1998 Premiership Season

Goals: Carey 4, Abraham 2, McKernan 2,

North Melbourne has a disappointing loss to Footscray this weekend at Optus Oval, the game was close all day before some costly errors by North gave the Bulldogs the win. North got off to the best possible start to the game with McKernan winning a free kick in the middle and delivering it to Carey who marked and kicked the goal. Carey got another one soon after, again marking strongly and putting though an easy goal. It was a relief to see Carey up in the forward line , Mick Martyn got the job on Chris Grant and although he gave away height Mick tried hard all day and did a serviceable job on the Bulldog star.

Danny Southern got the first goal for the Dogs after leading well and marking. They had to wait till the 17 minute mark though and the early play was controlled by the Kangaroos. However the Bulldogs were soon back into the contest Chris Grant kicking his first to put his side into the lead. Corey McKernan answered for North and things seemed to be running fairly smoothly , Robert Scott missed a very easy chance running into an open goal, I don't think he realised there was a Footscray player in the pocket as he just kicked it casually towards goal thinking he was clear but the defended managed to come across and cut it off. Scott could have easily run into goal and kicked it out of the ground if he wanted too. Wayne Carey, who was BOG in the first term took a great grab in the pocket just before quarter time and kicked the goal from the angle.

Danny Southern was giving McCartney some trouble, he was too fast on the lead for the former Magpie and Crow, Southern kicked his second goal early in the second term. Another failed kick in resulted in the Dogs next goal and when Abraham gave away a relied free kick to Grant who converted the Western Bulldogs had all of a sudden got out to a sizeable lead. North didn't go forward in the first 10 min of the second term, it was all Bulldogs and thankfully they were inaccurate else we could have found our selves further behind. McKernan was doing well in the ruck but the Western Bulldogs were taking it away from the centre with ease. The running link up play they displayed was causing North a lot of trouble. David King was the first Kangaroos to get a sniff of goal but missed what he should have kicked while Brent Harvey went to the bench with a shoulder injury.

David King didn't have the best of games on his return to the side his poor clearance resulting in Footscrays next goal. Finally Brett Allison got North a goal, there only one for the term and it kept us in the hunt. The Bulldogs lead by 11 at the half, a fight erupted as the teams were making there way off the ground, it was over the other side to the ground from me and I haven't seen a reply so I don't know what it was about but there may be some charges laid against some of the players involved.

Glen Archer was shifted into attack in the second half and it paid immediate dividends when he kicked North's first for the half in the opening minutes. He had two more chances in the next five but unfortunately couldn't match the earlier effort. Shannon Grant missed a chance at goal, Bulldogs got it forward and the other Grant didn't miss sending the Dogs further in front. The tempo had lifted again and there was a 7 or 8 minute period when neither side could manage a score. North was let off the hook again by some bad kicking for goal by the Western Bulldogs. Abraham, who had had a quite day up until now got on the end of a Jason McCartney torp and kicked his first goal. There was a flurry of scoring in the dyeing minutes of the term, first Smith goaled for the Dogs then Carey who had been quite since quarter time took a one handed mark and goal. Anthony Stevens kicked a lovely snap just after and again they got a bit of a melee happening. North were looking good and had a one goal lead at the last change. North had the momentum and Pagan dragged the huddle over to the North fans in the Legends stand to try and get some further inspiration.

North came out firing in the last Stevens having his shot touched on the line before Archer and Abraham forced a mistake from the Footscray defence allowing Abraham to pounce on it and goal. Two goals in a minute though from Montgomery erased North's advantage and lifted the Footscray fans. From this point everything went wrong for North, the second of the Montgomery goals was a result of bad marking and then Martyn gave away a crude free kick to Grant who passed it off for another goal. The telling blow for North chances however was when Scott Welsh missed the easiest goal in the history of football on the run, he did well to get himself into the position ran into about 15 meters out directly in front and then kicked an absolute shocker. To make matters worse Footscray got the ball from the kickout took it straight down the ground and kicked a running goal from 50, it was a two goal turnaround and the game was virtually over then.

If it wasn't over then North made another fatal mistake this time though McCartney, he got the ball in the backline and instead of kicking the ball long as he usually does he decided to take a bounce and was run down from behind, it was holding the ball (one of the few paid on the day) and the Dogs got another goal as a result. McKernan got a late goal for North but it was in vane the Western Bulldogs were marching to victory they kicked a few more lazy ones and North were buried. The goal after McKernan's I am sure that I saw one of the umpires award a free kick for holding the ball against the Dogs, well he was � of the way though the holding the ball action the umpires go though but the ball then came free and the other umpire allowed play to go on and Footscray goaled. David King certainly had words with the umpire afterward and I wonder if that was why?. North weren't great today but lost the game in two moments really the two goal turn around on what should have been the Welsh goal was the worse. North do have some problems in midfield which isn't playing up to its normal high standard, the Dogs were able to switch play and use their run to launch attacks from defence, maybe it will be helped when Pike comes back and can do similar things for us. The game plan must be refined again I think, Carey dominated early and North bombed the ball down to him with success but the North Captain was well held after that but North continued to bomb it in. I noticed Shannon Grant in particular open in great position about four times only to have a team mate ignore him and kick it long straight to the waiting hands of a Footscray defender. Peter Bell is having a poor season, Abraham has gone quite in the last three weeks. Carey is in great form but we cant rely on the one player all the time. North now face a tough must win game against the Swans at the MCG.