Current ladder position: 10th (six wins, seven losses, one draw)
Form: LLLWL
The run home:
Port Adelaide (13th) at AAMI Stadium
Collingwood (7th) at Telstra Dome
Melbourne (16th) at the MCG
Brisbane Lions (6th) at Gold Coast Stadium
Western Bulldogs (1st) at Telstra Dome
Carlton (9th) at Telstra Dome
Geelong (2nd) at Skilled Stadium
Port Adelaide (13th) at the MCG
Where to from here?
The season is still alive for the Kangaroos, but they would want to perform more like they did for Hawthorn in round 13 than against Fremantle and St Kilda. Inconsistency threatens to spoil a promising campaign.
Yes, the Saints were a bad miss before the break, especially with that club and Carlton in similar positions, but now North needs to dump its woes and focus purely on the round 15 clash with Port Adelaide. It looks ominous despite the Power’s poor season, with the Roos winning just one of their last five encounters at AAMI Stadium. And they play again in round 22 at the MCG.
The huge upside of the other six fixtures is that the Roos only travel for one of them. Plus there’s the knowledge they have already beaten Collingwood and the Western Bulldogs this season and were 13 points shy of Geelong.
Crunch games:
Round 16: Collingwood (h)
Round 19: Western Bulldogs (h)
Round 20: Carlton (a)
A mix of the best and the rest. If the Kangaroos are going to be playing finals, they need to prove they are better than Collingwood and Carlton. If they want to have an impact in September, a second Bulldogs scalp is the gauge.
Injury list:
Jesse Smith (hamstring) 1 week
Jess Sinclair (ankle) 1 week
Aaron Edwards (fractured leg) 2 weeks
Robbie Tarrant (shoulder) 2-3 weeks
Hamish McIntosh (knee) 6-8 weeks
Leigh Adams (knee) season
Nathan Grima (knee) season
Who's gonna save us?
Jesse Smith and Aaron Edwards. So impressive in last year’s semi-final win over Hawthorn, ankle and hamstring injuries have kept Smith to just two games this season. The Roos have missed his run off half-back and his raw football smarts will inject some vigour into the side.
Edwards, however, has the x-factor. Another strong-marking target in attack would re-work the current structure and benefit key forward Nathan Thompson. Simply, the Roos crave it. Edwards was injured in round six, the draw with the Swans, and in his absence the side has won three of eight games.
What the club says:
"We know we’ve got eight games to go now and that the majority of them are at home, which is good.
"There are some really tough games in there – the Brisbane Lions, Collingwood, the Western Bulldogs and Geelong. But we believe if we can play our best footy against those sides, that we can beat them.
"We think we’re a good chance of playing finals again." – forward Matt Campbell
"There's still enough games to go to redeem ourselves [for the loss to St Kilda], but we have to get more consistent … we're not going to succeed if we have inconsistent performances like that." – captain Adam Simpson
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.
