North Melbourne have not taken long to show why they are once again an AFLW premiership contender this year after crushing a hopelessly outclassed St Kilda outfit by 40 points at Blundstone Arena on Sunday in their season opener.
The Kangaroos set up the massive win with a five-goal first half while keeping the Saints scoreless until the six-minute mark of the third term when Hannah Stuart kicked their first goal.
It was St Kilda’s worst first half since Round 5, 2021 when they were kept to zero by Adelaide as well.
Aside from the third quarter, when the Saints lifted their intensity and held North goalless, it was a case of women against girls for much of the afternoon.
North’s lead blew out to 45 points in the final term, before ultimately running out 8.8 (56) to 2.4 (16) winners to maintain their perfect record in Hobart (11-0).
After numerous near misses in recent years, including a preliminary final loss last year, the Kangaroos made an ominous early statement of intent that they are ready to finally break through for their maiden premiership.
GARNER GOES BERSERK
North Melbourne superstar Jasmine Garner looks primed to give the league best-and-fairest award a big shake this year.
Garner already has an AFLPA MVP and an AFLCA player of the year in her back pocket, but she is yet to capture the AFLW’s highest honour.
Based one her first performance of the year, that could be about to change in 2023.
The 29-year-old was absolutely dominant against the Saints, finishing up with 29 disposals (17 contested), seven tackles, a goal and 11 clearances – two short of the all-time record (13). She will surely also have three votes to her name.
Ash Riddell was also instrumental for the Kangaroos by recording 29 touches (12 contested), seven marks and seven clearances, while star veteran Emma Kearney played a pivotal role too with 20 possessions in defence.
Far too often North’s damaging ball users were afforded oodles of time and space by the Saints and were basically allowed to do as they pleased.
The Kangaroos were a lot more polished and methodical in their forward delivery, and they set up the victory with a blistering first quarter which saw them double the Saints for contested possessions (37-20), clearances (7-3) and inside 50s (13-6).
It was an ambush that the shell-shocked Saints wouldn’t recover from.
North finished up dominating the disposals 260-186, contested possessions 128-83, clearances 33-19, inside 50s 42-24, marks 61-30 and scoring shots 16-6.
“I think starting the year with a strong win just give us more evidence that our pre-season was a good and strong pre-season and that a lot of the stuff that we had put in place in regards to our game plan, our physical preparation was able to come to fruition,” North Melbourne coach Darren Crocker said post-match.
“I suppose as a coach there’s always apprehension around Round 1 and how it’s going to unfold.”
NORTH’S NEW FACES
North Melbourne fielded a revamped side featuring four new players including off-season recruit Kate Shierlaw who took on her old club St Kilda in her first outing with the Kangaroos, after winning the Saints’ best-and-fairest last season.
And Shierlaw twisted the knife shortly before quarter-time when she kicked North’s third goal in a row to help end the contest early.
Crocker was rapt with how Shierlaw combined with fellow talls Tahlia Randall and Emma King in attack.
“I think it’s going to be quite potent at times having the three-pronged attack up there,” Crocker said.
“The beauty of having ‘Tahls’ and also Kate is that their agility and mobility and their ability to pounce back onto a ground ball is really strong as well.
“You get the beauty of both worlds – you get their aerial strength but you also get some really good agility at ground level along with obviously our more medium small-sized forwards.”
Other fresh faces joining Shierlaw in the North line-up were Eliza Shannon (from Hawthorn) and Lucinda Pullar (Brisbane) as well as AFLW debutant Ruby Tripodi who kicked a goal in the second term.
Missing from North’s team were star midfielder Jenna Bruton (calf) and defender Hannah Bowey (shin), as well as Brooke Brown, who recently joined Essendon, and Grace Campbell who is now a Magpie after sitting out season seven due to a knee injury.
But North weren’t impacted by those absentees at all as they cruised to victory.
SAINTS SWING CHANGES
The Saints took an almost unrecognisable side into the match with eight new players getting a gig, which amounted to more than a third of the line-up.
Off-season recruits Jesse Wardlaw (from Brisbane), Steph Chiocci (Collingwood), Jaimee Lambert (Collingwood), Serene Watson (Gold Coast) and Natalie Plane (Carlton) were joined in St Kilda’s side by former Cat Maddie Boyd, ex-Eagle Grace Kelly and Beth Pinchin who made her AFLW debut.
Tyanna Smith also played her first game since 2021 after recovering from an ACL injury which kept her sidelined for both seasons last year.
And the lack of cohesion was evident from the start as the disorganised Saints proved to be no match for the ruthless Kangaroos.
Wardlaw was last year’s AFLW leading goalkicker with 22 majors, but she found out very quickly that it’s going to be a lot harder to kick goals this year compared to when she was part of Brisbane’s dominant premiership and grand final teams of recent years.
Olivia Vesely (16 touches) was the Saints‘ leading ball winner while Nicola Xenos (11 tackles) and captain Hannah Priest (10 tackles) kept trying.
Shierlaw, Caitlin Greiser (Richmond), Tarni White (Collingwood) and Clara Fitzpatrick (Gold Coast) all joined new clubs prior to the 2023 season, adding to the freshness of the Saints’ side.
NORTH HITS AND MISSES
Garner got the Kangaroos off to the perfect start when she ran to 45m out and banged home the first goal of the day in sensational fashion after just 20 seconds.
Seven minutes later, key forward/ruck Emma King increased North’s lead to 13 points when she belied her height by roving the pack, and her quick snap from a sharp angle in the pocket was absolutely magnificent.
However, it wasn’t all sharpshooting highlights for the Kangaroos in front of goal. In the second quarter Tahlia Randall found the going a lot tougher as she first missed a set shot from the top of the goal square, before spraying another set shot from 40m out so badly that it went out of bounds on the full about 10m to the right of the behind post.
Randall capped off a forgettable quarter after the half-time siren as she pushed another set shot from close range across the face of goal.
But she belatedly made amends in the final quarter when she drilled a set shot from 25m out, before helping herself to an easy six-pointer from the goal square a minute later to put the icing on a very rich blue-and-white cake.
