{"id":541433,"date":"2026-03-15T06:15:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T06:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/541433\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T06:15:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T06:15:10","slug":"roos-shut-down-power-for-perfect-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/541433\/","title":{"rendered":"Roos shut down Power for perfect start"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article__summary\">\n                North Melbourne has made a dream start to season 2026 after defeating Port Adelaide by 46 points at Marvel Stadium on Sunday\n            <\/p>\n<p>\n                            By AAP with Sophie Welsh, with NMFC Media\n                            <\/p>\n<p>North Melbourne&#8217;s 2026 season is off to a flying start, breaking a run of six consecutive losses against Port Adelaide to hand Josh Carr a 46-point loss in his first game as Power senior coach.<\/p>\n<p>The Kangaroos hadn\u2019t beaten Port since 2019, but proved far too strong at Marvel Stadium on Sunday, running out 17.11 (113) to 9.13 (67) winners.<\/p>\n<p>Harry Sheezel gathered 31 possessions, Luke Davies-Uniacke&#8217;s power around stoppages was telling, and Nick Larkey booted four goals in his first game as captain.<\/p>\n<p>Port started well, with Darcy Byrne-Jones and Mitch Georgiades kicking the opening two goals of the game.<\/p>\n<p>But the Roos were able to wrestle back control, with Larkey kicking his side&#8217;s first goal and Cam Zurhaar adding two more as North headed to quarter-time with an eight-point lead.<\/p>\n<p>Jack Whitlock pegged a goal back for the visitors to start the second term, but it was one-way traffic after that.<\/p>\n<p>With North tightening the screws defensively and moving the ball sharply from the back half, the Roos took full control.<\/p>\n<p>A 55m bomb from Charlie Comben brought the home crowd to life, with Colby McKercher and Zane Duursma following up with quick goals before half-time.<\/p>\n<p>KANGAROOS v POWER <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nmfc.com.au\/matches\/8059\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Full match coverage and stats<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Kangaroos led by 25 points at the main break and carried their momentum into the second half, with Jy Simpkin soccering through a goal in the opening minute.<\/p>\n<p>Larkey added two more for the quarter, with Luke Parker and Tom Powell getting in on the fun as North headed to three-quarter time with a 38-point lead.<\/p>\n<p>The Power rallied to reduce the margin to 25 points early in the final term, but Paul Curtis settled the Roos&#8217; nerves with a clever snap after weaving through traffic, and North never looked threatened thereafter.<\/p>\n<p>Port&#8217;s Zak Butters (23 possessions) and Connor Rozee (24) battled hard, but lacked support and were ultimately overwhelmed by North&#8217;s midfield.<\/p>\n<p>The Kangaroos will look to extend their winning form with matches against 2025 bottom-four sides West Coast and Essendon in the next fortnight.<\/p>\n<p>NORTH MELBOURNE\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a03.4\u00a0 \u00a0 8.5\u00a0 \u00a013.10\u00a0 \u00a0 17.11 (113)<br \/>PORT ADELAIDE\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a02.2\u00a0 \u00a0 4.4\u00a0 \u00a0 7.8\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 9.13 (67)<\/p>\n<p>GOALS<br \/>North Melbourne:\u00a0Larkey 4, Trembath 3, Zurhaar 2, Curtis, Stephens, Comben, McKercher, Darling, Simpkin, Parker, Duursma<br \/>Port Adelaide:\u00a0Georgiades 3, Durdin 2, Whitlock 2, Bergman, Byrne-Jones<\/p>\n<p>BEST<br \/>North Melbourne:\u00a0Stephens, Parker, Comben, Sheezel, Davies-Uniacke<br \/>Port Adelaide:\u00a0Rozee, Butters, Drew, Georgiades<\/p>\n<p>INJURIES<br \/>North Melbourne:\u00a0Nil<br \/>Port Adelaide:\u00a0Marshall (ankle)<\/p>\n<p>Crowd: 23,318\u00a0at Marvel Stadium<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"North Melbourne has made a dream start to season 2026 after defeating Port Adelaide by 46 points at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85,83],"class_list":["post-541433","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-sports","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541433","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=541433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}