North Melbourne opened its 2023 AFL Women’s season with a comfortable 40-point win over St Kilda, with Jasmine Garner setting the tone in the opening stages of the game onwards at Blundstone Arena.

From the opening bounce, Garner was dominant in the midfield, whilst Ash Riddell, Emma Kearney and Mia King also impressed, applying the pressure on the Saints and not allowing them to gain any easy possessions and territory down the field.

Riddell finished the game with 29 touches, whilst King finished with 21 disposals and Kearney finished with 20.

Whilst the Kangaroos game was strong defensively, the Saints didn’t make their opportunities count in the first half, with some inaccurate kicking punished St Kilda.

Although the Saints first goal in the match came from Hannah Stuart, they missed their opportunities to reduce the margin on the scoreboard, as the Kangaroos continued their ascendancy and punishing the Saints for their inaccurate kicking, despite starting the third quarter strongly.

Speaking to the media post game, North Melbourne coach Darren Crocker eluded to where the game was won.

“A lot of that game came down to contest. We felt that they upped the ante around the contest, they put us under pressure and we went away from getting some our fundamentals right in our game,” Crocker said.

“It was nice to reset that at three quarter time and have our player respond. We shouldn’t need to wait to reset after a break to be able to identify that.”

Crocker praised his back line and setting up behind the ball throughout the match.

“For most of the game, we had some good pressure around the contest which allows the backs to set up behind the ball,” he said. “The whole back line hold stead fast, even in the third quarter when St Kilda were coming at us.”