Australian Football

Match Report

North Melbourne has rebounded from a disappointing round one loss to Essendon to record a hard-fought win over the Western Bulldogs in Sunday's twilight game at Docklands.

The Kangaroos had been severely criticised after their insipid performance against the Dons and were looking for a much stronger contest against the Dogs, who were looking to do the same after a 70-point hiding at the hands of West Coast a week earlier. The result was a very fierce - and consequently very ugly, in terms of skill - first half between the two sides who went 'hammer and tong' at each other.

There was hardly a clean possession to be had and the ferocity of players resulted in a serious of rolling mauls. Ad a consequence, in beautiful conditions each side managed to kick just two goals for the entire first half.

North took a two-point lead into the second half and the game opened up slightly in the third quarter as the players began to tire. The Dogs briefly took the lead after Griffen, in his first game as captain, took a strong mark and kicked a goal from just inside 50 on an angle. North responded with goals to Daniel Currie (on debut), Daniel Wells and Drew Petrie and looked to be gaining the upper hand at last but the Dogs hot back with a goal to Jake Stringer and another too Luke Dahlhaus to reduce the margin to under a goal once more. The evergreen Brent Harvey kicked the final goal of the term to take the lead back out to 10 points at the final change.

The Dogs would not lie down and Jack Macrae snapped the first of the last quarter to again cut the margin to four points. Dahlhaus could have given the Dogs the lead but missed after a mark and the Kangaroos swept the ball to the other end where substitute Levi Greenwood marked and goaled. A beautiful pass from Bob Murphy to Koby Stevens saw the Dogs get another goal but North again responded through Harvey.

Once more the Bulldogs came. Crameri marked and goaled but that man Harvey answered the call once more and kicked another. With 17 minutes gone, it looked as if the game would go down to the wire. Bulldog Jason Johannisen marked a clever kick from Tom Liberatore and line up from just 25 metres out to once more put the Bulldogs within a goal. It proved to be a pivotal moment. Johannisen missed and the Roos again went 'coast-to-coast' and goaled through Ziebell to establish a critical 16-point break. The deflated Dogs did not score again and North closed out the match with goals to Aaron Black and Leigh Adams to win by 27 points.

The Dogs are now 0-2 and 17th on the ladder and face another tough match against Richmond next Saturday. North Melbourne, meanwhile, has kept the wolves from the door for now and will take on the undefeated Port at Docklands on Sunday. A win to the Roos in that match would see their poor start to the season quickly forgotten.

GOALS
Western Bulldogs: Cooney, Jones, Griffen, Stringer, Dahlhaus, Stevens, Crameri, Macrae
North Melbourne: Harvey 3; Petrie 2; McKenzie, Currie, Wells, Greenwood, Ziebell, Black, Adams

BEST - THE AGE
Western Bulldogs: Dahlhaus, Cooney
North Melbourne: Harvey Thompson, Gibson

BEST - AFL.COM.AU
Western Bulldogs: Murphy, Dahlhaus, Macrae, Stevens, Cooney
North Melbourne: Harvey, Thompson, Dal Santo, Gibson, Atley, Hansen

INJURIES
Western Bulldogs: Liberatore (corked thigh)
North Melbourne: Nil

SUBSTITUTES
Western Bulldogs: Jake Stringer replaced by Daniel Giansiracusa in the fourth quarter.
North Melbourne: Nathan Grima replaced by Levi Greenwood in the fourth quarter.

UMPIRES: Margetts, Nicholls, Hosking

TELEVISION BROADCAST: Fox Footy

COMMENTATORS: Sandy Roberts, Anthony Hudson, Jason Dunstall, Danny Frawley, Cameron Mooney