To beat St Kilda, a side must bring its A-game around the ball and top-class pressure.
“I don’t think it was ever going to be a high scoring game,” Brent Harvey said post-match.
“We knew when St Kilda are at their best, they’ve got some really good pressure, when we play our best we pressure really well as well.”
Saturday night brought flashbacks of how North tackled the Western Bulldogs back in Round 6. On that night it was a low-scoring tussle, with plenty of numbers around the ball and a reliance on the midfielders to help out defensively.
And against the Saints it was Trent Dumont who was arguably asked to do the most of the midfielders from a defensive point of view.
The 21-year-old was matched up on St Kilda star Jack Steven, who was coming off a best-on-ground, 39-disposal match against the Bulldogs in Round 18.
Perhaps using the blueprint from Ben Jacobs’ roles on the Saint in previous meetings, Dumont was able to effectively minimise his influence while also collecting enough of the ball himself.
Dumont finished with 16 disposals, six tackles, five rebound 50’s and a goal, while Steven had 21 disposals – his lowest total since Round 7 against ... the Kangaroos.
Without Steven's ability to propel the Saints out of stoppages, it allowed the likes of Ben Cunnington and Andrew Swallow to dominate in close and give North effective clearances.
The final clearance count was 34-26 in favour of the Roos, and most importantly it resulted in eight goals to four on the scoreboard.
After the match, St Kilda coach Alan Richardson pinpointed this area of the game as a key.
"We've got some guys who had been in really good form and had been really aggressive, physical onballers for us who were beaten pretty badly in that period of the game.
“We were beaten pretty comprehensively at stoppage."
The North defensive unit also held up impressively under the weight of Saints inside 50 entries.
In particular it was the third quarter which proved a key. It was the Saints’ best period of the game, with almost two-thirds of the term played in their forward half.
It translated to a 16-6 inside 50 advantage, but North only conceded one goal for the entire quarter. Down the other end, the Roos kicked three goals from their six entries, stretching a 12-point half-time lead into 22 with a term to play.
Then in the final quarter North was able to play even more effectively, essentially on the counter-attack.
With the Saints pressing higher up the ground to start the term, North was able to break and move the ball at pace when it did gain possession.
The end result was the first three goals of the term from just four inside 50’s. The lead was 39 points and the game was over, another victory in a Harvey milestone game.
