With their thrilling one-point victory against Adelaide on Sunday, November 26, North Melbourne punched their ticket to the AFLW grand finals (a semi-professional Australian rules football competition for female players) for the first time in its history.
The North Melbourne Kangaroos held the advantage at every quarter break and were on fire late in the game, but they almost gave it away due to some loose kicking when Adelaide Crows midfielder Anne Hatchard scored a goal with less than three minutes left on the clock.
After a few tense minutes, the Kangaroos were able to keep the ball in their forward half and cling on to beat the Crows by a score of 4.8 (32) to 4.7 (31) at Ikon Park, as reported by ABC News. To try to win their first AFLW championship and complete a finals sweep of their three key rivals from the last several seasons, North Melbourne will host the championship game at the same stadium next Sunday, December 3.
North Melbourne players celebrate after the final siren during the 2023 AFLW Second Preliminary Final match between The North Melbourne Tasmanian Kangaroos and The Adelaide Crows at IKON Park on November 26, 2023 in Melbourne, Australia.
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A Nail-Biting Match
With a spot in the finals against her old team on the line, the Guardian reported that Kangaroo's key forward, Tahlia Randall, blasted two goals but missed two easy chances to seal the deal late in the game. Jasmine Garner (22 disposals, 1 goal), Jenna Bruton (28), and Ash Riddell (25), the Kangaroos' gun midfielders, did the damage around the stoppages and with their ball movement to help secure the victory.
When the Crows were controlling the game in the midst of the match, Bruton played a crucial role in turning things around. The speedy defender helped the Kangaroos regain the lead in the third quarter after making multiple scything runs and collecting 13 disposals. Emma Kearney, captain of the Kangaroos, was tremendous on defense as always, and she and Adelaide's Danielle Ponter had a lot of fun battling back and forth.
Ebony Marinoff (25 disposals), Niamh Kelly (22), and Hatchard (21), along with the Crows' spearhead, who kicked three goals and appeared like the most threat on the field, were all outstanding in the second and third quarters as the three-time premiers pushed.
The Kangaroos got off to a good start with goals from Randall and Kate Shierlaw in the first term. Garner then scored a tricky set shot against the flow of play to give them a nine-point lead going into the main break. Even though Ponter scored for Adelaide, they were only able to muster 1.5 points before halftime, compared to 3.2 for North Melbourne.
Just after halftime, Ponter revived the game with a great contested mark and second major, and she added another four minutes later to put the Crows in ahead. However, Randall responded by recovering the lead for the Kangaroos and making sure the fourth quarter was a nail-biter.
North Melbourne piled on four more behinds before Hatchard's late heroics, then held on for a resounding win to eliminate Adelaide and set up a first-ever AFLW grand final against the 2021 premiers, Brisbane.
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