Round 11: North Melbourne v Sydney Swans

[aguy]

Great to see Tippett play his best game of the year after all the criticism this week. Goodes is looking better and better. Imagine now if we can get Reid firing at the same time as the other talls the feared forward line would finally stand up. Add mcglynn and Heeney to crumb. Very exciting

[Conor_Dillon]

Credit to North they were immense in the second half tonight, we looked really tired - might have been the back to back interstate trips.
Laidler played his best game for the club, Tippett was much better as well. Buddy's pressure and tackling was awesome...could have kicked 6 or 7 with a bit of help from the umpires.
Cunningham's best game of the year, Goodesy is still a genius. (Brian Taylor still a flog)

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Pyke was disappointing, but those free kicks against him were perplexing...since when can't you make body contact before tapping the ball?
Lloydy was also pretty quiet and Reid did some good things but would have been nice to see him clunk a few more marks.

[Ampersand]

Agree with the praise for Laidler. Parker, Jetta and McVeigh used the ball really well in traffic.

Baffled by Shaw's decision making. Cost us at least another 2 goals tonight. His best highlight of the night was when Waite piggybacked him - to be fair, not his fault.

Really think it's time to start experimenting with our ruck, given our woeful clearance and HTA numbers. Would like to see Nankervis get a shot. The idea of 2 bullocking, goal kicking ruckmen seems so much better than whatever we're attempting to do now.

[bloodsbigot]

Is it just me, or has Parker become like 20% more of a bully since the Hawthorn game? Seems to enjoy bumping players off the ball and imposing himself more physically?

I reckon he's learned it from Mitchell/Hodge/Lewis in our last couple of outings and taken his game up another level.

[wolftone57]

I am wanting to crucify Smith, Shaw and Rampe for their bloody stupid across the the ground give up the ball and let them get goals. Shaw should have had a North guernsey on the amount of ball he gave them. When are our players going to get it. DO NOT JUST BOMB INTO THE FORWARD LINE THEY HAVE LOOSE PLAYERS THERE!!!!!

About tonight. Parker super, a cut above everyone else. Sensational. Macca & Jetts the best disposal ever. Pity the rest don'r learn from their example, they can hit targets. I liked Mitchell's game, he was a really good extractor tonight.

Still a bit worried about Rampe if he keeps giving up the ball he is no use at all. Newman has been in the best in the Twos and after the break I would be interested to see if Shaw or Rampe get dropped. Both were a bit terrible in their disposal but Shaw far worse.

We won but that is all we could take out if this.


But I must say we did play like champions in the second quarter. If only we could do this for 4 quarters.

[Mel_C]

Wow what a game. We were really sore at the end so we will be looking forward to the bye. Does anyone know what was wrong with Grundy? Was it a knee?

Hanners looked like he was dead again. Did Rohan have cramp?

It got nasty in the crowd tonight. There was a fight in the standing room in the bay next to mine. Around me there was a lot of verbal abuse in the 3rd quarter. So glad we won ????.

Loved the cheering for Goodes especially after his goals! A shame about some of those idiot north supporters.

Laidler played his best game for us. He is a tough nut.

Still worried about our clearances. What are the coaches doing??

[Conor_Dillon]

I think we should be reasonably pleased with the position we're in.

> 9-2
> Best start to a season in nearly 3 decades.
> Played all of last years top 4 away from home
> Plenty of depth, 3 or 4 guys that could easily step up from the 2's, plus Heeney & Benny to come back.
> Reasonably healthy list, touch wood.
> 2 games clear of Hawthorn.
> Haven't been too reliant on Bud.

[WauchopeAnalyst]

I know that i bag RAMPE but i think he brings something. Just stop kicking across goal and dont kick to the other teams ruckman. Simple strategies and dont start thinking. SHAW is just not giving enough and cant win flag with him and PYKE. 16 to 2 in centre clearances. You win 2 out 10 in finals with that.

[bloodspirit]

I don't think he's going anywhere soon. His clangers notwithstanding, the club is obviously digging his work. To be fair, he does a lot right apart from his shockers. Would be nice to see him think again before taking some of his more risky options. YB

[churry]

Rampe had some clangers, he's too predictable and tonight it seemed like he would either kick it long, a dangerous short kick straight towards the opposition. Some of his defensive work was good and he wont get dropped.

Shaw is the most frustrating player to watch. Far too many turnovers and he can't jump.

Laidler was brilliant. Effort, commitment and those marks in the 4th...

Decision making was really good in the first half, not so much in the 2nd.

Pyke must be up there with the most frees against this season.

Thankfully it's the bye week for the Swans, am a little concerned about Reg and Hanners. Although surprisingly (yes he's tough) Hanners ran out the game so maybe he's OK.

[Meg]

The supposed expert commentators (including Ling for whom I have a lot of regard) were making a big fuss, including in the after-game summary, about the holding-the-ball free kick to Goodes against Swallow when Swallow tried to burrow his way through with his head buried into Goodes' body. They all seemed to think the umpire was (incorrectly) applying the new ruling about leading with the head.
The way I saw it at the time, and having now watched the replay, it was a completely correct call by the umpire which had nothing to do with the new ruling on leading with the head.
Swallow gathered the ball with his head down, he was correctly tackled by Goodes, but Swallow made NO attempt to correctly dispose of the ball. Swallow simply held on to the ball and kept trying to push Goodes forward. A player with no opportunity MUST make a genuine attempt to correctly dispose of the ball. Otherwise it's 'holding the ball'.
Am I right?

[liz]

The supposed expert commentators (including Ling for whom I have a lot of regard) were making a big fuss, including in the after-game summary, about the holding-the-ball free kick to Goodes against Swallow when Swallow tried to burrow his way through with his head buried into Goodes' body. They all seemed to think the umpire was (incorrectly) applying the new ruling about leading with the head.
The way I saw it at the time, and having now watched the replay, it was a completely correct call by the umpire which had nothing to do with the new ruling on leading with the head.
Swallow gathered the ball with his head down, he was correctly tackled by Goodes, but Swallow made NO attempt to correctly dispose of the ball. Swallow simply held on to the ball and kept trying to push Goodes forward. A player with no opportunity MUST make a genuine attempt to correctly dispose of the ball. Otherwise it's 'holding the ball'.
Am I right?

I thought it was a text book example of the new interpretation"- Swallow forged forward with his head burrowed into Goodes' chest. I think it's less to do with the traditional understanding of prior opportunity, and more an attempt to stop players doing something that could injure the neck in some circumstances.

[rojo]

What about the deliberate biff on Buddy? If it had been the other way around it would have been a free kick for sure!

[Melbourne_Blood]

The rule was made to stop players putting their heads down and leading with them to get a high contact free kick. Swallow was picking the ball up when he was tackled, his head was already down and remained in that position through the tackle. It was a stinker of an interpretation of the new rule, that is not what the rule was introduced for.

[barry]

Swallow made no attempt. Goodes was smiling because he couldn't believe swallow was that stupid.

It was shaw who steamed through the middle and hit buddy lace out for the last goal