One game has suddenly changed everyone’s opinion of North. Their game against Collingwood last week has suddenly made them this unbeatable force… which I’m not falling for. North played really well but the Pies are hardly in top form right now and haven’t been for a while.
The preceding couple of weeks they had a routine 4 goal win over the Gold Coast & a 4 goal loss to GWS at their favourite ground (Hobart). They will record another routine win today in Hobart against a pis* poor St Kilda side.
We can beat them at a scrap and if the game opens up as our performances against them over the last three years have shown.
Our midfield absolutely decimated theirs last time we met… and that was with their best midfielder (Shaun Higgins) playing… who won’t be out there next week. Shiel and Merrett were running rings around them.
Does all that mean we are going to dominate them again next week? No… but I’ve got every confidence we can get the win again against them and I genuinely believe we’re the better outfit.
Potentially another 12 goal to 10 win coming up… which I will take.
.Intentional, body contact, low impact imo (based on that vision, I didn’t actually see the incident, nor do I know what happened afterwards. If the stk played had a ruptured spleen, the impact grading would probably be higher.) According to the mro table, intentional, body, low = a fine, not a suspension.
That said, Cunnington seems to do it week in week out, I wouldn’t mind the mro taking prior incidents into account and upgrading the fine into a suspension, but that won’t happen.
Edit; the ball appeared to be in play and in close proximity, so it might not even get looked at. It could be called a shepherd or a bump, rather than a strike. I’m sure the AFL will find a way to justify whatever decision they make. The guidelines have “catch-all” options (eg rough conduct) if the AFL want to go after someone who does something that is a bad look for the game, but technically isn’t against the rules. They also have the option to upgrade things using the “potential for injury” justification. However they’re only guidelines, and don’t have to be followed all the time.
While that’s stating the obvious it’s also spot on as that’s basically all we can and should be doing.
Regardless of whether that gets us to finals this year or not, it’s about becoming a consistently better team for a genuine crack at a flag. On this point Worsfold is correct.