NORTH Melbourne copped a fifteenth consecutive loss on Sunday and is now sweating on scan results for young gun George Wardlaw and star forward Cam Zurhaar, following a day of injury carnage at Marvel Stadium.
Wardlaw returned to the side after missing last weekend due to illness but was substituted out of the game before half-time due to hamstring tightness.
The 2022 No. 4 pick has only just emerged out the other side of a challenging 12 months of soft tissue issues, following a few strains in his draft year and then a modified pre-season program and a slow build at VFL level before he was left off the leash in round 10.
Zurhaar hobbled off the ground not long after with an ankle issue, before Jackson Archer injured his hamstring and Callum Coleman-Jones was left with a concussion in the final quarter.
Veteran midfielder Liam Shiels appeared to suffer the most serious injury of the day when his ankle was trapped under him in a tackle, but the four-time premiership Hawk remarkably returned minutes later to play out the 48-point loss against his old side.
"George got tightness. Him and Archer both got tight hammies. We’ll get those assessed; whether they’ve hurt them, the scans will show that," interim North Melbourne coach Brett Ratten said post-game.
"We were down a few soldiers through the game as well. We had Zurhaar's ankle and then Coleman-Jones got a concussion with about 15-20 minutes to go. That’s his second, so he will have to go through the protocols a bit like Jy [Simpkin]. We will see if he is one or two weeks or a bit longer.”
After joining the Kangaroos on a part-time basis in the pre-season following his shock sacking by St Kilda in October, Ratten was forced to take the reins at Arden Street when Alastair Clarkson stepped down as senior coach to focus on his mental and physical wellbeing ahead of round 10.
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North Melbourne almost produced an instant response that week when they lost to Sydney in heartbreaking fashion and almost defeated Essendon a fortnight later, but after a strong first month under Ratten, the Roos have now lost by 66, 62 and 48 points across the past three rounds.
"The last six weeks we don’t want to fracture here or go into our own hiding space and get home as quick as we can, because if we do that, we’ll have results like that. That’s the challenge and we just spoke about that," Ratten said.
"We’ve got a function here post-game. Everyone wants to go home but we need to make sure that we stay together.
"It is easy to hide, it’s harder to front up. That’s the bit we’ve got to make sure we do. We’e got to front up to get better. If we go and sit behind closed doors, it will get worse. We don’t enjoy today, no one does. We can hide from the fact we were poor or we can try and do something about it."
Ratten was left to lament another slow start for his side following last Sunday’s big loss to Geelong at GMHBA Stadium. This time the Hawks had 25 inside 50s to 4 on the board by quarter time and would have led by much more if they didn’t kick 3.8.
"Things that we tried to do during the week didn’t pan out the way we wanted; we changed training to try and get a fast start after what happened against the Cats and did things a bit different; we were probably lucky it wasn’t ten goals in the first quarter," he said.
"We got shown up straight away. The gap between where we are and where Hawthorn was, was the skill level and the fundamentals of the game. There was just a gap in the game. All we saw for the day was that second quarter. Outside of that, there wasn’t much to like about today."
While Clarkson has increased the amount of time he spends at the club across the past fortnight and has spent time scouting opposition teams and working with list manager Brady Rawlings and recruiting boss Scott Clayton, Ratten is expected to remain in the role in the short term and will coach against St Kilda next Sunday.
Ratten wouldn't be drawn when asked about whether the Roos would be applying for a special assistance package from the League.
"I'm interim coach, I'm not the coach, so I don't really want to comment on that but we've seen other teams get it," Ratten said.
"As a footy club you look at everything, don't you? When you're going well or not going well you try and have a look at everything."
Hawthorn put a gap between themselves and the bottom two sides on Sunday, moving three games clear of North Melbourne and four above West Coast.
Hawks coach Sam Mitchell experienced a tough watch at times with his side cruising to victory in the second half after wasting so many chances in the first half – they kicked 3.13 and had 21 more inside 50s at half-time – before flicking a switch in the second half to kick nine of the final 11 goals.
"Lots of positive signs, but I find myself being a little bit disappointed that we couldn’t put more scores on the board," Mitchell said post-game.
"I think we had 71 inside 50s, nine marks (inside 50) and we should be more potent going forward. that’s been a problem in the last few weeks. I would have liked to have won by more.
"We will take the win. Lots of positives from individuals across the course of the day. We played a game style that stood up against them. A lot of steps in the direction, but we left some positivity out there."
Fergus Greene was substituted out of the game early in the second half with a knee issue after trying to play on following the break.
Hawthorn will assess the delisted free agent signing over the next 24 hours but are hopeful Greene will be available next Saturday’s game against Richmond at the MCG.
