NORTH MELBOURNE 7.2 11.3 12.6 17.11 113)
CARLTON 2.0 7.2 12.4 15.6 (96)
GOALS - North Melbourne: Garner 3, Turner 2, Hansen 2, Wood 2, Higgins 2, Brown, Waite, McDonald, Hrovat, Atley, Dumont. Carlton: Gibbs 3, C Curnow 2, Cuningham 2, Casboult 2, Docherty 2, Sumner, Murphy, Wright, Cripps.
BEST - North Melbourne: Higgins, Ziebell, McDonald, Dumont, Atley, Garner, Wood. Carlton: Gibbs, Docherty, Kreuzer, Cripps E. Curnow, Simpson.
UMPIRES Ryan, Ryan, Harris.
CROWD 32,802 at Etihad Stadium.
North Melbourne let their bogeyman into Etihad Stadium on Sunday. He had taken off his shoes, put on the kettle, and was ready to settle in. They were down a man after Trent Dumont's concussion and trailed after Carlton kicked the opening goal of the final term. But collectively they decided "not today".
And so the Roos came back, tossing the bogeyman back onto the street as they stopped a seemingly irrepressible surge from the Blues, kicking five of the last seven goals to secure a vital four points in the race for the eight.
North skipper Jack Ziebell led from the front, while Luke McDonald imposed himself in the final term, but it was two late goals from Mason Wood – a non-factor for most of the day – and a redemptive final-quarter major from Lachie Hansen that pulled North out of their hole after all had looked lost.
Hansen had earlier put out the welcome sign for the bogeyman. The North veteran dropped a straightforward chest mark at half-back early in the third quarter, and Carlton needed no second invitation to turn the handle. Sam Docherty capitalised on Hansen's error to put through the Blues' eighth goal of the day. The margin was back to 18 points, but North's mental demons must surely have been worth a few majors to Carlton.
So it proved. Patrick Cripps and Bryce Gibbs had started to dominate. Gibbs had already kicked two goals – one a flukish bouncing bomb – but his third, miraculously slotted from the pocket, brought with it an air of impending doom for North. Taylor Garner briefly stopped the rot down the other end, but Cripps, skipper Marc Murphy and David Cunningham all goaled before the quarter was out. There was a desperate defensive smother from Matthew Kreuzer and North's lead was down to two points with a quarter to play.
It had all looked so different for most of the first half. While there was rain in Melbourne on Sunday, it was never going to be a factor under the roof at Etihad. So a cricket score loomed as a genuine possibility in the early stages as North burst out of the blocks. It had been the Roos' way in recent weeks, they kicked 10 first-quarter majors to stun Adelaide in Hobart three weeks ago, and just seven days ago managed 13 scoring shots to quarter-time against Melbourne.
Carlton's fold-back style of football can be effective, but a critical mass of errors renders it futile. The scoreboard at Etihad flashed early in the second term to show the clanger count was 21-9 the Blues' way. That was in no small part due to Carlton's ill-discipline – at quarter-time North led the free-kick count 10-3, and not surprisingly the umpires were roundly booed by the predominantly pro-Blues crowd as soon as the siren sounded. The Roos probably had the rub of the green with the men in fluoro, but that the Blues trailed by 45 points mid-way through the second term owed more to North's far slicker movement of the ball - with Shaun Higgins prominent - than any anti-Carlton conspiracy.
The Roos' lead had also been built on contested ball ascendancy, and that's where the game began to turn. The Blues started to win the lion's share in the clinches, allowing them to show that they too can play a mean offensive dry-weather game. It first it was just a trickle, a precise finish from Matthew Wright, a neat ping from Levi Casboult, and after an earlier miss, an uplifting first AFL goal for youngster Cunningham. Second-tier Roos Dumont and McDonald had both been influential early but were fading, and with the margin back to 25 points at the long change, Carlton had a scent. But North ultimately had the will.
