There can only be one topic of discussion for today’s post.
North Melbourne’s second quarter, conceding ten unanswered goals to the Crows at Adelaide Oval, was a horrendous thirty minutes on every front.
All around the field, and upstairs as well, there wasn’t a single positive to take out of the term. It’s the sole focus to analyse today.
After North’s fast start, the game had evened out by quarter time, settling into a fairly even tempo dominated by kick-mark.
Although Adelaide kicked four of the last five goals in the first term, there was little indicator of what would come next. A four-point margin at quarter time became a 66-point margin at half time after…
Second Quarter | Adelaide v North Melbourne
– Disposals: Adelaide 117 – 43 North Melbourne
– Contested Possession: Adelaide 43 – 22 North Melbourne
– Tackles: Adelaide 31 – 14 North Melbourne
– Marks: Adelaide 37 – 5 North Melbourne
– Inside 50s: Adelaide 16 – 6 North Melbourne
– Clearances: Adelaide 13 – 8 North Melbourne
– Scores From Clearances: Adelaide 32 – 1 North Melbourne
– Total Score: Adelaide 64 – 2 North Melbourne
43 disposals is the equal lowest by any team in any quarter since the Covid year of 2020. To have 74 fewer disposals than the opposition *and* 17 fewer tackles is simply unforgivable. A whole quarter chasing tail shouldn’t result in that sort of disparity.
While the entire quarter was a collective abdication of responsibilities, it can be divided into different parts. These clips won’t necessarily be in chronological order but instead sorted by specific area of the game.
Stoppages and contests
Adelaide’s 5.2 – seven scoring shots – came from ‘just’ 13 clearances, a ratio of better than 50 percent. To put the number into context, most of the league scores from somewhere between a quarter and a third of their clearances.
For Adelaide to score from more than half of theirs in the second term is an indicator of the first problem area for North.
Around the ground, more often than not Adelaide opted to send an extra player to the stoppages. From a North point of view, it’s not the end of the world – it’s a fairly regular ploy around the league and doesn’t mean a certain disadvantage *if* your setups are sound.
Instead, Adelaide’s extra was allowed to parade around the stoppage like a training drill while there was seemingly no counter from North. This example from Alex Neal-Bullen summed it up:
As a generous reading you could say North decided to live with Neal-Bullen as the extra at stoppage.
However, there is no reading generous enough to excuse Izak Rankine. Which makes this stoppage inexcusable, Rankine allowed to coast through as the focal point:
Then when it was one on one, there was a complete lack of touch. From the very last stoppage of the second term, we saw Jordan Dawson allowed to stroll to the front of the ruck contest, gather from the tap, and cruise away to find a leading Josh Rachele.
It’s unfathomable how Jordan Dawson was allowed to do this.
General defensive tasks
When there are bulk numbers behind the ball, there should be an expectation of forcing a long kick to a contest, at the very least.
Instead, in this example, after nearly a minute of slow Adelaide kick-mark play exclusively on one side of the ground, there is still a wide-open leading lane for Darcy Fogarty to stroll in to.
It’s an indictment on North’s team defence that they weren’t able to stop it under minimal stress.
After a turnover there should be a recognition to snap quickly into defensive mode. Sometimes it’s more a matter of just covering the closest danger zone rather than looking to be perfect, but instead what we saw was painfully slow, allowing Adelaide to move where they pleased.
Once Adelaide gain possession in this clip, no one gets close to Ben Keays as he gathers the crumb from the rushed kick forward and handballs to Toby Murray for the goal. Even though there was no high fend off paid against Keays, North’s process leading up to it was all at sea.
Team communication to execute those defensive tasks
Right from Adelaide’s first rebound of the term it was clear things were disintegrating.
Generally speaking it’s impossible for a team defence to cover everything on a field. It means there are choices to be made – options to cover, options not to cover, when to attack the ball, when not to attack the ball, and so on.
In this instance, with Adelaide orchestrating an extra player on one side of the ground, the choice for Charlie Spargo to make is whether to press higher on Dan Curtin – standing 15 metres to the side of Brayden Cook on the boundary – or drop back slightly to force largely one-on-ones everywhere else.
Because Spargo chooses to try and split the ground between Curtin and Rory Laird, it leaves Paul Curtis also unsure whether to focus on Laird or Dawson.
As a result Luke Parker leaves his post on Zac Taylor to cover Dawson. It leaves Taylor out the back while the ball goes long to a contest on the wing and when Luke McDonald attempts to fly and kill the ball, but fails, it also leaves Jake Soligo free to roll forward.
It’s a death by million cuts type scenario, unfolding in painfully slow motion because the team defence isn’t communicating with each other.
The (rare) moments of possession
North actually had the first three centre clearances of the quarter. From those three, they managed a grand total of one possession inside forward 50 – a rushed ground level handball – before Adelaide regained control.
Then in the rare moments North had the ball in general play elsewhere on the ground, there was a complete lack of composure, either in the face of Adelaide pressure or when presented with an opportunity to control the ball for a moment.
For example, this kick from Parker was a complete zero in every possible facet:
Or Cam Zurhaar not taking an extra second to get back over the mark before going long to the wide contest, resulting in the kick getting smothered and the ball remaining trapped in Adelaide’s forward 50:
This kick from Colby McKercher is absurdly tough at the best of times, let alone in the current game situation. Sometimes it’s just about taking a moment, regrouping, then going again. Not looking for the single figure percentage chance option:
All the above, from offensive decisions to contest work to defensive setups, painted a picture of a team a million miles off the pace after a promising season to date.
With one game to go before the mid-season bye, hosting Gold Coast at Marvel Stadium on Saturday, the hope should be a performance more in line with what we’ve seen earlier in the year.
Gold Coast own a game style not too dissimilar to Sydney, but a step below the Swans’ current level. Considering North acquitted themselves well in Round 9, it should give them confidence against the Suns.