1998 Premiership Season

Goals: Carey, Allison, Simpson, Pike, Abraham, Roberts, Bell, Blakey

Best: Stevens, Bell, Martyn

North Melbourne has thrown away everything they have worked for in the 1998 season with a disgraceful effort in Saturdays Grand Final. North Melbourne dominated play in the first half but kicked atrociously and could not convert the dominance onto the score board. North lead by 23 and the main break but should have been at least 10 goals up with the premiership in the bag. Instead Adelaide came out after half time kicked a couple of quick goals and took total control of the game. North Melbourne were not able to respond to the challenge when it was necessary and went down without a flight.

The game started well Carey was in the play early taking a couple of strong marks out in front of Caven. He had the opportunity to kick the first of the match from 30 out on a slight angle a shot he would normally have eaten for breakfast but this time he missed to the right. North had all the play and the first goal came after Harvey received a free and cleverly chipped it out to Blakey to improve the angle. Blakey kicked the goal and North were off and running. North continued to pump the ball into the forward line Pike and Harvey both had half chances but missed, Harvey was playing well early but seemed to be nervous, he should have kicked a goal from 20 metres out but instead handballed to Sholl who was under pressure and could only manage a behind with his snap shot at goal. Martin Pike was getting a number of opportunities early on playing up forward , the Adelaide defence which was in disarray early overran the ball giving Pike a chance but he couldn't quite get boot to ball and the Crows were able to take it away. Adelaide got their first goal of the game from a free kick.

Peter Bell was put down in midfield , North got the ball moving forward to Simpson who kicked North's second goal of the game. Winston Abraham and Byron Pickett were both playing well early on. Wayne Carey contributed to North's next goal, grabbing it out of a ruck contest and kicking it high into the pocket for Roberts to mark. The oldest player on the ground went back and drilled the goal. Roberts was gathering a number of possessions around the ground and was causing real problems for the Crows. Jarman got his first goal of the afternoon with a great snap from the pocket. Up until that point Blakey had been doing a very good job on him. Wayne Carey brought the crowd to light with one of the goals of the year the ball kicking long into the forward line Carey had to run back and beat two Crows players and managed to soccer it though using the outside of his boot. It was a great goal and everything so far was going to plan. Brett James was able to get one back for the Crows to keep then in touch. North were still dominant, McKernan running into the open goal and missed terribly. At the first chance North was up by 8 points but in general play were well on top.

North charged out of the middle at the resumption of play but could only manage a point. The desperation of the North players in the early running was highlighted by Pickett who through himself at the ball smothering it turning what was looking like an Adelaide goal into a goal from Martin Pike. North went forward again, Carey had a great chance to mark but uncharacteristically let the ball slip though his hands in the pocket. Carey had another chance soon after but rushed his shot on goal missing disappointingly. North was once again dominating the early running but the Crows were still hanging on, they got another goal from a free kick to Pittman. Wayne Carey has having a bad time of it up forward nothing was going right for the North champ he had another chance at goal, once again seeming to rush it and missing. Peter Bell won a free kick in front of goal but missed. North Melbourne were killing Adelaide it was so frustrating watching them wasting the chances to put the Crows away. Worryingly Andrew McCloud was starting to get a bit of the ball in midfield after Blight pushed him up the ground. John Blakey was the next North player to waste a golden opportunity running into the open goal and missing from 25 metres out. North Melbourne have had trouble for periods over the last couple of years with accuracy and today of all days it was to come back to haunt them. Craig Sholl had been well beaten by Hart and had been benched. Winston Abraham charged through the centre, surely this time North would kick a goal, not so though Winston kicked badly as well. They were all missing to the right, not allowing for the wind which was blowing fairly strongly across the ground. Wayne Carey had yet another chance to goal this time he unexplainably didn't make the distance on a snap shot from 25 metres out, trying to bounce the ball though which was stupid seeing as the Crows had players back in the square. North were running forward in waves, everything was going to plan except on the scoreboard, Robran who was a feared dangerman before the game hadn't got a kick on Martyn, North was murdering Adelaide through the middle and was doing a good job of limiting the Crows run out of defence. Capuarno missed a shot and then just before the siren McKernan missed a sitter after marking well on the lead. At half time North lead by only 23 points having kicked 2.11 to 1.1 in the quarter. It was to be a quarter that would bring North's season undone.

Confidence was still high amongst the fans at half time, after all we had murdered them, it was only a matter of times before the kicks started to go straight and we would romp away to an easy win. That attitude might have been in the players minds too as North never really looked likely in the second half. Adelaide exploded out of the blocks , they had lifted in general play, it was obvious from just the first 5 minutes that the games balance had been changed. The Crows got the first goal of the term and were all of a sudden getting great drive and run though midfield, Adelaide weren't kicking to a target up forward they were just running it down always seeming to find free players, the Crows missed a few shots to let North off the hook but North could not steady and eventually Adelaide got another goal and after only 7 minutes of the second half the Crows were back level, all the work North had done in the first half was for nothing. Jarman was starting to look dangerous and Blakey was starting to look out of his depth on the Crows star. It was unbelievable how much things had changed now it was Adelaide in total control of the game North could not clear the ball out of defence at all, the Crows players were running freely easily breaking the North Melbourne tackles. Ex North player Mark Stevens was on top of McKernan helping to rebound any rare North attack. Winston Abraham finally provided the much needed steadying goal , a long bomb from 50 but it wasn't enough to stop the Adelaide onslaught. North lifted temporarily to hold its ground, Pickett took a good mark in the back half, Carey got into a wrestle on the wing. Matthew Capuano had a bad game he failed to take a mark he should have inside 50 and moments later turned it over with a poor kick. Vardy ran into yet another open goal for the Crows and again levelled the scores. Brent Harvey had an opportunity on the wing, the problem is he unexpectedly beat his man meaning Carey had lead to early and the young player had no one to kick to. The Crows went forward again only to hit the post but it put the Crows in the lead for the first time in the match at the 24 min mark of the third quarter. Smart goaled soon after to put the Crows further in front. North was being thrashed around the middle and seemed to be second to the ball all the time. Brett Allison marked on three quarter time and kicked a much needed pressure goal. It was unbelievable that Allison could kick so well under such pressure while the other players wasted countless chances when they had all day to waltz in and kick goals. North were down by three points and things were going Adelaide's way. The last quarter will probably go down as one of the worst in the history of the club it was disgraceful, The Crows started brilliantly kicking a goal within the first minute to stretch the lead, Jarmen got away from Blakey again and put though another goal. North would have to find something fast if it was to save the season, it couldn't though when a goal was needed the only thing that was coming was more bad kicking. Peter Bell run into an open goal and missed, David King also had a chance. It was a crucial point of the game North would still be in it if they could just get one back. North had stopped the Crows dominance out of midfield and Carey managed to get free inside 50 and marked 20 meters out on about a 45 degree angle. It wasn't the easiest kick in the world but it wasn't difficult, surely Carey would kick the captains goal and lead us back into the contest. Unfortunately this wasn't to be Carey's day, he went back kicked hard through the ball but it missed and that in the end was that. North had given its best shot and just couldn't buy a goal. The Crows lifted again, Smart was spun around in a tackle but managed to through the ball onto his boot, it dribbled though for a goal and the game was over. We don't really have to go any further North gave up and started taking their frustrations out on the opposition players, Jarman continued to kill us and we got thrashed.

It was North's worst game for the year and it came when it mattered the most. Only 2 goals in the second half and no goals in the final term it was a shocking effort you had to look twice to make sure the Crows weren't playing a side with Horizontal rarther than vertical blue stripes.

Denis Pagan was unhappy as could be expected, saying that the season was wasted thanks to 1 hour of football. He also said that maybe North thought they had the game won at half time, either way it was an obviously disappointed Pagan who had to face the media after the match.