FRESH HELL FOR KANGAROOS
North Melbourne could do little more than hold up the white flag yesterday against the Demons as the Roos’ horror run went from bad to worse.
IN THE end it was a rout, but that doesn’t mean Melbourne will walk away from its 57point win over North Melbourne entirely satisfied.
The Dees turned a 16-point three-quarter time lead into a cakewalk, as the Roos seemed to put up the white flag.
North had control early and were leading at quarter-time, but you can never judge a game by its first stanza and the Demons wrestled back control thanks to North errors.
Melbourne rested captain Max Gawn (shoulder/back) and were without vice-captain Jack Viney (concussion), so Jake Melksham stepped up and his third-quarter goal was just reward.
But it was Angus Brayshaw (29 touches), Clayton Oliver (31) and Christian Petracca (29 – and goal of the night) who were matchwinners.
For the Roos, Luke McDonald’s 33 disposals were important as were Nick Larkey’s four goals, but North put on a poor display and slumped to their eighth loss of the season.
Dees coach Simon Goodwin
decided against bringing in ruckman Braydon Preuss to cover Gawn and instead stuck with 18-year-old Luke Jackson, who broke a four-year drought at Melbourne by being named Rising Star for his Round 10 efforts against Adelaide.
But taking on Kangaroos veteran Todd Goldstein (and his No.2 Majak Daw) in only his sixth game of AFL was always going to be a tough ask.
Jackson was aided by the returning Tom McDonald, but they were severely beaten.
Jackson won two hitouts to half time – compared with Goldstein’s 10 and Melbourne lost the hitout count 7-30.
This was a historic occasion with two Victorian teams clashing on Adelaide Oval.
It wasn’t pretty, but the win was vital to the Demons’ season. It puts them 5-5, with a game in hand, and the fact the Demons did it easy is a percentage booster for them.