A TEAM on an 18-game winning streak does not often find itself scoreless at quarter time, but that was the situation for ladder leaders and raging premiership favourites North Melbourne when the Roos trailed the Bombers, 3.2 (20) to 0.0 (0) after one term on the weekend.

Fortunately an incredibly strong breeze that advantaged the end the Bombers were kicking to was about to swing in North Melbourne’s favour, with the Kangaroos booting five unanswered goals in the second term, and 10 of the last 13 goals of the match to eventually do what they always do, and just win.

Roos coach Darren Crocker said the quarter time huddle was “pretty calm” with no one panicking, and the side reassessing before going out and grabbing the four points, 10.11 (71) to 6.5 (41).

“We hadn’t been in that situation for a long time, so it was actually going to be really interesting to see what the group how they felt, and how they responded at that particular moment,” Crocker said.

“We knew the conditions were tricky and that Essendon had the advantage with the wind with the first quarter, but it was really good for our players and our group to just have a reset and go ‘okay that quarter’s gone now, what do we have to do now to get the game looking more like a North game? and what do we need to do to respond?” and I thought in the second quarter they responded really, really well.”

Crocker praised the Bombers’ pressure which was rated at around 2.4 – considered elite – while the Roos were slightly down on their output and not quite playing the formidable football that everyone has come to known from the blue and white stripes.

“They did strangle us a little bit around the contest, there was a lot of bobbling ball, like missed handball, tackle, missed handball,” Crocker said. “So the game wasn’t really breaking open, the ability to go from inside to out, and again I think the tricky conditions probably contributed to that as well, but at the same time they got the ball forward and looked dangerous as well.

“To Essendon’s credit, they made it a really hard-fought contest right throughout the whole game and they probably at times the game looked like they wanted it to look and they were taking some of the aspects of how we want the game to look and what we do well.”

North Melbourne had to adjust to a few defensive actions put in play by the Bombers, including a tag on Ash Riddell, defensive forward role on Emma Kearney, and looking to limit the impact of Irish talent Blaithin Bogue who had been in great form.

“They planned really well, they obviously had some thoughts around trying to take away a couple of in particular the impact of certain players, and that’s where the beauty of our group is then others stand up and those players all fought through those situations,” Crocker said. “I still felt like Emma Kearney still had an impact, Ash Riddell and Blaithin as well, and then others responded and lifted around that.”

North Melbourne ended up having 28 more disposals, 11 more clearances and 13 more inside 50s during the match, while turning the first term game around to also win the contested possessions (130-118) and uncontested possessions (146-129) while eight of the Roos’ 27 marks came inside 50.

The Roos face off against sixth placed Sydney Swans next week who are looking to snap a three-game losing streak after starting the year at 4-0.