Australian Football

Match Report

Sunday's North Melbourne v West Coast match was won of several opening round matches that pitted two unknown quantities against each other. Both sides had made finals in 2016 and both had been eliminated in the first week, North as expected but the Eagles surprisingly. General consensus had the Kangaroos sliding down the ladder this season but the Eagles getting back to something near the form that took them to the 2015 Grand Final. While one match does not make a season, the result of this match might at least have given some pointers to the season ahead.

The opening quarter of the match was free-flowing and high-scoring. North opened with a rush via goals to Ben Brown and Shaun Atley but last year's Coleman Medallist Josh Kennedy immediately with his first. The two sides had scored three goals within the first five minutes of the match. The sides traded behinds for the next seven minutes before Jamie Cripps kicked his first to give the Eagles the lead by a point. Kennedy's goal extended that lead to seven points but North took control from there, wasting opportunities at first, with five behinds in a row before goals to Kayne Turner and new skipper Jack Ziebell saw them ahead by nine points.

West Coast opened the second term as North had the first, wth two goals in two minutes to Mark LeCras and Lewis Jetta. But the Eagles went one better and added a third - a second for LeCras - and they were ahead by nine points after five minutes. Todd Goldstein replied for North at the eight-minute mark but Le Cras then kicked his third and the Eagles followed that with three more behinds to lead by 13 points before Ben Brown pulled it back to seven with his second goal. The two sides continued to alternate goals for the rest of the quarter and it was West Coast by six points at the long break.

It took only six minutes into the third quarter for West Cost to blow the game open. As they had done in the second term, they opened up with three kick goals, a fourth each to LeCras and Kennedy, and a second goal to Jamie Cripps. That took the Eagles to a 24-point lead, and North Melbourne never recovered. West Coast added a further four goals to three for the term, and took a 28-point lead into the final change of ends.

North attacked for the first four minutes of the final term but inaccuracy again proved costly, Sam Gibson missing once and Jarrad Waite twice. Former Kangaroo Drew Petrie made them pay with a goal after five minutes and although Goldstein kicked the next goal, the Eagles went on with the job after that, adding another four goals as the Roos kept missing. The final siren saw West Coast 43 points to the good, a comprehensive win.

Former Hawk Sam Mitchell made a great debut for the Eagles, gathering 38 possessions, while Kennedy was a star with seven goals. Captain Ziebell toiled hard for North, laying five tackles and collecting 31 touches.

The Eagles will return home to host St Kilda on Saturday night, while North will look for a better performance against Geelong at Docklands on Sunday.

GOALS
North Melbourne: Goldstein 3; Brown, Turner 2; Atley, Ziebell, Waite, Preuss, Hrovat, Tarrant
West Coast: Kennedy 7; LeCras 4; Cripps 3; Yeo, Darling 2; Jetta, Hill, Petrie

BEST - AFL.COM.AU
North Melbourne: Ziebell, Dumont, Higgins, Swallow, Goldstein
West Coast: Mitchell, Kennedy, Priddis, LeCras, Gaff, Yeo

BEST - THE AGE
North Melbourne: Ziebell, Goldstein, Swallow, Higgins, Dumont
West Coast: Kennedy, Mitchell, Le Cras, Gaff, Priddis, Yeo, McGovern, Cripps

INJURIES
North Melbourne: Nil
West Coast: Petrie (hand)

UMPIRES: Margetts, Nicholls, Mitchell  

TELEVISION BROADCAST: Fox Footy

COMMENTATORS: Dwayne Russell, Jason Dunstall, Jonathan Brown, Ben Dixon