Australian Football

Match Report

North Melbourne has suffered another heartbreaking loss - this time to Fremantle - and slipped to second-last on the ladder with a 0-5 record five rounds into the 2017 season. The Kangaroos lost by five points, having held a 29-point lead well into the third quarter, a week after having an identical lead at the same time before they lost to the Bulldogs by three points. North also lost its round two match to Geelong by a point, having led by as much as 32 points in the third term.

The match got off to a very slow start, the only score of the first 10 minutes being a a shot from Fremantle's Brady Grey which hit the post. The Dockers finally broke through for the game's first goal when Cam McCarthy marked and kicked truly from an angle to put his side seven points ahead. After a behind to North's Luke McDonald, Ed Langdon out Fremantle two goals ahead with a dribble kick at the 13-minute mark. But from there, the Kangaroos controlled much of the rest of the first quarter, and goals to Kayne Turner and Mason Wood has scores level at 2.3 apiece at the first break.

North started the second quarter strongly, with Ben Cunnington marking and goaling in the second minute. The game was very much an arm wrestle after that, the only score over the next 10 minutes a behind to Docker Shane Kersten. A free kick and goal to Jy Simpkin broke the drought, and North was ahead by 11 after 11 minutes. The two sides traded in behinds only for th next quarter of an hour but two late goals to the Kangas through Shuan Atley and Todd Goldstein saw the visitors suddenly out to a 23-point lead at the half.

Defences ruled early in the third term and when a goal finally came at the eight-munute mark, it went to North's Trent Dumont, giving the Roos a match-high 29-point lead. But from there a depressingly familiar tale began to unfold for the Kangaroos. For the remainder of the quarter, they managed to score nothing more than a rushed behind, while Fremantle kicked 2.3, the goals going to third-gamer Griffin Logie and Hayden Crozier, and the Dockers were back within 15 points at the last end-change.

The pressure built on North Melbourne early in the final term, with Ed Langdon marking and goaling after just two minutes to cut the Dockers' deficit to just eight points. Ben Brown relieved that pressure when he goaled after a free kick, but it was back on the Kangaroos three minutes later when Bradley Hill kicked truly on the run to again cut the margin to eight. The Dockers added a behind and then Grey marked and goaled from a pocket at the 13-minute mark and Fremantle were within a point.

A lovely snap from Nathan Hrovat had North back out to an eight-point lead at the 16-minute mark and the Roos held firm for the next 12 minutes, the only score a behind to the Dockers' Crozier. But at the 28-minute mark, the ball slipped through North defender Marley Williams' hands, and Michael Johnson snapped up the ball and kicked truly, and Fremantle was within a point. The Dockers attacked again and, with 30 minutes gone, Shane Kersten, who had had a quiet day, gathered the ball in the forwarded pocket, snapped accurately and put Fremantle ion front by five points. The Dockers defended grimly from there, and the siren sounded soon after, Fremantle victorious in a thriller.

Ex-skipper David Mundy played an outstanding game for the victors, collecting 30 touches, while Cunnington (29 possessions, five tackles) was a fine contributor for North.

For the Dockers, the win was their second in a row by under a goal and their third in a row, and they are suddenly well in contention for a place in the top eight with a Western Derby to play against the Eagles on Saturday night. The 0-5 Kangaroos will be hoping to break their duck on the same night, against Gold Coast at Docklands.

GOALS
Fremantle: Langdon 2; McCarthy, Logue, Crozier, B. Hill, Grey, Johnson, Kersten
North Melbourne: Turner, Wood, Cunnington, Simpkin, Atley, Goldstein, Dumont, Brown, Hrovat

BEST - AFL.COM.AU
Fremantle: Mundy, Johnson, Fyfe, Sandilands, S. Hill, Hamling, Grey
North Melbourne: Cunnington, Williams, Dumont, Macmillan, Tarrant

BEST - WATODAY.COM.AU
Fremantle: Mundy, Johnson, Fyfe, Sandilands, S. Hill, Hamling, Grey
North Melbourne: Cunnington, Williams, Dumont, Macmillan, Tarrant

INJURIES
Fremantle: S. Hill (hamstring)
North Melbourne: Goldstein (ankle), Shaun Higgins (hamstring tightness) replaced in selected side by Nathan Hrovat.

UMPIRES: Harris, McInerney, Mollison 

TELEVISION BROADCAST: Seven Network

COMMENTATORS: Luke Darcy, Matthew Richardson, Peter Bell