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The reigning premiers recorded the first seven inside 50s, with the unlikely Kim Rennie opening their account.<\/p>\n
Benefitting from a 50m penalty, it marked her first goal since Season 7.<\/p>\n
It looked as if Hawthorn were on the brink of unravelling for much of the first half, but its defence – led by Laura Stone – stood tall, and its pressure caused a steely North Melbourne to falter. <\/p>\n
If scores were given for defensive efforts rather than goals, this would\u2019ve been one of the highest scoring games of the season. <\/p>\n
Stone recorded three marks and 19 disposals whilst North Melbourne\u2019s Libby Birch was impassable with 10 marks of her own. <\/p>\n
The Kangaroos were uncharacteristically inaccurate in their forward half – kicking 5.12 under the weight of Hawthorn\u2019s pressure.<\/p>\n
North thrash Hawks in ominous display | 01:15<\/p>\n
If there is one thing Hawthorn can hang their hat on, it\u2019s that this marks North Melbourne\u2019s lowest score of Season 10. <\/p>\n
Ultimately, though, their strength prevailed as they opened the floodgates in the final term.<\/p>\n
Daniel Webster will rue Hawthorn\u2019s accuracy after pointing to \u201cthe execution and fundamentals\u201d as the cause of his side\u2019s defeat last week.<\/p>\n
Switching Najwa Allen forward at times, Webster will need to move the magnets if he is to prevent back-to-back straight sets exits after recording only two marks inside 50 to North Melbourne\u2019s nine. <\/p>\n
Despite this week\u2019s turmoil, Jas Garner finished with 26 disposals and six tackles.<\/p>\n
THIRD QUARTER SCARE<\/p>\n
An early scare was sent through the Hawthorn camp as Aine McDonagh came off worse for wear in a head clash with North Melbourne\u2019s Jas Ferguson. <\/p>\n
The sigh of relief came when she passed her assessment, but it was short lived, as she later succumbed to a lower leg injury on the eve of three-quarter time.<\/p>\n
Kailtyn Ashmore, Emily Everist and Laura Elliott also came from the field in the third term. <\/p>\n
With an already extensive injury list which includes captain Emily Bates and talls Lucy Wales and Eli Symonds, Hawthorn will need to dig deep to find a win next week. <\/p>\n
Everist, Elliott and McDonagh played out the contest, but carried a limp with strapping on her right knee. <\/p>\n
TENSIONS RISE<\/p>\n
Emma Kearney\u2019s attempt to involve the crowd in the contest went awry as she faced the wrath of Greta Bodey for her efforts.<\/p>\n
Bodey will hope she won\u2019t face a suspension, with the blow on Kearney emulating that of Cathy Svarc, who was cleared by the tribunal after initially facing one week on the sidelines. <\/p>\n
It was a week of tension amongst the two clubs after Hawthorn snubbed Jasmine Garner\u2019s 100th game guard of honour, culminating in a scuffle on the eve of three-quarter time. <\/p>\n
SCORING WOES HIT ROCK BOTTOM<\/p>\n
Despite finding the first four inside 50s of the second term, Hawthorn was unable to generate a shot at goal. <\/p>\n
While Aine McDonagh has so often injected life into Hawthorn, even she was only able to conjure a minor score – Hawthorn\u2019s only score of the first half. <\/p>\n
The long-awaited goal never came, only adding more fuel to the fire in the discussion of their poor accuracy in 2025. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve done a lot of work on [our accuracy], it just hasn\u2019t yet got through to what we\u2019re doing,\u201d said Webster post-game last week. <\/p>\n
BRILLIANT BOGUE\u2019S FIRST IN FINALS<\/p>\n
Fresh off her maiden All-Australian squad nomination, first-year player Blaithin Bogue scored her first Finals major only minutes into the final term.<\/p>\n
It caps off a brilliant Season 10 feat for the first-year forward. <\/p>\n
LEARNING CURVE<\/p>\n
Hawthorn wasn\u2019t able to convert its pressure into scoring chances, its output may have just provided the blueprint to unravel the red-hot Roos.<\/p>\n
Just as the Kangaroos seemed invincible, Hawthorn\u2019s pressure exposed even the smallest of cracks in their steely demeanour, with early fumbles and uncharacteristic misses under pressure. <\/p>\n
It may not have been enough to send Hawthorn to the Preliminary Final, but the six other Clubs in contention will be thanking Webster.<\/p>\n
A consistent, intense level of pressure paired with the ability to punish off turnover may well be the winning recipe.<\/p>\n
Brisbane and Melbourne trail North Melbourne to round out the top scorers from turnover in Season 10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"North Melbourne has secured yet another Preliminary Final appearance with a 39-point victory over Hawthorn, winning 5.12 (42)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,156567,71059,60055,44991,52767,43984,156555,7483,156553,7492,26122,156560,156563,78973,156564,156569,156556,156568,156565,156561,156554,44993,7204,19095,156562,66584,85,156557,156558,156559,14379,156566,34750],"class_list":["post-268672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-cathy-svarc","tag-daniel-webster","tag-defensive-efforts","tag-emily-bates","tag-emma-kearney","tag-emma-moore","tag-final-score","tag-final-term","tag-greta-bodey","tag-hawthorn-hawks","tag-head-clash","tag-highest-scoring-games","tag-jas-ferguson","tag-jas-garner","tag-kim-rennie","tag-laura-elliott","tag-long-awaited-goal","tag-lower-leg-injury","tag-lowest-score","tag-lowest-score-against","tag-minor-score","tag-najwa-allen","tag-north-melbourne-kangaroos","tag-preliminary-final","tag-quarter-scare","tag-scoring-chances","tag-sports","tag-squad-nomination","tag-tension-filled-final","tag-tensions-rise","tag-three-quarter-time","tag-top-scorers","tag-winning-run"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}