Calling Friday a comeback from the clouds felt a little excessive, given Carlton’s well documented issues late in games.
But winning comebacks of any variety have been in rare supply for North Melbourne, particularly in Melbourne.
Curiosity led me to AFL Tables to find the last time North completed a comeback after trailing at three quarter time. The two conditions were that it had to be in Melbourne, and in front of fans – because 2020 never existed, of course.
It took a scroll all the way back to Round 14, 2018 against the Western Bulldogs:
So to state the obvious, it’s been a while. Today’s post will largely focus on the comeback, but first we need to set some context for why it was possible, before finishing with a couple of odds and ends.
Before the comeback
In the West Coast post a fortnight ago, we went through how the game flow was largely on their terms throughout. It just took a while for the Eagles to cut out their avoidable errors and cash in.
Through much of Friday at Marvel Stadium, it felt – to me, at least – that it was the same type of story for North Melbourne, but those avoidable errors kept coming, and coming, and coming.
Offensively, when North were in possession the off-ball movement looked arguably the best it had all season. Forwards were working off each other, Carlton’s defence was forced into motion, and more often than not there were multiple options available.
The issue in possession was so often North were taking the wrong option. It’s where there’s a difference between a bad kick and a bad decision. Someone can be the best kick of all time, but if they make the wrong decision on where to go then it doesn’t matter how good their skills are.
It was what crucified (topical reference) North so often offensively early on. Defensively there were too many easily avoidable brain fades. A quick scan of Carlton’s 13 goals revealed 10 of them came from:
5: Forward 50 stoppages
3: Free kicks (that weren’t forward 50 stoppages)
2: 50 metre penalties
Some of the above had extenuating circumstances; for instance one of those free kicks was marked by a Blue anyway, but Comben was still ball watching instead of following up on the play. Then the remaining three were from either individual mistakes (Parker turnover, Stephens v Elijah Hollands) or team structure (half backs asleep from the centre ball up right before three quarter time).
The point of illustrating the above isn’t to downplay the work Carlton did in earning some of those goals, but rather to highlight lots of it was in North’s control. The game was right there to take if North could cut out some of their avoidable errors.
So with the context established, we fast forward to 13:50 remaining on the clock in the final quarter, the scoreboard reading Carlton 13.7.85 – 9.10.64 North Melbourne.
The actual comeback | Part 1: Hitting the front
From this point until the time North hit the front, they had 11 of 13 inside 50s for four consecutive goals. Let’s go through a timeline:
13:50 remaining: Cooper Trembath moves into the centre to take the ball up, almost jumps clean over Brodie Kemp, sticks the hit-out down Luke Davies-Uniacke’s throat and then rolls forward to take what I thought was a contested mark – although it was listed as uncontested – and goal.
Trembath’s ruck minutes throughout, while limited – 18 ruck contests while the remainder were split between Callum Coleman-Jones (44) and Jack Darling (17) – were vital in providing a point of difference as Pittonet won the points against Coleman-Jones. He keeps improving at a rate of knots.
9:00 remaining: Luke Parker wins a crucial one-on-one deep in defence against Mitch McGovern. Throughout this period it felt like one more Carlton goal might have snuffed out any remaining North resistance. A McGovern mark 20 out straight in front would surely have provided that goal.
8:18 remaining: A crucial stoppage on the wing that leads to Cam Zurhaar’s goal. The Blues actually have an extra player at the stoppage, and North get a stroke of luck they capitalise on.
As Finn O’Sullivan tries to split the two Blues, Pittonet wins the tap but Cripps can’t gather. Then in the blink of an eye, Sheezel steps up to gather and handball, O’Sullivan taps it to Jy Simpkin, and the passage unfolds.
Carlton’s decision to have an extra player at the stoppage rather than behind the ball meant one-on-ones for North’s forwards. When the ball in is decent quality, and the Blues were missing their best defender in Jacob Weitering, it allowed Zurhaar to dictate and mark.
Between the Zurhaar goal and 5:00 remaining: A feature of Carlton’s fadeouts has been how quickly they retreat into a shell, unwilling (or unable, depending on how charitable you are today) to keep an opposition defence on edge.
For a team in North’s position, it meant the most critical thing defensively was to not allow Carlton any easy aggressive options as a pressure release, instead limiting them to unthreatening switches deep in defence or long down the line to bulk numbers.
They executed well, stopping Blues from any easy transition and keeping them pinned in the back half.
The flip side of Carlton’s conservatism in possession is when the ball turns over, they often gift space to opponents. So…
5:00 – 4:07 remaining, stoppage free kick to Paul Curtis goal: After Davies-Uniacke wins the free kick, the shell Carlton drop into allows the next possession to Harry Sheezel, who goes slightly inboard again to Caleb Daniel, who has Luke Parker strolling past with all the time in the world.
Curtis’ lead is honoured by a Parker bullet and it’s a one-point game.
4:07 – 3:33 remaining: The go-ahead goal
There aren’t any big, earth-shattering structural takeaways from just a hair-raising piece of play, but two things that deserve highlighting were both by Jack Darling:
1) Keeping the ball in play on the goal line, tapping it back in
2) Sweeping the leg of Ollie Hollands about five metres away from two umpires and getting away with it.
How’d he manage that?
Which brings us to phase two of the comeback, holding on to the lead.
The actual comeback | Part 2: Holding the lead
3:33 – 3:17 remaining: McKercher holding the ball in
It can sometimes be a lottery deciding when to hold the ball in and when to let it go, but McKercher made the right call in this case.
After Wardlaw beat Cripps all ends up in a contest, his handball and subsequent contest left McKercher in a fraught situation. If McKercher let the ball go or tried to dispose, it almost certainly would have led to a Blues uncontested inside 50.
He opted to hold it and take his chance on the umpire calling for a stoppage, knowing that even a free kick would allow enough time for North to get some numbers back. The decision pays off with a stoppage called.
2:45 – 2:13 remaining: Evans misses a set shot
Perhaps the square up for Darling sweeping the leg without conceding a free was Evans receiving one while the umpire in best position was saying ‘ducked’.
Either way the set shot drifted left to leave North with possession and a four-point lead.
2:01 – 1:53 remaining: Wardlaw’s smother
As this clip starts, you can see Walsh take Wardlaw just out of play. Normally that’s where the pairing’s involvement ends, at least until the next phase after a kick or handball.
Instead, as soon as Wardlaw sees Evans shape to kick for goal, he flies in like a madman to smother. Unbelievable.
(Of note, clip cuts off before you could argue Adam Cerra deserved a free kick for low contact)
1:48 – 1:37 remaining: Wardlaw & Davies-Uniacke’s handoff, Darling’s dual efforts
As the stoppage unfolds, we can see Wardlaw and Davies-Uniacke collaborate to share responsibilities, the latter due to cover Cripps.
When Cripps is a fraction late to the stoppage, Davies-Uniacke uses the umpire as a screener, earning enough time to clear where Darling is enormous.
First he bumps Newman to stop clean possession and then disposes of Wade Derksen forcing the kick out on the full. Huge.
1:25 – 1:10 remaining: Corr’s spoil, Stephens’ smother
Carlton’s extra player at the stoppage, as highlighted earlier, is used to perfection to earn the clearance.
As Harry McKay delivers inside 50, it’s Aidan Corr’s turn to step up with an enormous spoil but then comes a vital moment.
As McKay kicks to Hayward, we can see Dylan Stephens’ responsibility is Ollie Hollands. Once Hayward approaches the ball following Corr’s spoil, in a split-second Stephens has a decision to make:
a) Stay on Hollands
b) Leave Hollands, trust your teammates to cover, and pressure Hayward
Get it wrong, whether by choice or how long it takes to make the choice, and Hayward either has a clean shot at goal or a simple option inboard.
Instead Stephens gets it exactly right and his presence forces Hayward to second guess and eventually opt for the inboard kick, but it gets smothered.
The decision happens in the blink of an eye and is arguably the most important of the game.
From there, we’re left with a 45 second passage that seals the game.
1:10 – 0:28 remaining: Defensive 50 stoppage to game sealing goal
There is so much going on here it’s best to list in dot point form. In chronological order:
1) With Cripps the focus point for Pittonet, Wardlaw recovers from a block to run Cripps down
2) Sheezel comes from (very slightly) outside the stoppage and is first to react and tackle Walsh
3) A hilariously exhausted Darling musters all he has left to pick it up and go as long as possible
4) Larkey gets away with front on contact on Derksen as the poor guy gets sandwiched with Trembath
5) With Carlton numbers everywhere, Trembath tries to put Jagga Smith into the ground and forces the turnover
6) Duursma has worked back enough from the defensive 50 to gather the loose ball and kick for territory
7) McKercher works his tail off to get close enough to Boyd and force some loop in the inboard kick
8) It gives Curtis just enough time to intercept mark while almost killing Ollie Florent with a flying foot
9) Duursma, who’s kept running after his kick for territory, is the target of Curtis’ inside 50
10) But through all this madness, Simpkin has run the outer wing from deep in the defensive pocket. His reward is the sealing goal as the North members wing lose their collective minds.
Got all that? Here it is in video form.
It might take a couple of watches to absorb all of it, but once that’s done a quick odds and ends section to finish:
Jy Simpkin
It’s fitting Simpkin was the one to seal it, because his role in the comeback was foundational.
Of North’s last seven scoring shots, Simpkin had five involvements to go with a couple of clearances and the final goal.
While it’s understandable there’s a bit of lingering resentment in the outer for the former captain, and his start to the season wouldn’t have been what he wanted, the role on the wing is best suited for him.
Ideally he can use the final quarter against Carlton as the building block for a fortnight where he should be able to get involved heavily.
Zane Duursma
The most striking thing about Duursma’s game wasn’t what he did with the ball, kicking three goals for the second consecutive week and adding a couple of towering marks against Carlton.
It was a couple of moments without the ball that should be viewed are the most important. There was a subtle block for Darling in the first quarter, allowing the veteran to safely come back with the flight and mark inside 50.
There was another attempted one later on for Nick Larkey that didn’t work as well, but the mindset of working with teammates is a significant step forward. We all know Duursma’s talent when it’s see-ball, get-ball but it can only get you so far at AFL level in his positional role.
These types of blocks, along with the last minute work illustrated above in the obscenely over-detailed video, are the sort of thing to propel Duursma into a consistent AFL contributor if he continues.