Nick Larkey celebrates another goal during North Melbourne’s last-quarter avalanche on Sunday. Photo: AFL MEDIA
Has the time finally come?
Can North Melbourne fans at long last have confidence that the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t just a freight train coming their way?
The Kangaroos have been here before, so forgive their supporters for being more trepidatious than a wildebeest entering crocodile-infested waters in the Serengeti.
There was the Rhyce Shaw false dawn in 2019-2020 when the then-caretaker coach took over the reins from long-time boss Brad Scott mid-season and won nine of his first 14 games in charge.
So impressive was the second half of his 2019 campaign that he was given the job on a full-time basis. He then could only manage three victories in the COVID-ravaged 2020 season, and quit his job with two years to run on his contract due to personal health.
Then came the Alastair Clarkson sugar hit at the start of 2023 when the Kangaroos beat West Coast and Fremantle in the first two rounds to fill the supporter base with much-needed excitement and hope. They then lost their next 20 matches.
But on Sunday against Melbourne at Marvel Stadium, there was something different about North Melbourne’s performance.
The manner in which they played, and ultimately smashed the Demons by 10 goals, has scarcely been seen from a Kangaroos outfit in the past six seasons.
In fact, the last time the footy world saw North play like that was last year when they shot out to a 54-point lead against Collingwood, only to suffer one of the greatest capitulations in VFL/AFL history to lose by a point.
Against Melbourne on the weekend, the Kangaroos generated a similarly frightful blitz with seven goals in under 15 minutes to blow the Demons out of the water but this time they held on to their mammoth lead by the time the final siren sounded.
Granted, North’s scoring domination against the Magpies last year occurred earlier in the game, giving Craig McRae’s side more time to chip away at the deficit, but the Roos’ win on Sunday was significant for a few reasons.
Firstly, they fielded a pretty young team that featured 11 players aged 24 or under and for them to work together and solve the puzzle of taking down a highly-rated opponent convincingly will be priceless for their development in the long run.
But more importantly, the win served as a very rare moment in time where the Kangaroos got rewarded for their hard work and toil.
On so many occasions in recent times, North has enjoyed a lot of the play during games, namely in the key categories of clearances, centre clearances and contested possessions, but continually failed to translate that dominance on to the scoreboard and cap it off with a win.
And for periods on Sunday, it looked like the Kangaroos were going to follow that well-worn path as they had the game on their terms for large chunks, yet found themselves leading by just 13 points at the start of time on in the third quarter.
PLEASE HELP US CONTINUE TO THRIVE BY BECOMING AN OFFICIAL FOOTYOLOGY PATRON. JUST CLICK THIS LINK.
However, this time, everything clicked for the Kangaroos. From that point on, their midfield and forward line completely steamrolled the sorry Demons on the way to their biggest win since 2020.
Crucially, against the Demons, in a game in which they dominated most important facets of the game such as disposals (403-351), contested ball (139-120), clearances (41-31), marks (100-82) and contested marks (15-7), North did not leave the stadium empty-handed.
“They’ve been far too infrequent for me and the Kangas, I must say, but it is pleasing when you can get on a roll like that,” Clarkson said of the final-quarter avalanche. “It was time for us to get a lick of the ice cream at the end.
“Games like today where the game is on the line at three-quarter time and finally a lot of hard work has paid off and we were able to salute on this particular occasion. It’s a step in the right direction for us and there’s some validation and belief in the group.
“Penty of times we’ve been in these (winning) positions before and we haven’t been able to capitalise on those chances.”
This match could be looked back on as the definitive turning point in North Melbourne’s long-stalled bid to re-emerge as a competitive force in the AFL.
It’s only early days, of course. We’ve only just concluded Round 2 and the Kangaroos’ next two games against Adelaide (away) and Sydney are tough assignments. And as good as they were, they were guilty of plenty of fumbles and turnovers on Sunday. Luckily for them, many of those errors were countered by an even sloppier Demons outfit.
However, you can’t put a price on a developing team learning in real time what it takes to not only win a game of footy, but put the foot on an opponent’s neck and keep it there.
“All we intend to do is try to be as competitive as we can deep into games and we know that as we become a better side, we’ll be able to capitalise on some of those opportunities and turn them into victories for us,” Clarkson said.
“And when we become a really good side, we’ll be able to do that much more frequently than otherwise.”
The beleaguered Kangaroos have endured the worst period in their history. They had six coaches in as many years, and headed into 2025 on the back of five consecutive bottom-two finishes, including a pair of wooden spoons, with just 15 wins from their previous 107 games.
During that wretched run, they became the first team in league history to lose 20 games in three successive seasons.
But if they can manifest Clarkson’s wishes more often than not this season, they should comfortably achieve five wins for the first time since 2019, and then as confidence continues to grow, who knows where they could go from there?
