Right, another year. A year with different expectations than the last few, to be sure.
As open a fixture as I can remember in the first six rounds, Brisbane in Gather Round notwithstanding, has put real pressure on North Melbourne to be respectable.
Port Adelaide @ Marvel (Round 1), West Coast @ Optus (Round 2), Essendon @ Marvel (Round 3), Carlton @ Marvel (Round 4) and Richmond @ Marvel (Round 6) are all theoretically winnable, which would make a 3-3 result after six games the minimum pass mark.
With pre-season evidence on general structure and setup alternating between alarming (Casey Fields) and nearly pointless (due to the influence of conditions in Ballarat), it left an air of apprehension heading into Marvel Stadium on Sunday.
What we did end up seeing was a whole mix of results. Some parts of the process should continue into the future, while it’d be unrealistic to expect others to carry over each week. It’s not quite Round 2, 2025 v Melbourne, but not a million miles away from it either.
Nevertheless, today’s post will be about that mix of results, jumping around from point to point and attempting to cover everything.
(Note: The key difference between last year v Melbourne and Sunday v Port Adelaide was how disjointed the Power were in setup, preparation, and everything in between. The afternoon v Melbourne was about unbelievably hot stoppage results)
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For those wondering why things had been a bit quiet on the pre-season front, overall it’ll be a slower year on The Shinboner.
The full explanation is below, but fear not – the North Melbourne match analyses will still arrive as normal. At least when I’m in the country:
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Setting the scene
At some point this season it’ll probably blossom into a full post, but a scene setter today in the interim:
The AFL’s continual rule tweaks are largely designed to turn uncontested possession chains into full-steam-ahead affairs, relegating stoppages and contests to a secondary role. It means if coaches want control, it’s now harder and harder to do it via congestion and repeat contests.
The only other realistic tool in their kitbag, at this point? Uncontested possession as control rather than attack. We’ll circle back to this, as they say, in a couple of months when the chatter is about high uncontested mark totals around the league.
Time in possession…
It was clear from the outset North were happy to use uncontested possession as control. Equally clear, for whatever reason, was Port’s reluctance to press high, allowing North to control tempo almost from start to finish.
If my string of Excel spreadsheets from previous years are correct, North’s time in possession advantage on Sunday – roughly a 12 percent differential (49-37) – was their biggest under Alastair Clarkson by a substantial distance.
It also would have ranked in the top tier of any game in the league last year, so a fair assumption is that it can’t be something to expect to see every week. Particularly against sides with an intention to press high and take time away from the player in possession.
…and the type of uncontested possession
The wildcard is how much of North’s uncontested possession was because they were happy to take what Port Adelaide gave them.
Perhaps against an opponent playing in a different way, North wouldn’t have opted to use uncontested possession as control and instead looked to bypass high opposition pressure. It’s an unknown that can only be answered with time, given there’s no consistent track record to fall back on.
The pleasing part is we should start to see an answer as soon as next week v West Coast. Playing the Eagles in their home opener should, in theory, tell us much more on how North approach uncontested ball use.
The lack of total stoppages
A close cousin of the point above, the type of uncontested possession meant we saw a low stoppage game relative to North games in previous years.
It wasn’t the sole reason – it needs to be combined with natural early season trends, along with the rule tweaks – but the 87 on Sunday was only lowered once last year. And that game, against Melbourne in Round 2, was largely because North won every stoppage cleanly for about half an hour in a row. Unsurprisingly it’s hard to have secondary stoppages when you score from the initial one.
Anyway, in games where both sides are applying consistent pressure in general play, we’ll see the tally tick up slightly. It’ll also work hand in hand with coaches figuring out ways to exert more control on games as they work to neutralise the effect of rule changes. To what extent it happens will be one of the big stories this year.
When the stoppages did happen though, there was a key element which did look quite promising…
Finn O’Sullivan, full-time midfielder
One day this blog will have a proper index like the back of a book so I can quickly refer to everything I’ve said over the journey.
In the meantime I’m reliant on memory. What I can remember clearly from last year is saying on multiple occasions how Finn O’Sullivan feels like the future glue of a midfield unit.
We had our first look at it on Sunday: 26 centre ball ups cleared his entire 2025 total of 15 with ease. O’Sullivan was rarely the focal point offensively at any stoppage, instead largely entrusted with whoever North thought the Power hit-to player would be.
Sometimes it meant Connor Rozee, other times Zak Butters, and occasionally Jason Horne-Francis when he went in for a brief cameo while clearly underdone. Those types of players will win their fair share of ball regardless of who’s on them, but the goal is to make it as hard as possible, making sure the defenders behind the ball.
For North to only concede 22 points from 29 Port Adelaide clearances, broken down like so…
– Centre bounce: 0.2 from 12 clearances
– Throw ins: 2.1 from 9 clearances
– Ball ups: 1.1 from 8 clearances
…is a promising sign that O’Sullivan’s role and skill set allows the rest of his on-ball teammates to play to their strengths.
We’ll save the in-depth video breakdown for down the road to ensure there’s a consistent body of work rather than jumping at shadows after one week, but the early process is promising.
The forward setup, particularly Trembath
Roles are still forming as a group, especially with some players clearly nursed along early:
– Colby McKercher’s 64 percent game time was his lowest recorded in a completed AFL game (the two lower numbers came when substituted)
– Jack Darling’s 61 percent game time was also his lowest recorded in a completed AFL game. And he has a slightly larger sample size than McKercher
– Lachy Dovaston’s first half minutes were carefully managed – approximately 50 percent before the break – before spending more time on ground afterwards
The standout to me was Cooper Trembath. Not for his marking though. And not even for his goals, even though his dedication to kicking exactly three every single game should be appreciated.
Inexperienced second (or third, depending on how you look at it) tall forwards often struggle finding their place in a team setup, particularly when there’s a clear focal point like North have with Nick Larkey.
Trembath’s ability to balance direct involvement with staying in the play peripherally, for someone with four career games, is miles ahead of schedule. The skill is what leads to things like his tackle and holding the ball free in the second quarter, or deft little touches and positioning that help his teammates.
There just looks to be something there so far. When you know, you know.
The next focus areas
Round 1 tends to be about setting the scene in a few key areas, which ideally today’s post has done. To hold over until next Monday, a few more dot points on my watch list that could be coming soon:
– Luke Parker at half back, along with the mix between kicking and run and carry off that line
– Some musings about second tall forwards, third tall forwards, and future setups
– How the wingers looked to hold space a little more than normal and whether it’s a subtle shift in that position’s responsibility
– Which wrestling themes we can convince Tom Powell to use as goal songs in future years
Without wanting to go the gun early – Brisbane are not showing any signs that would indicate they should be taken as an assumed loss at this point.
reading the bible scriptures post win hits different, thank you