1998 Premiership Season

Goals:Carey 5, McKernan 3

Best: Carey, King, McKernan

North Melbourne has stitched up a top two spot with a gutsy victory over the Crows at Football Park. Adelaide got off to a great start but after the first 5 minutes it was all North. North put enormous pressure on Adelaide all over the ground and spent the rest of the term going forward. Unfortunately though North seems to be developing inaccuracy like they had earlier in the year and couldn't buy a goal kicking 6 straight behinds before finally putting through the first goal of the match. Carey had Caven on him early but soon through off his attention to once again establish himself as the dominate force in the game. North was so far superior to the Crows and should have really killed the game by quarter time. Peter Bell was one of the chief culprits missing at least three early chances. Simpson too missed what he would normally kick. Winston Abraham wasn't having the best of starts he was getting a bit of the ball but he seemed to be trying to be a bit fancy at times. For Adelaide Nigel Smart was playing well running off half back.

At quarter time North had a comfortable break and they stretched it early in the second term with a few goals. Carey was cutting up Adelaide with three goals to this stage his goal early in the second when he marked outside 50 and casually turned and bombed the goal was trademark Carey. Malcolm Blight looked to be very concerned in the box and to be honest I thought North were going to crush Adelaide by 10 goals. North seemed to slack off defensively for 5 minutes and it was long enough to get the Crows back in the game, they kicked a few quick goals to get them back in touch and the match became a tight arm wrestle from this point on. David King was playing well running hard and kicked a goal early. Archer was playing up forward in the first half and was marking strongly and crashing packs in the usual manner. Jason McCartney whacked a Crow in the nose and he was taken from the ground. Winston Abraham turned on the pace running into the open goal only to miss in Blight like fashion from 5 metres out. The chase was good from Adelaide but it was still an easy goal that needed to be kicked. It balanced out in the end though as he also kicked the goal of the week at the other end of the ground after nearly falling over managing to keep his balance and snapping throw a goal from a tight angle with the left foot. North was 25 points up at half time but has kicked 8.12 and really should have been further in front.

Adelaide had the better of the third term, closing on North, Carey was kept fairly quite due to the fact we weren't going forward with the same penetration as we had been earlier in the game. Corey McKernan got a goal against the run of play for North but the Crows continued to improve and the packed Football Park crowd threatened to bring the Crows over the top. North had lost control in midfield but the defence was as usual holding their ground. Adelaide was within a couple of goals at three quarter time.

The last term was a classic battle both sides going goal for goal, everytime North got a goal Adelaide got one back, North got a four goal break half way through the term but the Crows responded with three quick goals to once again close it to within three points. Carey and McKernan were the most important players for North, Carey was the steadying influence up forward and all we had to do is get it down their and he would do the rest. He kicked two goals in the last term and set another up for McKernan who also kicked two goals. The Crows continued to push forward though Tony Modra had the chance to level the scores but put the ball out of bounds on the full. In the end North was just a little bit harder at it when it counter Peter Bell sealing the game for the Roos with a minute to go finally kicking accurately to finish off the Crows.

North's dominance over Adelaide continues North wins at Football park on most attempts these days which is great to see seeing as it was Adelaide at Football Park that inflicted the embarrassing defeat that lead to North's return to power under Denis Pagan. Wayne Carey was once again best on ground for North 28 touches 9 marks and 5 goals another 3 vote game. David King was good again and so to was Martyn who despite taking a kick to the body was once again dominant over Modra at full back.