While most experts have struggled to split North Melbourne and Richmond ahead of Sunday’s match, the Roos can claim one significant advantage – finals experience.
Overall, North’s 22 have combined for 120 finals appearances, with Brent Harvey (20), Nick Dal Santo (20) and Drew Petrie (10) the most seasoned September campaigners.
The Tigers on the other hand have combined for just 45 finals appearances, with Troy Chaplin (7), Ivan Maric (5) and Shaun Grigg (3) the most experienced heads.
Interestingly, Chaplin played five of those finals at Port Adelaide, Maric three at Adelaide and Grigg one at Carlton.
Break it down to wins and the difference is even more evident. Chaplin (three wins), Maric (one win) and Taylor Hunt (one win) were all victorious at other clubs. Outside of that, no Tiger has tasted finals success.
At North, Harvey boasts nine wins, as does Dal Santo. Petrie, Michael Firrito and Andrew Swallow have all played in three finals victories, while the majority of the Roos’ remaining players were part of the club’s 2014 campaign.
Only Robbie Tarrant, Robin Nahas and Taylor Garner haven’t been a part of a finals win.
In total, North’s team has combined for 52 wins in finals, Richmond’s just five.
Of course, every successful team has to start somewhere, so come Sunday the stats with mean little to a Tigers’ side desperate to prove themselves.
Nevertheless, it could give North an extra confidence boost going in, as Todd Goldstein pointed out on Thursday.
"That confidence that we've been there, we've been in that situation where we've been getting smashed at half-time and we've come back, or we were smashing Geelong and they came back and we had to hold on," he said on SEN.
"We feel like we've got a lot of confidence from those games and that we know our best footy can match up with anyone."
North Melbourne will hold an open training session this Saturday (September 12, 2015) at Arden Street from 11.15am-12.00pm.
Finals experience
North Melbourne
(Player/finals/wins)
Brent Harvey – 20/9
Nick Dal Santo – 20/9
Drew Petrie – 10/3
Michael Firrito – 9/3
Andrew Swallow – 7/3
Shaun Higgins – 7/2
Lindsay Thomas – 5/2
Scott Thompson – 4/2
Todd Goldstein – 4/2
Lachlan Hansen – 2/1
Jack Ziebell – 4/2
Ben Cunnington – 4/2
Shaun Atley – 4/2
Sam Wright – 4/2
Sam Gibson – 4/2
Jamie Macmillan – 3/2
Jarrad Waite – 3/1
Ben Brown – 3/2
Ben Jacobs – 2/1
Robbie Tarrant – 1/0
Robin Nahas – Never played in final
Taylor Garner - Never played in final
Total: 120 games, 52 wins
Richmond
Troy Chaplin – 7/3
Ivan Maric – 5/1
Shaun Grigg – 3/0
Taylor Hunt – 2/1
Chris Newman – 2/0
Brett Deledio – 2/0
Jack Riewoldt – 2/0
Shane Edwards – 2/0
Trent Cotchin – 2/0
Dustin Martin – 2/0
Alex Rance – 2/0
Bachar Houli – 2/0
Brandon Ellis – 2/0
Nick Vlastuin - 2/0
Dylan Grimes - 2/0
Reece Conca - 2/0
Ty Vickery – 1/0
Jake Batchelor – 1/0
Anthony Miles – 1/0
Ben Griffiths - 1/0
Kamdyn McIntosh – Never played in final
Kane Lambert – Never played in final
Total: 45 games, 5 wins
