Heading into only the third round of the season, North Melbourne faces an intriguing test of its progress over the off-season against Port Adelaide at Etihad Stadium.

One of the form sides of the competition, the Power are rolling along strongly, dismantling Carlton and Adelaide in the first two rounds behind strong second half performances.

However North has fared well against Port historically, boasting a 20-8 win-loss record, including six of the last eight.

Most recently the two sides faced off at Blundstone Arena in Round 6, 2013. North’s ability to win the contested ball proved telling in it jumping out to an early lead, before holding on for a 10-point victory.

Squads

North Melbourne

B: Aaron Mullett, Nathan Grima, Jamie Macmillan
HB: Shaun Atley, Scott Thompson, Nick Dal Santo
C: Sam Gibson, Ryan Bastinac, Brad McKenzie
HF: Lindsay Thomas, Aaron Black, Ben Cunnington
F: Daniel Currie, Drew Petrie, Lachlan Hansen
Fol: Todd Goldstein, Daniel Wells, Brent Harvey
Int From: Liam Anthony, Ben Jacobs, Jack Ziebell, Leigh Adams, Luke McDonald, Levi Greenwood, Joel Tippett

In: Liam Anthony, Joel Tippett, Ben Jacobs

Port Adelaide

B: Jack Hombsch, Alipate Carlile, Tom Jonas
B: Jasper Pittard, Jackson Trengove, Matthew Broadbent
C: Kane Cornes, Hamish Hartlett, Jared Polec
F: Angus Monfries, Justin Westhoff, Ollie Wines
F: Chad Wingard, John Butcher, Jay Schulz
Fol: Matt Lobbe, Travis Boak, Brad Ebert
Int From: Dom Cassisi, Robbie Gray, Cam Hitchcock, Jarman Impey, Cam O'Shea, Matt White, Aaron Young

In: Aaron Young, Cam Hitchcock, Cam O'Shea

Turnovers & score sources

Port Adelaide’s ability to hurt sides on the turnover is a key facet of its game. In the first two rounds of 2014 the Power have averaged a staggering 90 points a game from turnovers.

Ken Hinkley’s team has been brutally efficient in scoring from what it has created – 131 total turnovers against Carlton and Adelaide leaves it ranked only ninth in the competition, yet a strike rate of 137 points per 100 turnovers leaves it comfortably at the top of the league.

However North can feel comfortable in the knowledge it isn’t likely to give Port too many opportunities to score from that area of play. It ranks equal-second for fewest turnovers – coincidentally behind only the Power.

Either way, ball retention will be of the utmost importance at Etihad Stadium.

Final quarters

In what was otherwise a scrappy game against the Bulldogs, North showed a sign of vital improvement in a key area – final quarter performance.

With a margin of just 10 points with a term to play, North was able to ease to victory relatively comfortably by the time the final siren sounded. It perhaps wouldn’t have been quite that way just 12 months ago; in fact Round 2 of 2013 saw Geelong come from the clouds to steal a victory late in the piece.

Meanwhile Port Adelaide has won 18 of 26 final terms since Ken Hinkley and Darren Burgess arrived at the club. It has kicked 14 goals in two last quarters this year, pulling away from Carlton and Adelaide to post two victories.

Interestingly the Power has done it by almost exclusively kicking the ball. A kick to handball ratio of almost three to one in last terms leads the competition by a long way – only St Kilda, with Alan Richardson as coach, comes close.

North has an effective counter to this; it is the most efficient side in the AFL when it comes to disposals in the final term. While this has undoubtedly been boosted slightly by the kick-to-kick session to close out the Bulldogs win, it still reflects well on the side’s ability to use the ball well, the longer the match goes.

Key match-ups

Scott Thompson v Jay Schulz; Nathan Grima v Justin Westhoff

Schulz has been a constant thorn in North Melbourne’s side over the years – in seven games against the Roos he’s kicked 23 goals and just two behinds, including two bags of seven.

Thompson has been in All-Australian form over the first fortnight of the season, dealing well with Joe Daniher and Liam Jones. However Schulz is another step up and it was a tight contest between the two last year at Blundstone Arena.

Schulz managed three goals but it was from limited opportunities. Thompson also kick-started forays forward for North with five rebound 50’s.

In the same game, Grima turned in one of his best performances for the year against Westhoff, limiting the Port utility to only 11 disposals and two behinds. Port’s number 39 only had one game in 2013 with fewer disposals.

Grima is also coming off a good performance, neutralising Stewart Crameri almost siren-to-siren.

However, Westhoff’s running power all around the ground adds another dimension which Grima didn’t have to deal with last week.

The two-on-two battle will dictate a large part of how well North fares defensively. With Lachlan Hansen floating around in the back half any aerial balls will most likely be met with a large contingent of players.

It shapes as a great test for North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium on Sunday from 4:10pm.