One quarter, then nothing
Geelong matched the champions for a term. Amy McDonald kicked the Cats’ first goal of the season, Georgie Prespakis won the opening clearance, and quarter-time read 2.1 to 2.2 at Marvel Stadium.
After that the AFLW season opener stopped being a contest. North Melbourne won 15.10 (100) to 3.9 (27) in front of 14,573, a 73-point margin that stands as Geelong’s heaviest AFLW defeat and the Kangaroos’ second-largest win.
“Beaten by the best team in the comp, still,” Cats coach Mick Stinear said. “I was hoping they’d gone backwards in the off-season, but that was a bit optimistic.”
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Twenty-eight matches without defeat
The streak runs to 28. The last side to take a point off North Melbourne was Geelong, in a drawn game in round two of 2024, which is why there was any pre-match talk of an upset at all.
Blaithin Bogue and Tahlia Randall kicked three each. Jasmine Garner soccered through her 100th career goal and finished with 34 disposals, four clearances and a run-down tackle on Prespakis inside 50 that set the tone. Ash Riddell collected 35 touches and five clearances, and Geelong could not keep pace once the second half opened up.
North Melbourne’s third quarter was heavy enough that the Kangaroos briefly outscored St Kilda’s men’s side playing across town, 77 points to 75 after three quarters each.
What comes next
Darren Crocker looked at the opening 20 minutes rather than the margin. “Some people might think there’s a bit of a blueprint in how to beat us, controlling the footy, which we were a bit sloppy early with,” the North Melbourne coach said. “We allowed them to take a lot of uncontested marks. But once we addressed that at quarter-time, the girls were fantastic.”
Key back Claire Mahony debuted for the Kangaroos and held up behind the ball. Geelong got their best game yet from third-year player Bryde O’Rourke, who kicked a goal from beyond 50, and welcomed Chloe Scheer back after two years lost to toe and knee injuries. The Cats host St Kilda at GMHBA Stadium next Saturday. North Melbourne travel to Brisbane for a Grand Final rematch.
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