North’s finals hopes take hit

ACTS of self-sabotage don’t come much more dramatic or consequential.

North Melbourne yesterday torched its September hopes in one of the more extraordinary secondhalf meltdowns this season has witnessed.

Somehow a team that started the season 7-4 now has finals hopes that are purely mathematical.

At half-time yesterday the Kangaroos led the Western Bulldogs by 28 points, needing only to close out the contest and then beat bottom-10 sides Adelaide and St Kilda to take their place in the finals.

At that stage Ben Brown was back in the Coleman Medal race, the Dogs had been held to three goals and North Melbourne’s players were having a riot of a time.

They should have realised a Bulldogs team celebrating Dale Morris’ 250th game would never go quietly into the night.

Somehow, the brilliance of Marcus Bontempelli and his midfield comrades married with North’s incompetence on a grand scale.

The Roos would kick 3.8 in the second half, player after player botching set shots that could have dragged the Bulldogs back within range.

In the final minutes of the seven- point defeat, Paul Ahern and Mason Wood were among the offenders as the Dogs held on.

Brown ended up with four goals to get back on Coleman Medal parity, but the Dogs knew where North Melbourne was heading at just about every inside-50m opportunity.

In contrast, a Bulldogs side that won the clearances 39-27 through Bontempelli, Lachie Hunter and Jackson Macrae had a multidimensional, unpredictable forward line. In the third term, they combined perfectly as the Dogs kicked five goals straight and eight of 10 for the quarter.

Off halfback the Dogs mixed the smarts of Caleb Daniel and unlikely defender Billy Gowers with the speed of Ed Richards and Jason Johannisen. And the Roos just couldn’t catch them.

Instead of a temporary lapse, the Bulldogs kept the pedal to the metal in the nailbiting last term, as Hunter (14 possessions) and Macrae (13 touches) ensured Morris would have his celebration.

This could have been one more stepping stone for a North Melbourne side no one predicted would make finals.

Now Brad Scott will join his brother Chris in figuring out ladder permutations that can get their teams into the finals.