Australian Football

Match Report

It was a night for celebration for North Melbourne at Docklands on Saturday night as the Kangaroos celebrated Brent Harvey's record-breaking 427th AFL match with a 23-point win over St Kilda on Saturday night. In a match that never reached any great heights, North narrowly won all four quarters against the Saints to mark Harvey's milestone match with a win and, more importantly, establish a three-game break inside the top eight with only four games of the home-and-away season remaining. 

Trent Dumont got North off to a perfect start, with a centre clearance finding Daniel Wells whose pass to Dumont ending in a goal inside the first minute. When St Kilda's Blake Acres marked and goaled barely a minute later, scores were level and the match looked like being a shoot-out. Defences tightened right up after that, though, which - along with inaccuracy in front of the sticks - stemmed the flow of goals from both sides. The only other major of the term was kicked by Jarrad Waite, who gave North a seven-point lead with a great snap at the 11-minute mark. The two sides traded in behinds after that and it was the Roos by an even goal at quarter time. 

Each side added a further behind to start the second quarter before Ben Brown was awarded a free kick and kicked accurately to record the match's first goal in almost a quarter. St Kilda's Mav Weller responded almost immediately after a he marked a pass from Jack Steven and converted so keep the Saints within a goal. The Kangaroos got their third soon after with a mark and goal to Aaron Mullett  but the goals dried up once more after that, each side adding just a couple of behinds as North took a 12-point lead into the long break. 

The first 22 minutes of the third term proved decisive. In that period Saints Tim Membrey, Dylan Roberton and Nick Riewoldt all missed gettable shots and, after each one of those misses, North Melbourne kicked accurately at the other end of the ground, with Waite, Drew Petrie and Brown all goaling to North 27 points ahead - 7.7 to 2.10 - despite having had only two more scoring shots. Leigh Montagna kicked truly to finally give the Saints a goal late in the term but North took a comfortable 22-point lead into the final break. 

Brent Harvey's longtime friend Drew Petrie virtually sealed the match within 18 seconds of the start of the last quarter, breaking three tackles and kicking a great goal. From then on it was more or less party time for the Kangaroos, Lindsay Thomas and Brown adding further goals over the next 10 minutes to take the lead out to 40 points. Nick Riewoldt clawed one back for the Saints but then Lindsay Thomas marked and gave a present to Harvey, hand balling off to give 'Boomer' a goal in his milestone match. Jamie Macmillan added another North goal before the Saints finished the match off with three 'junk time' goals to cut the final margin to 23 points. 

Macmillan was amongst North's best, taking eight marks and collecting 31 possessions, while Sebastian Ross (25 disposals and seven tackles) was a standout for the Saints.

North will look to make certain of its place in the finals with a win over the seventh-placed Western Bulldogs at Docklands next Saturday night. St Kilda is no more than a mathematical chance of featuring in September action, but will look to keep that chance alive with a win over Carlton (15th) at the MCG on Sunday. 

GOALS
North Melbourne: Brown 3; Waite, Petrie 2; Thomas, Harvey, Macmillan, Dumont, Mullett
St Kilda: Riewoldt, Bruce 2; Montagna, Acres, Weller, Dunstan

BEST - AFL.COM.AU
North Melbourne: Cunnington, Petrie, Macmillan, Wells, Swallow, Gibson, Brown
St Kilda: Riewoldt, Ross, Acres, Montagna, Roberton

BEST - THE SUNDAY AGE
North Melbourne: Macmillan, Petrie, Cunnington, Gibson, Brown, Wells, Tarrant, Harvey
St Kilda: Ross, Riewoldt, Montagna, Acres, Roberton

INJURIES
North Melbourne: Waite (hip)
St Kilda: Nil

UMPIRES: Bannister, Stevic, Findlay

TELEVISION BROADCAST: Seven Network

COMMENTATORS: Brian Taylor, Luke Darcy, Matthew Richardson, Cameron Ling