North Melbourne Faces Harsh Lesson After Heavy Defeat to Adelaide
North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson has called on his players to take a hard lesson from their recent defeat and quickly move forward. The Kangaroos suffered their biggest loss of the season at the hands of the Adelaide Crows, who delivered a dominant performance that left the Roos struggling to respond.
The Crows set the tone for the match with an overwhelming 10-goals-to-nil second quarter at Adelaide Oval. This was a stark contrast to the Roos’ usual form, as they showed no resistance to the onslaught. “They did everything that you could possibly want from a side, they were able to do, and everything that you didn’t want from a side was happening to us,” Clarkson said of the second-quarter performance.
He added, “So, where’s it come from? I don’t know because we haven’t seen it for the year, so there’s part of me to say, ‘We’ll treat it like an aberration and get on with it next week’.”
Clarkson emphasized that the team must focus on learning from the loss and not dwell on it. “There’s only one way forward and that’s try to look at some of the reasons why we fell away so badly in that second quarter, and learn from it, and get going again next week against Gold Coast.”
Despite the heavy defeat, there were some positive signs for North Melbourne. Luke Davies-Uniacke, a key midfielder, faced a scare when he landed heavily on his left knee with just seconds remaining in the game. However, a club spokesperson confirmed that medical staff had given him the all-clear.
Adelaide put up their highest score of the season, kicking 13 goals in a row and leading by as much as 88 points before the Roos managed to fight back in the final quarter. “Pleasingly we were able to stem the flow a little bit in the second half, and not have that become a real blowout because it was looking that way,” Clarkson said.
He acknowledged the severity of the loss, stating, “When you concede 14 goals in a half of footy, very easily that could’ve turned into a 100-point loss. It’s still really disappointing because we’ve been a hell of a lot better than that, we know it was our worst quarter for the year by a long way.”
The defeat extended North Melbourne’s losing streak at Adelaide Oval to 14 games. When asked if this record had affected his players, Clarkson responded, “There’s four goalposts at either end, and green grass, if we’re worried about that, they would have kicked 10 goals in the first quarter. And we started the game really well, and we probably should have put a little bit more scoreboard pressure on them early in the game.”
Meanwhile, Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks praised his team’s performance, calling it a sign that the Crows are finally gaining momentum after a shaky start to the season. The Crows have now won three consecutive matches, with five wins from their past six games. This comes after doubts were raised about their finals credentials following just one win from their first four games.
“We haven’t necessarily been at our best, we’re five wins out of six, which isn’t bad … we have felt like there’s some momentum,” Nicks said. “We felt like the Showdown gave us that, and some might say we fell over the line, but we played pretty well in that Showdown.”
Nicks also highlighted the importance of the team’s strong second-half performance. “Today, you saw a little bit more of where we feel we sit, so we’re in a good position where we take some confidence, and know there’s still so much improvement.”
Despite a slow start, where they trailed by 16 points early in the game, the Crows managed to turn things around and lead by four points at quarter-time. “We made some poor decisions, didn’t we?” Nicks said. “But we got ourselves back on track, right? Dug in. It is something that we’re looking at, our starts, but we did well to dig in and just weather the storm.”
Riley Thilthorpe missed the match due to a lower back injury, and Nicks remains unsure if he and fellow key forward Taylor Walker will be available for the next game against Hawthorn in Launceston.
