Kangaroos Survive Late Eagle Attack
The North Melbourne Kangaroos withstood a late West Coast Eagles revival to win their first game of the season. The Kangaroos were hungrier than the Eagles and fought harder for the ball for most of the day, winning contested possessions (152 to 137) and laying more tackles (84-62) to create an upset win over the home team. Although the combination of the Eagles' two ruckmen, Matt Flynn and Bailey J Williams, had the edge over North Melbourne's ruckman Tristan Xerri, the Kangaroos were good at stoppages winning forty-eight clearances, which was eighteen more than West Coast. Despite having the edge in the midfield for most of the match, the Kangaroos fell down in attack by initially bombing the ball high to their forwards which suited the intercept skills of the Eagle defenders Jeremy McGovern and Tom Barrass who shut down many early attacks with their spoiling skills.