
“I don’t think there are too many football experts who tipped us this week,” Scott said. NTH MELBOURNE V ADELAIDE BEST 10.4 12.6 17.12 22.13 0.0 5.6 9.7 13.8 GOALS UMPIRES CROWD
“We’ve just got to hang in there and persist with what we think is the right way to go about it and to our players credit they have persisted when the results have been going against them.”
Adelaide coach Don Pyke admitted the first quarter was a killer. “They hit us right between the eyes and the game was effectively over at quarter time,” he said.
On a positive note for the Crows, Eddie Betts booted his much-anticipated 500th goal.
In doing so the forward was flattened on the goal line by North’s Scott Thompson, giving Betts a second kick at goal to immediately move to 501 goals, the second of his three for the game.