DREW Petrie gave everything in Friday night’s game against Geelong, but there was no consoling the big forward after the game, despite the fact that he kicked crucial goals under pressure which kept his side nipping at Geelong’s heels.
“I missed a couple of crucial ones too and they are the ones that are playing on my mind”, said Petrie, whose aggressive and competitive style has been a feature of North’s play in the past month.
“It’s been good, working around the forward line, especially with Haley (David Hale). We are the blokes that are coming through and have to perform for the club. There’s still a few things I would like to correct, but there are some good signs.”
In fact there was only one thing that mattered above all else to him.
“It’s just goalkicking. I just wanted to lift my goalkicking tonight. You’ve got to make the most of your opportunities against good sides. We kicked a pretty good score and you certainly need to kick more than 100 points these days to get close to winning.”
Petrie said that the loss of Nathan Thompson and Corey Jones had not disrupted the forward line structure.
“Thommo and Jonesy are very potent forward line players but them not being there didn’t daunt us at all.
"I think it encouraged other guys like David Hale to step up, which he did tonight. Hamish pushed forward and did OK too.We definitely relished the opportunity that was thrown our way.”
The restructured attack had Geelong’s much-vaunted backline on the back foot for most of the night.
“They are a pretty solid defence but early on we moved the ball pretty well and isolated their defenders. When Scarlo (Matthew Scarlett) went down that certainly helped us but we couldn’t seal the deal. They converted their shots better than we did. They are definitely beatable, but they probably showed their class tonight. The boys did a lot of things right but we certainly don’t accept defeats.”
Petrie praised the work of ruckmen Hale and Hamish McIntosh, but said that their challenge was to maintain that level.
“One of the hardest things in footy is to play consistently," he said.
"Those two are starting to do that. They are both in their sixth and seventh years so we look for consistent footy from them. Next week is the tougher week when you are coming off a reasonable performance like those two guys did, to back it up again.”
Petrie said that matching Geelong in contested footy was a keynote.
“I reckon it’s a theme now in the whole AFL. Contested footy is the way forward and we certainly have an emphasis on that," he said.
"We didn’t capitalise enough early and kicked a few behinds. If you kick five or six goals in the first quarter you are always within arm’s reach but they kicked away from us. You need good starts against good sides. We had an OK start but couldn’t reel them in.”
He said that while the Collingwood defeat of Geelong was a blueprint for others, it also showed a broader example of what was required in AFL football.
“If you tackle well against any side and apply pressure around the footy anyone is beatable. It just re-emphasizes the importance of winning the footy in close these days.”
