Twenty out in front, misses…
30-61
Midfield turnover, and Busch is nowhere near agile or fast enough to stop the goal.
30-67
Prespakis runs backwards for twenty metres to give Scott a great target.
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Slots it from forty. Impressive.
36-67
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Georgia Clarke about as fumbly as Toogood today. Getting to some good spots though.
Scott pack clunking in defence. Slammed to the ground afterwards. No fifty but the Kanga hurt themself.
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5.6.36 loses to 10.7.67
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Thanks for keeping me in touch. Your commentary was like being there.
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TBC… the bulk of the margin came in the first quarter. They beat us inside and outside, and we’re dangerous forward.
Prespakis relatively quiet until she bossed the final quarter. Toogood really bad hands today, was atypical. Wales limited time in the ruck and was beaten. The other rucks were worse.
Essendon, who have no key defenders, stacked our back end with key defenders. The best of those were Marshall and, once she came on in the second half, VanLoon.
We’ll play, hopefully, the Tiernister Twins together, not in separate halves.
Wuetschner is slow.
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Nanscawen got a reasonable amount of it, and once again has improved her kicking while out injured. We remain dependent on good games by Prespakis and Wales.
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P.S. 16 = Tahlia Rendell, 60 = Emma King
Impressively long article.
The North Melbourne Tasmanian Kangaroos have come away from Windy Hill with a strong 32-point win over Essendon, following their first pre-season hitout against AFLW opposition.
The Roos were dangerous from the first bounce with Emma Kearney, Jasmine Garner, Kim Rennie, Kate Shierlaw and Ellie Gavalas all linking up from half-back to set up the opener from Emma King in the game’s first minute.
Darren Cocker’s side led at every change en route to its 10.7 (67) to 5.5 (35) victory, with both sides using extended groups.
“It’s always good to go up against genuine opposition,” Crocker told NMFC Media post-game.
"It’s so different to just butting heads against your own teammates and knowing what each other is trying to achieve.
“I thought there was some really good moments and aspects to today, and also some really good learnings out of it.”
Eye-catchers
Star onballer Garner got to work early and was instrumental in gaining the early ascendancy at stoppages under the hitouts of Rennie and Emma King in the first half, alongside Mia King, Ash Riddell and Jenna Bruton.
North Melbourne’s forward line looked particularly dangerous with rotating talls Tahlia Randall, Shierlaw and Emma King all getting on the end of inside 50s at both ground level and aerially in the opening quarters.
At the trio’s feet were Alice O’Loughlin (two goals), Bella Eddey (one) and Gavalas (one), who all hit the scoreboard with clean finishes and were constant threatening presences around the big sticks.
Experienced skipper Emma Kearney was involved early organising and rebounding out of defensive 50, while Tess Craven was assertive in her role finishing with a handful of intercept possessions.
Tackling machine Jenna Bruton was combative at the contest throughout the time she was on the field, while Jasmine Ferguson and Sarah Wright held down the backline well.
“When we had our most experienced side out there in the first half, players like Jasmine (Garner), Emma (Kearney) down back and Ash (Riddell) I thought all stood out, same with Tahlia (Randall),” Crocker said.
New faces
New Irish recruit Niamh Martin played against outside AFLW competition for the first time and was on the end of a rough tackle early but responded with confidence to get her hands on the ball several times.
“Niamh (Martin) showed some of the athletic attributes of why we got drawn to her at times. Learning a totally new game is always difficult, she’s come over a bit later than some of the Irish girls in the past so she’s still learning what the game looks like,” Crocker said.
Recruits Eliza Shannon and Lulu Pullar both saw minutes off the half-back line, and the pair impressed with their ball use and speed, respectively.
“Eliza played the majority of the game, I thought she did some really good things and she brings a real competitiveness to the way she goes about it,” he said.
“Lulu played the second half. She’s had an interrupted pre-season but now she’s able to get going and I think her last couple of weeks have looked a lot better.”
Ruby Tripodi played a mix of forward and midfield and was able to impact the game in both areas, while ruck Liz McGrath displayed why Crocker and the Roos brought her in over the off-season.
“Ruby continues to show us how clean she is around the contest, so we were pleased with her,” he said.
“Liz played the second half and the reason we looked at bringing Liz into the program was because we need that competitiveness around the contest in the ruck and she provided that today.”
Forward target Shierlaw added another dynamic to the Kangaroos’ attack while fellow former Saint Lucy Burke down the other end didn’t have a great deal to negate given North Melbourne’s strength higher up the ground.
“Kate looked dangerous and challenged really well. When she was on with ‘Tahls’ (Tahlia Randall) and ‘Kingy’ (Emma King) and some of our smalls Bella (Eddey), Alice (O’Loughlin) and ‘Gav’ (Ellie Gavalas), that’s when we looked at our most dangerous,” Crocker said.
“We’re trying to develop Lucy down back and she’s grasping the concepts of how we want to defend as a team, and she’ll continue to get better as well.”
ESSENDON 0.0 2.2 3.4 5.4 (34)
NORTH MELBOURNE 3.2 5.4 8.7 10.7 (67)
BEST
North Melbourne: Garner, Riddell, Kearney, Randall, E. King, Bruton, O’Loughlin
I agree. The first ten minutes minutes took us by surprise.
Also their talls were tough match ups.
We probably could have had another 3 or 4 goals easily.
It was a bit of wrestle between loose players for both sides.
Ours had better positioning and got into dangerous spots whereas North’s were lost in congestion.
They let Redford run free far too often when we were kicking to the Napier St end.
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