Match

North Melbourne vs Western Bulldogs

Commentary / 02 Apr 2021

Pre Game

00:00

Ben Cunnington plays his first game of the season for North Melbourne today, with it also being his first game since Round 5 last year. Coincidentally, this was the last time that these two teams met.

Quarter 1

00:00

Q1 is now underway.

00:50

Bulldogs Interchange - Ryan Gardner and is possibly out for the game.

02:36

SCORE GOAL - Bulldogs (Josh Bruce)

03:25

Josh Bruce has kicked the opening goal of the match following a 50 metre penalty. Bruce has kicked six goals straight in each of his past two games against the Kangaroos – recording a combined 15 score involvements.

05:15

Ryan Gardner has been medically-subbed out of the game and replaced by Patrick Lipinski.

05:20

SCORE BEHIND - Kangaroos (Tarryn Thomas)

07:53

SCORE GOAL - Kangaroos (Aaron Hall)

09:37

North Melbourne is dominating the territory battle in the opening 10 minutes. They have generated eight of the first 10 inside 50s, and have scored three times from these entries.

11:39

Western Bulldogs is one of just three teams this season to have won both of their opening terms. The other teams to have achieved this feat are Richmond and Melbourne.

13:35

Caleb Daniel has already collected nine disposals in this opening term despite having just the 65% time on ground. All of these disposals have been won in the defensive half of the ground for the Bulldogs.

14:25

SCORE GOAL - Bulldogs (Josh Bruce)

16:13

SCORE BEHIND - Bulldogs (Josh Bruce)

17:02

SCORE GOAL - Bulldogs (Aaron Naughton)

17:56

Aaron Naughton has kicked the third goal of the match for the Bulldogs following a mark deep inside 50. Naughton has taken nine lead marks this season – ranked equal-first of all players and six more than any other Bulldogs player.

19:45

SCORE GOAL - Kangaroos (Jaidyn Stephenson)

21:03

SCORE BEHIND - Bulldogs (Lachlan McNeil)

22:21

The first two goals for North Melbourne today have been sourced from forward 50 intercepts. The Kangaroos were held to just two behinds from this source last week against Gold Coast, and just the single behind in Round 1.

22:39

SCORE GOAL - Bulldogs (Josh Bruce)

26:23

North Melbourne is playing a short and deliberate game style, aiming to maintain possession at all costs. They lead short kicks 41 to 15, and uncontested marks 39 to 16.

30:26

Two contrasting playing styles in the first quarter, with the Bulldogs dominating the inside game whereas North Melbourne has controlled the ball on the outside. The Bulldogs won eight more contested possessions and 11 more groundballs, whilst the Kangaroos amassed 11 more uncontested possessions and 27 more marks.

Quarter 2

00:00

Q2 is now underway.

02:03

Second quarters have been concerning for North Melbourne so far this season. They have been outscored by a combined 72 points in their opening two rounds of this term – the worst differential in the league.

03:49

Kangaroos Interchange - Jared Polec and is possibly out for the game.

04:07

SCORE GOAL - Bulldogs (Tim English)

06:52

SCORE GOAL - Kangaroos (Nick Larkey)

07:28

All eight goals of the match so far have been sourced from intercepts. North Melbourne has recorded a score from 13% of their intercept possessions this season – ranked last.

08:15

SCORE BEHIND - Kangaroos (Ben Cunnington)

10:58

North Melbourne’s pressure has been impressive today, laying seven more tackles than the Bulldogs with midfielders Luke Davies-Uniacke and Jed Anderson combing for seven tackles between them. North Melbourne has laid the third-most tackles so far this season.

11:18

SCORE BEHIND - Kangaroos (Nick Larkey)

13:01

SCORE BEHIND - Bulldogs (Josh Bruce)

13:54

SCORE GOAL - Bulldogs (Patrick Lipinski)

14:28

Jared Polec has been medically-subbed out of the game and replaced by Kyron Hayden.

16:23

SCORE BEHIND - Bulldogs (Lachlan McNeil)

17:09

SCORE BEHIND - Bulldogs (Aaron Naughton)

17:18

The Bulldogs have taken three intercept marks inside their forward 50. The last time that they achieved this feat in an opening half was two years ago to the round (Round 3, 2018).

19:26

SCORE GOAL - Bulldogs (Josh Bruce)

19:43

Josh Bruce has now kicked four goals, taking his career tally against North Melbourne to 27 goals in his ninth career match against this opposition. North Melbourne is one of just two opposition sides that Josh Bruce has kicked more than 15 goals against over his career, with the other team being Essendon (21 goals).

20:38

SCORE GOAL - Bulldogs (Adam Treloar)

22:03

The Bulldogs have kicked their first goal, and their third score overall, sourced from a centre bounce stoppage. North Melbourne has conceded an inside 50 from 55% of its oppositions centre clearances – ranked last.

27:37

SCORE GOAL - Bulldogs (Adam Treloar)

27:54

The Bulldogs have stepped up their stoppage game in the second quarter, leading the clearances 10 to five for the quarter. This dominance has been reflected on the scoreboard too, with the Bulldogs scoring 3.1(19) from this source in the term whilst holding North Melbourne scoreless from their respective clearances.

29:02

Kangaroos Interchange - Jed Anderson off due to an injury.

29:20

SCORE BEHIND - Bulldogs (Josh Dunkley)

31:17

The trend of poor second quarters for North Melbourne continues, with the Kangaroos being outscored by 26 points for the quarter. This means that they have now been outscored by 98 points in their three second quarters this season.

Quarter 3

00:00

Q3 is now underway.

01:02

SCORE GOAL - Bulldogs (Josh Bruce)

02:10

SCORE BEHIND - Bulldogs (Rushed)

02:33

The Bulldogs have made the most of their opportunities this evening, kicking an accurate 7.2(44) from set shots. In comparison, the Kangaroos have scored 2.3(15) from their respective set shots.

02:45

SCORE BEHIND - Kangaroos (Rushed)

03:54

Kangaroos Interchange - Jed Anderson and is possibly out for the game.

06:24

Western Bulldogs scored a goal from 38% of their forward 50 entries in the opening term, compared to 17% for North Melbourne. The Kangaroos average a lowly 13.7% goals per inside 50 this season – ranked last. In comparison, the Bulldogs have averaged a goal from nearly 22% of their forward 50 entries.

06:39

SCORE GOAL - Bulldogs (Josh Bruce)

08:07

Josh Bruce has kicked his sixth goal for the match, having won 40% of his offensive one-on-one contests. This is now the third match in a row where Bruce has kicked six goals against the Kangaroos.

09:38

SCORE BEHIND - Kangaroos (Cameron Zurhaar)

10:26

SCORE GOAL - Bulldogs (Lachlan McNeil)

12:09

Despite trailing heavily on the scoreboard, a positive for North Melbourne is their improved ability to defend full ground scoring chains. They have kept the Bulldogs scoreless from defensive 50 scoring chains this evening. North Melbourne has conceded 79 points from defensive 50 score launches this season. This is the most points conceded from this zone by any team in the first two rounds, and more than double the league average.

12:42

SCORE GOAL - Bulldogs (Tim English)

13:51

SCORE BEHIND - Kangaroos (Rushed)

15:59

In a further blow for the Kangaroos, Jed Anderson looks like taking no further part in this match with an ankle injury. Anderson entered the round as the leading post-clearance tackler in the league with 11, despite having only played one game.

16:14

SCORE BEHIND - Kangaroos (Kayne Turner)

19:02

SCORE BEHIND - Bulldogs (Rushed)

19:20

Since quarter time, Josh Dunkley has amassed 18 disposals – five more than the next best player in the game. Dunkley finished with 29 disposals, 20 contested possessions, three score assists and eight score involvements when he last played the Kangaroos in Round 10, 2019.

23:22

SCORE BEHIND - Bulldogs (Laitham Vandermeer)

24:00

Jack Ziebell has generated the most metres gained for his side with 354 to go with his 95% kicking efficiency. Ziebell entered Round 3 as the No. 1 ranked North Melbourne player for metres gained for the season with 1128.

25:57

SCORE GOAL - Bulldogs (Adam Treloar)

27:39

SCORE GOAL - Bulldogs (Josh Dunkley)

29:47

SCORE BEHIND - Bulldogs (Rushed)

29:53

North Melbourne has not kicked a goal since the seventh minute of the second quarter, giving the Bulldogs the last 10 goals of the match. The Bulldogs won 17 more contested possessions than North Melbourne in the third quarter - the second-best differential by any side this season.

Quarter 4

00:00

Q4 is now underway.

00:17

SCORE BEHIND - Bulldogs (Adam Treloar)

01:29

SCORE GOAL - Bulldogs (Josh Bruce)

02:11

The Bulldogs have scored five times from their 11 centre clearances for a conversion rate of 45%. The Bulldogs have generated a score from 38% of their centre clearances in the opening two rounds – ranked No.1 in the competition.

03:28

SCORE BEHIND - Bulldogs (Laitham Vandermeer)

05:03

SCORE GOAL - Bulldogs (Aaron Naughton)

06:17

The Bulldogs have taken 17 marks inside 50 for the match. In comparison, the six marks taken by North Melbourne in their respective forward 50 zone tonight takes their season tally to 17.

06:26

SCORE BEHIND - Bulldogs (Bailey Smith)

07:43

SCORE GOAL - Kangaroos (Charlie Lazzaro)

09:10

SCORE GOAL - Bulldogs (Marcus Bontempelli)

09:32

Marcus Bontempelli has been kept relatively quiet by his standards this evening, kicking his first goal of the match to go with his 13 disposals. Bontempelli was kept to a season-low 11 disposals by the Kangaroos in Round 5 last season.

11:22

SCORE GOAL - Bulldogs (Josh Bruce)

13:27

Josh Bruce joins Brad Johnson as the only Western Bulldog player to kick eight goals in a match in the past 20 seasons.

14:22

SCORE BEHIND - Bulldogs (Marcus Bontempelli)

15:48

SCORE BEHIND - Kangaroos (Charlie Lazzaro)

16:29

SCORE GOAL - Bulldogs (Bailey Dale)

18:27

The Bulldogs have controlled possession all match, winning 80 more disposals than the Kangaroos this evening. In the opening two rounds, the Bulldogs have won the disposal count by 123 per game, uncontested possession count by 111 per game and inside 50 count by 12 per game – all ranked No.1.

21:42

SCORE BEHIND - Bulldogs (Josh Dunkley)

21:51

The Bulldogs have made their tackles stick this evening, recording a tackling efficiency of 69% compared to North Melbourne's 55%. The Bulldogs have recorded a post-clearance tackle efficiency of 67% – ranked second in the AFL.

23:02

SCORE GOAL - Bulldogs (Bailey Dale)

24:59

SCORE GOAL - Kangaroos (Jaidyn Stephenson)

26:14

SCORE GOAL - Bulldogs (Anthony Scott)

26:28

Adam Treloar has kicked an equal career-high three goals in the match. This is the fifth time in his career that Treloar has kicked three in a match, and the first time since Round 8, 2016 that he has achieved this feat.

27:54

Despite the margin being over 100 points, the Bulldogs continue to pressure and apply the one-percenters. The Bulldogs have applied 16 smothers today compared to five from the Kangaroos. The Bulldogs entered Round 3 as the No. 1 ranked side for smother this season with 26.

29:25

SCORE GOAL - Bulldogs (Josh Bruce)

31:31

SCORE GOAL - Bulldogs (Josh Bruce)

32:33

Josh Bruce becomes just the sixth Bulldog to kick 10 goals in a match. This is the first time since Simon Beasley kicked 10 goals in 1987 against the Brisbane Bears that this has been achieved.

33:49

SCORE GOAL - Bulldogs (Tim English)

35:06

Western Bulldogs has won by 128 points, their greatest ever-winning margin thanks to a 10 goal haul from forward Josh Bruce. Their previous best margin was 120 points (Round 15, 1985 v Melbourne).