• Lachlan Hansen pulled down a career-high 15 marks playing in defence.
The tally was comfortably higher than his previous best of 11, achieved on two separate occasions.
Six of Hansen’s 15 marks were from opposition kicks – equal-high for the weekend in the competition.
• Ben Cunnington equalled his career-high clearance count with nine.
It’s the fifth time in Cunnington’s 62-game career that he has had recorded nine or more clearances.
However, in a sign his game has gone up a notch in 2013, four of those five games have come in the first eight rounds of this year.
His 57 clearances this season rank fourth in the league.
• North’s kick to handball ratio was 2.2 to 1 on Friday, the highest by any club in any game this season.
The Kangaroos have been favouring the kick over the handball all season; they rank second in the competition behind Fremantle in that area.
| Kick-handball Ratio | North Melbourne |
| Season | 1.67 |
| Round 8 | 2.20 |
| Difference | +.53 |
Patersons Stadium’s length makes kicking the ball more often a logical game plan, so in that respect it’s no surprise North elected to use the ball by foot.
• The Kangaroos played on from marks only 21 per cent of the time, the third-lowest in the competition for Round 8.
| North Melbourne | Mark-play on (%) |
| Season | 31.2 |
| Round 8 | 21.4 |
| Difference | -9.8% |
In isolation it appears North didn’t take the game on enough. But when combined with the aforementioned kick to handball statistic the game plan becomes apparent.
• West Coast scored almost two fewer goals from turnovers than its season average.
| West Coast | Scores from turnovers (points) |
| Season | 64.4 per game |
| Round 8 | 54 |
| Difference | -10.4 |
Because North deliberately wasn’t playing with a lot of run and carry, when West Coast gained the ball it didn’t find the gaps behind the play that were there in 2012’s Elimination Final.
Therefore the tempo of the game was more to North’s liking. It worked well for the majority of the game.
