{"id":570400,"date":"2026-03-28T17:25:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T17:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/570400\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T17:25:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T17:25:17","slug":"afl-round-three-2026-scores-results-odds-stats-and-start-time-from-marvel-stadium-in-melbourne-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/570400\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL round three 2026, scores, results, odds, stats and start time from Marvel Stadium in Melbourne."},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n<p>Essendon have slumped to a 16th consecutive defeat despite finishing hard against North Melbourne, who prevailed by two goals in a spiteful match at Marvel Stadium on Saturday night.<\/p>\n<p>The Dons turned in a much-improved performance but left their run too late against the unimpressive Kangaroos, who took the foot of the pedal in the closing minutes.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Winning ways: North Melbourne skipper Nick Larkey celebrates on Saturday night.\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0068bc357781c4f63a9b76d907fd4a3546338ad1.jpeg\"  class=\"sc-d34e428-1 bNAuyX\"\/>Winning ways: North Melbourne skipper Nick Larkey celebrates on Saturday night.Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe last few minutes were nerve-racking,\u201d Kangaroos midfielder George Wardlaw said.<\/p>\n<p>A loss next week against the rampant Western Bulldogs will see the Dons equal their worst losing streak of 17, which occurred in 2016 when they were decimated by drugs suspensions.<\/p>\n<p>North\u2019s first win over the Dons in a decade was marred by an ugly incident involving ruckman Tristan Xerri, who faces a serious misconduct charge after appearing to smear blood on the face of Essendon captain Andrew McGrath.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The moment: North Melbourne ruckman Tristan Xerri appears to rub blood on Andrew McGrath\u2019s face.\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ec8639d85d21575fd3753010b98f24db53835c084850d7a99cdfe5410106833b.gif\"  class=\"sc-d34e428-1 bNAuyX\"\/>The moment: North Melbourne ruckman Tristan Xerri appears to rub blood on Andrew McGrath\u2019s face.Fox Footy<\/p>\n<p>The incident will almost certainly see Xerri referred directly to the tribunal by match review officer Michael Christian on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>The Bombers\u2019 late run limited the margin to 12 points, but they were down by six goals plus early in the final term.<\/p>\n<p>For the third time in as many games this season, the Dons conceded 100-plus marks \u2013 this time 138 against a team that has not finished higher than 16th since 2019.<\/p>\n<p>Another long week beckons at \u201cthe Hangar\u201d for coach Brad Scott, who, in his fourth season at the club, desperately needs a win to relieve the pressure that\u2019s building on his post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Essendon have slumped to a 16th consecutive defeat despite finishing hard against North Melbourne, who prevailed by two&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":570401,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-570400","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"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570400","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=570400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}