North Melbourne pleaded to be on this stage, now’s the time for them to prove they deserve to be there.
Carlton and their embattled coach Michael Voss might be under the microscope this week after Sunday’s fadeout against Melbourne, but it’s the Roos who have the most to prove on Good Friday.
This was a day long considered too sacred for football, until the Roos convinced the AFL they could turn it into a worthy occasion – a boutique blockbuster at Marvel Stadium, and a central point of Good Friday Appeal fundraising.
Unlike the Blues, who are so familiar with being in the spotlight – good and bad – the Roos are often pushed to the margins of the fixture. They craved a day when they were the centre of attention, and they deserve to have it.
Alas, they have so far wilted under the spotlight.
A win over St Kilda in 2018 is all they’ve got to show from a decade’s worth of Good Friday games, and along the way they’ve suffered some almighty thrashings, including last year’s 82-point loss to Carlton.
Alastair Clarkson’s team has a chance to atone for that result against the under-siege Blues on Friday. But more importantly it’s an opportunity for Zane Duursma, Finn O’Sullivan, Harry Sheezel, George Wardlaw, Cooper Trembath, Lachy Dovaston, Dylan Stephens, Colby McKercher and their teammates to shine and elevate the standing of football on Good Friday.
These guys are top-end talent. They grew up dominating in junior leagues and at representative level.
It’s time Clarkson poked their egos. These players don’t have to be defined by those past results, they can write their own history. It has to start somewhere. Why not this week?
The Roos will no doubt miss lion-hearted ruckman Tristan Xerri – who is paying a fair price for a silly brain fade last week – but the Good Friday game is the chance for these precocious talents to be bullish and brave and show the football world what they’re capable of.
I remember our coach Mark “Bomber” Thompson giving us a similar message towards the end of his time at Geelong as we started our Easter Monday rivalry with Hawthorn, who were coincidentally coached by Clarkson at the time.
Sure, both sides were powerful teams and already had a fierce rivalry going, but the message was clear – enjoy being in the glare of this spotlight, the whole football world is watching, make sure you own the occasion and live up to it.
Chris Scott was quick to carry that tradition forward at Geelong, and look at what the Cats and Hawks have turned Easter Monday into – it’s now one of the unmissable matches on the footy calendar, with another crowd of close to 90,000 expected there later this round.
Clarkson’s message to his players about showcasing their skills and ability will no doubt have a sharp edge to it. They need to be hard, ruthless and unforgiving, just like opponents have been to them recently – on Good Friday and bad Saturdays and Sundays.
Xerri is usually a standard-bearer of that approach. In his absence, I’d be asking the Kangaroos to look at 19-year-old Finn O’Sullivan. I was so impressed by the job he did last week on Essendon playmaker Zach Merrett.
As a No.2 draft pick (2024), he wasn’t afraid to roll up his sleeves and play a stopping role, and, boy, did he do it well. He had 24 disposals and kept Merrett to just 10. It would have been easy for a young player to let down his guard in the last quarter and allow Merrett to make an impact, but O’Sullivan went all the way to the final siren. His reward was nine votes (from a maximum of 10) in the AFL Coaches Association champion player award.
Clarkson knows that young players, no matter how talented they are, take time to develop, especially to find that unrelenting mindset that makes good teams great.
He didn’t have immediate success at Hawthorn, but managed to get the Hawks into the finals in his third year as coach and a premiership – at the expense of me and my Cats teammates – in his fourth season.
That premiership was unexpected by many, and Clarkson’s Hawks then spent a few years refining their method before becoming the powerhouse that won premierships from 2013-15.
He’s now in his fourth season at North Melbourne. But I feel like we should subtract a year from that because he missed so much of his first season (2023) because of the difficulties that carried over from his final years at the Hawks.
That said, the Roos need to show the rest of the AFL their mettle.
A round one win against Port Adelaide was promising, but they couldn’t keep the tempo up for four quarters against West Coast. Last week, they let the Bombers mount a mini-comeback late in the game and actually finished the contest with fewer scoring shots.
They dominate possession of uncontested ball (52 per game more than their opponent so far this season) and their midfielders push back hard to help in defence, but that dominance does not translate to forward 50m entries (four per game less than opponents).
The Blues and their coach might be under pressure, but they are no easybeats.
In fact, they’re an excellent contested-ball team (11 more than their opposition per game) who need to be respected. Their main issue has been maintaining the rage for a full game.
From what we’ve seen, neither of these teams can afford to leave their run late.
They need to hit each other hard in the first half and see who can hang on the longest.
It should be a fascinating match; worthy of the big stage it’s been afforded.
Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter.
From our partners
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
