North thrash Tigers in wet

North Melbourne coach Brad Scott says his side produced its best all-round
performance of the AFL season in thrashing Richmond 15.13 (103) to 7.11 (53) in
driving rain at the MCG on Sunday.
The impressive 50-point win lifted the Kangaroos to an 8-8 record, trailing
eighth-placed Carlton only on percentage.
It was built on strong attack on the ball and body, with the Tigers failing to show
the passion that delivered them five wins in their past six matches.
The Kangaroos were able to keep in-form Tiger young guns Dustin Martin and Trent
Cotchin quiet, while the AFL's leading goal-kicker Jack Riewoldt was well held by
Nathan Grima, although he still managed three goals.
North's reigning best and fairest Andrew Swallow relished the conditions, charging
into the packs to pick up 31 touches and eight tackles to lead the way in the
midfield.
Daniel Wells also shone, while Leigh Adams combined good work around the ground with
three goals, as one of 11 goal-kickers, and ruckmen Hamish McIntosh and Todd
Goldstein dominated.
"It was the first time this year we really put together a great 22-man performance,"
Scott said.
"... There's no doubt we rely a lot on Brent Harvey, last week if we'd managed to
get over the (Sydney) Swans it would have been purely because of him, he almost
willed us over the line.
"Today I thought Boomer was terrific, but he had 21 other teammates really
supporting him."
While it was not until the second term that North started to pull away, Scott said
he could tell from the start they were "on" by the way players attacked the ball and
stuck to assigned roles.
After Richmond led by a point early in the second quarter, a charging report laid
against Richmond midfielder Trent Cotchin swung the momentum the Kangaroos' way.
Cotchin barrelled into North's Sam Wright, after Wright had marked in the middle of
the ground, with the Kangaroo having to be helped off and sent to hospital, from an
incident that left him concussed and seems set to earn the Tiger a suspension.
Harvey goaled from the resultant 50m penalty and two more majors in the next four
minutes - to Adams and Goldstein - put the Kangaroos in control.
They then buried the Tigers in the third term, outscoring them 5.3 to 0.1, helped by
some great tackling, with two tackles leading directly to goals.
Richmond coach Damien Hardwick said the Tigers were emotionally poorly prepared.
"In all honesty I don't think our guys came to play, I thought North Melbourne were
hungrier, harder and a lot better on the day," Hardwick said.
He said North's ruck dominance was telling early, the Tigers could not find a way to
restrict Swallow and they missed the influence of midfielder Daniel Jackson, who is
out suspended for the third time this season.
"He's got to change his game because he's an important player to our footy club, but
also very important leadership-wise in the middle as well, so it's a huge loss for
that.
"But credit where credit's due, North were just far hungrier than us."
The Tigers play top-placed Collingwood on Saturday and Hardwick said they needed to
respond to Sunday's lacklustre effort by coming out "all guns blazing".