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NORTH Melbourne has won the opening game of the 2012 NAB Cup, defeating Richmond by three points at Etihad Stadium on Friday night.

At times during the game, the Tigers looked to have the Kangaroos' measure, jumping out to a 12-point lead early in the game and, again, establishing a two-goal lead when they kicked two of the first three goals of the second half, through Brad Miller and Robin Nahas.

But North, who had started the match in scrappy fashion, started to win the ball at the stoppages with Ben Cunnington and Jack Ziebell influential.

A clever soccer kick by North vice-captain Drew Petrie, when he had his direct opponent Dylan Grimes on his hammer and another Tiger bearing down on him, set up an easy goal for Aaron Edwards that put North back within two points.

And when Robbie Tarrant kicked a goal, after looking promising in his first senior game as a forward, North regained a lead it would hold onto until the final siren.

The night was costly for North with midfielder Leigh Adams appearing to go off with concussion after copping a heavy knock at the 10-minute mark of the first quarter from Tiger Reece Conca. Ten minutes later, Nathan Grima limped off with a left knee injury following a collison. Reports on Triple M radio suggested he might have strained his medial ligament.

The Tigers led by two points at half-time after dominating the early part of the game.

With Reece Conca and Dustin Martin giving Richmond drive in the middle of the ground, the Tigers were moving the ball fluently. North struggled with its disposal early on, with a poor Brent Harvey pass intercepted by Martin, who kicked truly from his subsequent set shot from 40m.

Jake King got the Tigers and the game's second goal when he found space in the Tigers’ forward 50 to mark and converted from 35m, to put Richmond 12 points up.

Adams' exit from the ground seemed to spark the Kangaroos, who hit back with the next three goals to take the lead by four points at the 18-minute mark.

The first two of those goals came from Aaron Edwards, who kicked his first after Lindsay Thomas sharked the crumbs at the back of a pack and found him alone at the top of the goalsquare, while two minutes later he pinged Jake Batchelor in a tackle 15m out from North's goal and goaled after receiving a free kick.

A poor kick from Michael Firrito in North's defensive 50 led to a Tom Derickx goal that gave the Tigers the lead at half-time, but the Roos never gave up and willed their way to the front with minutes remaining.

RICHMOND                       0.3.3, 0.6.5 (41)
NORTH MELBOURNE    0.3.1, 0.7.2 (44)      

GOALS
Richmond: Miller 2, Martin, King, Derickx, Nahas
North Melbourne: Edwards 3, Swallow, Ziebell, Petrie, Tarrant

BEST
Richmond: Martin, Newman, Houli, Conca, Miller, I. Maric.
North Melbourne: Edwards, McMahon, Ziebell, Cunnington, Goldstein, Harvey.

INJURIES
Richmond: Nil
North Melbourne: Grima (knee), Adams (concussion),

Reports: Nil

Substitutions: Adams replaced by Harper

Umpires: Stewart, Meredith, Mollison

Official crowd: at Etihad Stadium

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.

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