North Melbourne could go four wins from five games when they battle Carlton at Etihad Stadium on Sunday.
The Roos had a tough start to the year with four strong opponents getting the better of them followed by a heartbreaking loss to Fremantle in Round 5, but their draw has now opened up and they’re playing well.
They got their first win of the year over Gold Coast and then blew Adelaide away, suffered a shake from Sydney but then got back on track with a win over Melbourne last week.
They’ve started to back in their younger players and it is paying dividends, with there clearly being more young talent on the list than most pundits reckoned this time last year.
Carlton however are taking the idea of backing in the kids to extremes, playing a very young side most weeks, and to their credit it is working quite well.
They are 3-6 for the year as are the Kangaroos, and while it isn’t finals contender material, it’s ahead of where most would’ve expected them to be.
Defensive ethic has become their trademark, they are hard to play against and work well together as a team.
This week the Blues have made two changes, bringing in Liam Sumner and Harrison Macreadie, having lost Dale Thomas and Sam Rowe to injury.
North have made only a single change – Trent Dumont is back after missing last week with concussion, Andrew Swallow dropped to make way.
The Roos have won the last two matches between these sides, and both of them by sizeable margins.
With a dynamic North forward line going up against an inexperienced Carlton defense today, that looks like it could be the result again in this one.
Don’t count out Carlton’s ability to pressure the Roos into making mistakes, but a North win of 40+ points for $2.88 looks like good value.