Sydney has notched its third win for 2019 with a nail-biting five-point victory over North Melbourne in a spirited contest at Blundstone Arena on Saturday night.
Having surged to the lead during an impressive seven-goal second quarter, the Swans out-scrapped the Kangaroos at times and ultimately refused to yield, despite a late North Melbourne revival to run out 11.11 (77) to 10.12 (72) victors.
Both sides entered the match with just two wins for the season, and while it was hardly a spectacle until the frantic final minutes, it was a contest packed full of feeling with players coming together on several occasions to remonstrate when the almost-constant niggle spilled over.
Out on their feet late in the final term, the Swans somehow repelled wave after wave of North Melbourne attack and were forced to dig incredibly deep to hold off the Kangaroos after Jared Polec slotted a goal from the boundary to reduce the margin to just five points with less than two minutes remaining.
As it was, desperate team defence and a couple of telling intercept marks from the impressive Jordan Dawson was just enough for the Swans to prevail.
Having trailed by nine points at quarter time, largely due to a brace of goals from Kangaroo Kayne Turner, Sydney swarmed all over North in a second term that saw them return a remarkable 7.2 from 14 forward entries, including a couple of special efforts from busy small forward Tom Papley who finished with four goals on the night.
Jack Ziebell was tireless for the Kangaroos in gathering 35 disposals and 10 marks and was arguably the best player on the ground despite his side going down.
NORTH MELBOURNE 3.1 5.3 6.7 10.12 (72)
SYDNEY 1.4 8.6 10.10 11.11 (77)
GOALS
North Melbourne: Turner 2, Brown, Wood, Cunnington, Larkey, Zurhaar, Simpkin, Tarrant, Polec
Sydney: Papley 4, Florent 2, Blakey, McCartin, Heeney, Lloyd, Dawson
BEST
North Melbourne: Ziebell, Anderson, Tarrant, Macmillan, Goldstein
Sydney: Parker, Heeney, Papley, Hewett, Aliir, Dawson
Injuries:
North Melbourne: TBC
Sydney: Jones (hamstring), Heeney (head)
Reports: Nil
Umpires: Hosking, Howorth, Chamberlain
Official crowd: 12,799 at Blundstone Arena
