North Melbourne star Jasmine Garner has delivered another outstanding season for the top-of-the-table Roos. Photo: AAP
Granted, there’s still another month’s worth of hard work to be done. But North Melbourne is right in the debate about which AFLW team has had the single most dominant season in the competition’s history.
With a date this Saturday at home at Arden Street against lowly Gold Coast, it would take the season’s biggest upset to prevent the Kangaroos from winning the minor premiership.
A North Melbourne win would also see it achieve something only one other AFLW club, not even three-time premier Adelaide or two-time premier Brisbane has managed; going unbeaten in a home-and-away season.
If North Melbourne defeats Gold Coast, as is widely expected, there’d still be an asterisk attached to its win-loss record.
The Roos can thank the Cats’ Mikayla Bowen for that. In round two, Bowen snapped a final term miracle goal across her body from near the Arden Street boundary line that sealed a draw. Bowen’s goal was part of the Cats’ fightback from an 18-point half-time deficit. And it may yet be the only blemish on what could be a 10-0-1 home-and-away record.
And the one club in AFLW history with a completely spotless home-and-away ledger? This club was so powerful, in fact, it took a global pandemic knocking the world to its knees and forcing the abrupt cancellation of the AFLW finals series to stop it.
It was Fremantle in 2020.
The Dockers ran up a perfect 6-0 home-and-away record and looked every bit the juggernaut in a semi-final in which they mauled Gold Coast by 70 points. The Dockers were scheduled to face off against a 4-2 Melbourne in a home preliminary final, but because of Covid, no one will ever know what might have transpired.
The 2020 version of North Melbourne also earned a home preliminary final. After going 5-1 in the home-and-away season, the Roos squeaked by Collingwood by two points in a semi-final thriller, to set up a date with 5-1 Carlton, which also got cancelled.
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But this year’s Kangaroos are arguably the most dominant AFLW home-and-away side of all time.
With a percentage of 299.5, North Melbourne already has shattered its own record of 227.2, set in 2020. Not only are the Roos likely to be the first club to break the 300 per cent threshold, but if they score 76 points this weekend, they’d become the highest scoring team yet, eclipsing Adelaide’s high-water mark of 653.
Don’t rule out that possibility. North Melbourne opened the season scoring 78 points in vanquishing Brisbane, which defeated the Roos in heartbreaking fashion in last year’s grand final.
They also ran up 87 points in destroying Sydney by 10 goals in week seven. And to put North’s league-low 193 points conceded in proper context, the next stingiest side, Adelaide, has allowed 257.
While their team efforts have been great, the Roos have enjoyed excellent individual seasons from their stars.
Perennial ball-winners Ash Riddell and Jasmine Garner rank third and seventh in the competition respectively for disposals, with Garner ranking fifth in average contested possessions with 14.
Garner is second and Riddell third in fantasy points, with each averaging 111. Former Saint Kate Shierlaw is tied for third on the goalkicking table with 14, while Mia King has been superb in defence, averaging 10 tackles and 23 pressure acts per match.
In what has been a banner year to date, the Kangaroos have ticked important boxes: defeating reigning premier Brisbane for the first time and knocking off arch-rival Adelaide on its home deck. North Melbourne is yet to face Hawthorn, its closest challenger, which has emerged from the clouds to storm to a 9-1 record.
It remains to be seen if the Roos will stay unbeaten through this week, finals, and capture that elusive maiden flag Brisbane denied them last year.
But at least this year — barring another unforeseen, cataclysmic event — the footy world won’t be cruelly robbed of the chance to see if perfection, albeit with an asterisk, is possible.
