Losing to Essendon is never fun. It’s never desired and it’s never expected, but the manner in which North Melbourne has improved since Round 10 is, at the very least, a silver lining.
Missing the veteran presences of Ben Cunnington and Jed Anderson in midfield, it was left to North’s young future stars to match the likes of Brownlow fancy Darcy Parish and All-Australian contender Zac Merrett.
Those young midfielders stood up. Will Phillips played his most impressive term at senior level in the first quarter, Charlie Lazzaro and Curtis Taylor were dangerous and combative, while Luke Davies-Uniacke, Tarryn Thomas and Jy Simpkin just continued to thrive in their roles.
David Noble says the manner in which his emerging on-ballers approached their task was admirable.
“Our young midfield group … their ability to battle with some hardened warriors in Parish and Merrett was really encouraging,” Noble said.
“We had the young guys trying to run with Parish for a little bit, we had Jy on Merrett from time to time, so we were trying to keep them under control, but their run exposed us in the corridor a little bit too much.
“I was pleased with our young midfield and the way they stuck to the task.”
After leading at half time, the benefits of Essendon’s nine-day break started to show, with the Bombers’ ability to run out the game in the second half a major characteristic of the contest.
Travelling from Perth to Melbourne and then up to Brisbane in the space of a few days, North’s ability to compete and contest for the full four quarters showed the type of stubbornness and grit that will hold the side in good stead going forward.
Rather than look at the disruptive week as a negative though, Noble says the travel may have a positive impact long-term on the group.
“It’s how you embrace it [travel], it’s an opportunity to get to know your group a bit better, they have to go and perform under difficult circumstances,” Noble said.
“We probably saw it as an opportunity to come away regardless of the time, and say let’s just work towards a normal away game … and wait and see.
“If we had to stay for a couple of weeks we’d then probably review the situation and reset our mindset … but thankfully we’re able to get back home. I thought they embraced the challenge extremely well.”
As the game progressed, Essendon made the most of opportunities to score from North turnovers, with its run on the counter a defining feature of the second half.
Noble says while North has improved its game management over recent weeks, there’s still work to be done.
“I think we just want to continue to learn as we go forward, we want to continue to take some of those errors out of our game. The turnover cost us too much today,” he said.
“If we can continue to work on our ball movement, increase our defence and our understanding of what those layers look like, then we’ll finish the year really strong.
“We’ll be able to go out there and perform against anyone we play in the next four or five weeks and give ourselves a chance to win games the way we’re playing.
“I would imagine that’s the most exciting thing for our fans, to continue to see us finish the year strongly knowing that we can step into pre-season next year with some real momentum under our belt.”
