AN impressive North Melbourne outfit was too strong at home, overcoming Carlton VFLW by 41 points on Sunday afternoon.

Eliza Wood had a fantastic return to VFLW football, playing her first game back since injuring her shoulder in Round 1.

AFLW-listed Blues’ Charlotte Hammans and Paige Trudgeon stood out in defence, helping to contain the Kangaroos to just two goals after halftime.

Quarter-by-quarter breakdown:

Q1: North Melbourne got off to a fast start, stifling any attempts by Carlton’s to move the ball forward. The Kangaroos notched the first goal of the game, penetrating the Blues’ defence to dribble the Sherrin over the line. Despite some impressive rundown tackles and intercept marks from Carlton’s backline, North Melbourne was able to pile on another two unanswered goals. Carlton’s first scoring attempt came from Jorga Borg in the Blues’ forward 50, awarded a free kick for a ruck infringement. However, the ball didn’t travel the required distance to record a score. North slotted one more major, putting early pressure on Carlton to make up the deficit. 

Q2: Trying to wrestle back some momentum, Eliza Wood found a short option in Courtney Jones who lined up for a shot on goal: however, the kick fell just short of the line and the ball was turned over. Mikayla Barnes appeared a little worse for wear after being involved in a big collision during a marking contest, but she returned to the field later in the quarter. North Melbourne once again dominated forward 50 entries, denying Carlton every inch of space along the open side of the grown to advance into. The Blues were again held scoreless as the Kangaroos sprayed four points for the term. 

Q3: North Melbourne was again able to hit the scoreboard, however, had another inaccurate quarter in front of the goals. Serena Gibbs showed immense courage performing a brilliant smother of the ball. Carlton finally broke through with a surprise goal from Wood out the back of a chaotic pack. 
 
Q4: The Blues had no solution to North’s dominance of space and defensive systems, a very different story to Carlton’s eight-point win over the Kangaroos back in Round 4. North Melbourne kicked two more goals to round out the game. Despite both teams finishing with a similar number of clearances and loose ball gets, North Melbourne was a lot cleaner around the contest, setting up more efficiently across the ground and moving forward. 

Luke’s best on field:

“Today we’ve given it to Eliza Wood,” O’Shannessy said.

“She’s strong overhead for a medium forward, clean below her knees and she works hard.

“She brought everything to the table that we asked for, including forward 50 pressure.”

Match summary

CARLTON                     0.0    0.0    1.0    1.0 (6)
NORTH MELBOURNE     4.1    4.5    4.9    6.11 (47)

GOALS
Wood

BEST
Wood, Hammans, Trudgeon, Zampaglione, Gurr, Laing