By Michael Whiting
NORTH Melbourne has kept its finals hopes flickering but only after overcoming an almighty scare from Gold Coast at Metricon Stadium on Saturday night.
The Kangaroos watched an 18-point final quarter lead almost totally evaporate before hanging on by seven points, 11.21 (87) to 12.8 (80).
Harley Bennell's goal with two minutes remaining reduced the margin to four points, but North Melbourne locked the ball in its forward 50 for most of the remaining time to secure victory.
It moves the Kangaroos to a 5-6 record - one win outside the top eight - and helped to break a run of four losses in their past five matches.
Evergreen Brent Harvey was superb for the victors, finishing with 29 touches and four goals to run rings around young Sun Joel Wilkinson.
Harvey helped split the game open with two goals early in the third quarter that ballooned the lead to 24 points.
But unlike last week against St Kilda, Gold Coast would not go away.
Kangaroos coach Brad Scott was pleased to collect the four points, but said their poor conversion in front of goal made things more difficult than they should have been.
"They actually executed in front of goal a lot better than we did tonight," Scott said.
"That second quarter was really indicative of that: 20 inside 50s and ... I think we had the ball in our possession 75 per cent of the quarter.
"That's fair control but the execution wasn't there to put them away.
"That gave them hope and they kept coming at us but, to be honest, we've been in that position before this year and haven't handled the pressure. The boys did tonight."
The SUNS may have been guilty at times of over possessing the ball in traffic, but they pressured from the first bounce, swarmed in numbers, tackled hard and contested everything.
Coach Guy McKenna could not have asked for more from his men.
"It was really encouraging. I think the boys now understand what is expected," McKenna said.
"The pleasing thing was we won some footy, we moved itforward and we came up seven points short.
"We tidy up some areas now that we've got the effort there and compete like that and you'll give yourselves a better chance of winning a game of footy."
Skipper Gary Ablett was peerless, silencing any critics with a sublime 42-disposal, four-goal display.
His second goal midway through the second quarter had to be seen to be believed - the skipper received a handpass in traffic, put the jets on to lose Harvey then miraculously bent a 50m left foot kick through the posts while hugging the left boundary line.
After an even first half and Harvey's early onslaught in the third, the match heated up when Taylor Hine's shoulder collected Lindsay Thomas in the head.
Thomas goaled from the free kick but that was not the end of the drama - a melee broke out, and Ben Cunnington was given another free kick 20m out after an altercation with Wilkinson. However, he missed the shot.
Jared Brennan summed up the SUNS' desperation in his 150th match with a lunging tackle that led directly to Liam Patrick running away, taking a bounce and kicking a goal on the run in the second term.
Nathan Grima (29 disposals and 12 marks) and Andrew Swallow (27) - who worked hard to free himself from Danny Stanley - were also instrumental in the win.
NORTH MELBOURNE 1.5 3.12 7.17 11.21 (87)
GOLD COAST 1.3 4.3 7.5 12.8 (80)
GOALS
North Melbourne: Harvey 4, Petrie 2, Thomas 2, Wells, Cunnington, Firrito
Gold Coast: Ablett 4, Bennell 2, Matera, Patrick, Hine, Caddy, Brennan, Day
BEST
North Melbourne: Harvey, Grima, Bastinac, Petrie, Goldstein, Swallow
Gold Coast: Ablett, Stanley, Smith, Horsley, Hunt, Matera
INJURIES
North Melbourne: Nil
Gold Coast: Brown (knee) replaced in selection side by Sexton, Tape (knee), Thompson (ankle)
SUBSTITUTES
North Melbourne: Kieran Harper replaced Aaron Black at three-quarter time
Gold Coast: Alex Sexton replaced Seb Tape (knee) in the third quarter
Reports: Nil
Umpires: Meredith, Wenn, Jennings
Official crowd: 10,170 at Metricon Stadium
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs
