North Melbourne face long odds if they’re going to keep the league’s longest active winning streak going when they host Melbourne in Hobart on Saturday.
North Melbourne haven’t tasted victory in quite a while at this point. They’ve suffered seven consecutive losses since their last win, which came in Round 10 over Carlton. The upside for them is that while they’ve been losing, they’ve been competitive in most of those games, as has been the case for them throughout the season. Aside from a blow-out loss to Port Adelaide where they were never in the match, they’ve been able to keep pace with teams for some or most of the game, without getting a win. They’re a serious risk at the moment to finish on the bottom of the ladder, and so will be hoping to get a win or two at some point in the month to avoid that risk.
Melbourne are going in the opposite trajectory – after so long being an average or awful team, they’ve finally come of age and risen up the ladder. They look almost certain to play their first finals campaign in a decade this year, a huge achievement in their first season under Simon Goodwin. Some injury issues threatened to derail that in the past few weeks, but they got many of their key players back last week. That led to a comfortable win over a quality opponent in Port Adelaide, so they’ll go into this one with plenty of confidence.
North have some valuable inclusions this week. Robbie Tarrant and Jack Ziebell are back, as is cult hero Braydon Preuss. Nick Larkey will miss through injury while Cameron Zurhaar and Josh Williams have both been dropped from the team.
Melbourne haven’t made any changes to a winning side.
North have defeated Melbourne 16 times in a row, including a 14-point win over the Demons earlier this year. Our money is on that streak to end this Sunday. Melbourne to win by 1-39 @ $2.10 gets our interest.
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