By Bruno Visentini
North Melbourne pulled off a 30 point against the Coburg Lions on Sunday during their Round 13 VFL contest at Piranha Park, but not without a massive scare from a devastating Coburg third quarter.
Still chasing a greatly desired first win, Coburg gave it everything in a match that marked the final home game of outgoing club CEO Sebastian Spagnuolo’s decorated career with the club, as well as a celebration of club history with the side wearing red shorts, most famously worn by Coburg between the 70s and 90s. North Melbourne on the other hand came into the game on a three game win streak, and were desperate to hold onto the opportunity to stay in the top-6 and not drop to the play-in spots below.
The Kangaroos got off to the dream start, much to the dismay of the Lions faithful, as it took Darcy Tucker less than 30 seconds to register North’s first goal, and Ben Cunnington threatened to add another within the next minute however his attempt was not as accurate.
North controlled the footy for a while out of the gates but their inaccuracy kept the Lions in arms reach. The Kangaroos stretched their scoreline out to 1 goal and 4 behinds before Nathan Boucher put the cherry on top of what had been an uncommon inside 50 up to that point, kicking the Lions’ first goal.
Coburg backed up the play with another forward entry, but the Kangaroos proved too slick with the footy as they responded with a goal to Jack Watkins off the back of some fast end-to-end footy and minutes after, North Melbourne, who had kept up the attacking pressure for some time, would find Darcy Tucker kicking his second, and North’s third goal of the afternoon.
A behind to Max Thompson who intercepted a North Melbourne kick out of defence in a tight spot and barely missed, and a goal to Aaron Clarke following a courageous mark rounded out Coburg’s scoring in the first quarter and brought Coburg to within 10 points but the hard work was undone very late in the first term when Robert Hansen Jr kicked a goal.
His goal on the line followed some more fast North Melbourne football and gave them a buffer of 16 at the first change, a closer affair on the scoreboard than it looked during the term.
The second quarter began similarly to the first with North getting off to a quick start but they struggled to get their accuracy down pat scoring 5 consecutive behinds before former Lion Sam Lowson was able to convert a set shot against his old side. North scored another behind and Luke Nelson ended up having a set shot in a difficult position that he wasn’t able to convert.
In the span of 30 seconds though, the ball was at the other end of the ground and after a chain of handballs Jason McCormick kicked a goal on the line to put the Roos up by 33 points, their highest of the game thus far. A Coburg rushed behind brought it down to 32 at half time, but no matter the case, Coburg’s goalless quarter left the, desperately needing to lift in the second half.
After the main break, that was exactly what the Lions did, it was as if a whole new Coburg outfit took to the field. Cooper Harvey missed a difficult set shot but from that point on the Lions had their way for the majority of the quarter with the team looking stronger than they had all season.
In the first half North had managed to get the ball out of their defensive 50 with ease, but in the third quarter Coburg were able to lock the ball inside 50. On the occasions where the ball did spill out, the Lions kept on backing it up with more repeat entries. The only worry initially was whether it would amount to much. Coburg would score 4 behinds before the Roos thrusted out of defence, however thankfully for the Lions they’d only concede a rushed behind.
Still down by 25 points, it was important for Coburg to kick some majors once they got back inside 50 and even if it took some herculean efforts, that’s exactly what they dished up. A North melbourne turnover gave Coburg the chance to send the footy deep and Hugo McGlashan took a courageous diving mark that saw him slide into the left point post. His snap at goal went wide but Aaron Clarke was infringed in a marking contest near the opposite point post. Needing a clutch kick to trim the deficit, he delivered exactly that. A five minute burst saw goals to Tom McKenzie, Will Bella and Josh D’Intinosante, and all of a sudden the margin was less than a goal, something not many in attendance could’ve seen coming 30 minutes earlier.
With not long to play in the quarter, Aaron Clarke took a clutch contested mark inside 50 and received a 50 metre penalty to kick his third goal of the day, but even more crucially, give Coburg a slimmest of leads going into the last quarter. The Lions’ third quarter dominance could best be displayed by looking at one stat: Coburg’s first two quarters resulted in 17 inside 50s among them. The third quarter alone almost eclipsed that completely with 16.
With just a point separating the two, a lot was at stake for both teams, each desperate to add to the scoreboard first. A tense affair to begin with, it took 8 minutes before someone could register a score, but it was Lachie Young of the Roos who gave his team the lead with a goal – North’s first since the 21 minute mark of the second quarter- after a contentious 50 metre penalty.
From then on, North Melbourne opened the floodgates. Cooper Harvey kicked his fourth behind of the day to bring the lead to an even 6 points and the Roos became hard to stop, piling on 3 goals in 3 minutes – one to Tyler Sellers and two to Jack Watkins – to lead the Lions by 24 points after only getting back in front 5 minutes earlier.
North Melbourne had found similar form to their first two quarters, albeit with their accuracy improved, and were able to weave through traffic to generate as many opportunities as they could. They would’ve hoped to have been more accurate following this, but two more behinds to North kept Coburg in the contest. Aaron Clarke kicked his third goal and along with two more behinds it remained possible for the Lions to pull off another comeback.
The final nail in the coffin was provided by Cooper Harvey who kicked back-to-back goals that atoned for his prior inaccuracy and put the Roos up by 30 in extra time, while Aaron Hall pushed their lead up to a game-high 36 points. North Melbourne’s 7 quarter final quarter was more than they’d scored in the previous three quarters combined.
Will Bella slotted his second goal after the siren to trim the margin slightly, but the damage had already been done The score at full time saw the Kangaroos winning by 30 points with a score of 13.17 (95) to Coburg’s 9.11 (65).
Coburg’s next match will be on Saturday against the Southport Sharks at Fankhauser Reserve in Queensland which can be watched on AFL.com.au or the AFL app, while the next home game at Piranha Park will be against Carlton on Saturday the 8th of July.
GOALKICKERS:
(4) A. Clarke, (2) W. Bella, (1) T. McKenzie, J. D’Intinosante, N. Boucher
FINAL SCORE:
Coburg: 2.1 (13) | 2.3 (15) | 7.8 (50) | 9.11 (65)
North Melbourne: 4.5 (29) | 6.11 (47) | 6.13 (49) | 13.17 (95)
#WeAreCoburg
