If we are to divide North Melbourne’s 2026 into sections, Part 1 finished on Sunday with a comfortable 75-point win against Richmond at Marvel Stadium.
It was North’s biggest win since the 2019 season-ender at Marvel. That game can also be referred to as ‘the before times’, preceding whatever term adequately describes this decade so far.
Nevertheless, Sunday’s win meant a 4-2 record through six games against largely bottom-third opposition before the difficulty ramps up.
Today’s post won’t entirely be about the win against the Tigers. Of course we’ll start there with a quick speed run largely touching on accuracy, and then move onto a couple of structural tweaks, before finishing on a broader look at the first six weeks and what to watch for from opposition in the next five.
It’s all about to get much harder from here.
A speed run on the overall game
As far as I can tell, using a rudimentary look at historical betting odds as a guide, Sunday appeared to be the heaviest favourites North have been in a game since the Covid clash against West Coast in 2022. That game was its own form of torture, so we’ll quickly move on.
After so many years of watching North enter a game outmatched, it was a little strange to see them as the superior outfit. Superior used in a relative term, of course.
In general play the first half was actually close, despite what the scoreboard said at half time. Richmond were playing how they set out to, much the same as North with their respective modes. The differences manifested the closer play got to each team’s goal.
A better side than Richmond would have created higher quality scoring opportunities from their possession in general play. Instead many of their entries were shallow and shots were from distance. Of their 12 first half scoring shots, a grand total of zero were within 30 metres, and all but two were further than 40 out.
Richmond, as a collective, have struggled to make the most of their scoring shots this year. Through six rounds they have the biggest negative differential on expected score in the league. Combine it with not creating enough chances – the second lowest total expected score – and it doesn’t make a recipe for success.
It’s a largely unavoidable part of an early stage scorched earth rebuild struggling with availability. Players aren’t yet good enough to consistently generate chances or score regularly from those limited opportunities.
Conversely, North either have strong set shot converters up forward, or at the very least, no liabilities.
(Examples: Nick Larkey has kicked 15.5 from the source, Cooper Trembath 13.2, and Paul Curtis 11.5. Add the collective up and it reads 39.12 with only a small boost from expected score.)
At half time on Sunday North had kicked 9.0 from set shots, with two complete misses (both from long range, one of those also from an acute angle). Eight were from the area on the field that passes as the corridor, and the ninth was a close in snap from the pocket by Curtis. The summary:
– Curtis: 3.0
– Larkey: 1.0
– Spargo: 1.0
– Stephens: 1.0
– Sheezel: 1.0
– Darling: 1.0
– Davies-Uniacke: 1.0
The shots were gettable, most of the above players consistently take gettable chances when presented, and Sunday was more of the same.
Sometimes a game is as simple as taking your chances while the other side struggles, and then the scoreboard pressure influences the rest of the afternoon.
It isn’t to completely disregard every other element of the game, which we’ll have plenty of time to touch on as the weeks go, but rather acknowledging how the ability to kick straight had a large influence on proceedings.
With a 39-point half-time margin and Richmond missing multiple players, game flow and setups were naturally much different to how it would have been with a closer scoreboard.
Cam Zurhaar at half back
“You’re twitching the whole time as a defender,” Cam Zurhaar said post-game to ABC.
And it looked that way in the first few minutes of the game as he found his bearings, playing off half back for the first time in his AFL career.
Because small things amuse small minds I spent the first few minutes giggling in the stands, watching all of Zurhaar’s nervous looking around to make sure he was in the right position, then followed by glances to check where his teammates were at; calling it ‘head on a swivel’ would be underplaying it as he tried to get used to what is second nature for those used to playing at that end of the ground.
While Zurhaar’s numbers looked good at the end of the afternoon as his confidence grew, and there didn’t appear to be too many notable errors, it’s hard to judge exactly how much to take out of it.
Richmond are very young, very injured, and the exact players they couldn’t afford to have hurt have got hurt. It made for an unthreatening forward half with minimal ground level presence, allowing Zurhaar to stay relatively comfortable within his skill set.
Aerially there shouldn’t be too many queries about Zurhaar behind the ball. The question mark is how he fares with the ball in dispute, because ground level defence is a different world to ground level offence.
If he stays there this week against the Giants, who normally play multiple small forwards and should have Brent Daniels returning this week, it will tell us much more about whether it’s a viable medium-term option.
Cooper Trembath, centre ball up ruckman
Even allowing for Sunday’s last quarter, while Callum Coleman-Jones rested following an ankle knock, Cooper Trembath’s ruck role in Tristan Xerri’s absence was as clear as humanly possible:
– Total ruck contests: 46
– Total centre ball up attendances: 35
Given centre ball ups are where ruck jumping comes into play most, it’s really such a simple way to maximise individual strengths when you think about it:
– Trembath: Can jump well
– North’s other ruck options: Can’t really jump well
During Xerri’s suspension, the Trembath role has usually been as simple as taking the centre bounce before pushing forward at the first possible opportunity, allowing Jack Darling to take over the ground as Coleman-Jones has a rest.
It’ll be intriguing to see if the role continues once Xerri returns next week. The first fortnight of the year saw a slightly more ‘traditional’ resting ruck role, for lack of a better term. Trembath’s splits were 10 CBA’s to 21 ruck contests: still looking for centre bounces but more willing to roll around the ground.
It makes perfect sense to keep Trembath as almost a centre ball up specialist, with the ability to increase the load in there if Xerri is found struggling against some of the more athletic types, then handing over to Xerri for around the ground duties where he can shine.
(And good god it is so hard to remember to type centre ball up instead of centre bounce)
Assessing the first six weeks
In the Round 1 post, the minimum pass mark was set at 3-3. It makes 4-2 a success on the scoreboard, albeit with five of the six games against teams who will likely live in the bottom six of the ladder.
It’s clear there’s been a large focus on owning possession and using it to control tempo and field position as much as possible:
Time in possession differential: 3rd (+4 mins, 23 secs)
Part of that focus has allowed North to be in better position to defend turnovers:
Points conceded from turnover: 4th (67 points per 100 turnovers)
(note: levelling it to points conceded per 100 is a way to standardise across teams)
And also be in a better position to apply pressure when those turnovers arrive:
Pressure factor differential: 2nd
Combine the above and it’s allowed North to sit comfortably mid-table both in scores per inside 50 and scores conceded per inside 50:
Scoring shot % per inside 50: 8th (47.4%)
Scoring shot % per inside 50 conceded: 8th (44.7%)
Individually, obviously Trembath has been superb. Aside from him, the notable improvements in no particular order:
Luke Parker: The move to half back as the adult in the room has helped immensely, particularly in the Essendon win. It does make for an older backline, but we’ll cover that line in depth at a different time.
Finn O’Sullivan: The step forward as part of the on-ball unit has been evident from the opening minutes of Round 1. To counter the older backline point above, the main on-ball unit on his return will be something like Davies-Uniacke (26), Sheezel (21), Wardlaw (21), O’Sullivan (19), with chop outs from McKercher (21), and Powell (24).
Tom Blamires: His addition as a plug and play half back to start, and then on a wing in recent weeks, has provided the exact type of serviceable role player decent teams need filling out the bottom quarter of their lineup.
Dylan Stephens: At last year’s mid-season break, as Stephens was in a good run of form, the query was whether he could maintain it or slip back into the story of his career to date, unable to consistently reach a solid level.
Although there were a couple of quieter games down the stretch, the overall level was decent, and it has improved again in 2026. It’s fair to say he’s rightfully established now as an important part of North’s team.
But after all of these improvements, both collectively and individually, the elephant in the room: How much of the above is sustainable against higher class opposition? The real test is coming.
The next five weeks
Round 7: GWS @ Manuka Oval
Round 8: Geelong @ GMHBA Stadium
Round 9: Sydney @ Marvel Stadium
Round 10: Adelaide @ Adelaide Oval
Round 11: Gold Coast @ Marvel Stadium
That is tough. Particularly with the Giants potentially getting all of Daniels, Cadman, Coniglio and Hogan back this week. The Geelong game is … in Geelong. Self-explanatory.
It’s the Sydney and Gold Coast clashes which loom as particularly instructive on where North are at. Both sides are heavily reliant on forward handball and a direct, quick style, in theory putting stress on North’s weak spots defensively.
We saw in Round 2 that West Coast were able to basically outrun North through the middle two quarters. It can also be the way Sydney and Gold Coast overwhelm opponents if their strengths are up and firing.
Adelaide are a different proposition, still finding themselves while making tweaks on the fly, alternating passages of breathless football with lengthy periods of sludge. By the time Round 10 arrives we’ll have a much clearer idea of what they’ll be.
If 3-3 was a pass mark for the first six weeks, what is a pass mark for the next five? It’s tough to confidently provide one.
What isn’t in doubt is we’ll learn much more about North in the next five weeks than we did in the first six. Ideally the foundation provided by that first six allows them to attack the season-defining period with more confidence than they’ve had in recent memory.