King: The core of North Melbourne's problems

If North Melbourne can’t capitalise on their strength, do they have another avenue to hang their hat on?

Those are the thoughts of David King, who couldn’t have been more disappointed in the Kangaroos' efforts out west.

The club’s Round 1 triumph was extremely short-lived, crumbling against the lowly West Coast Eagles in a disastrous performance on Sunday afternoon.

Despite exploding to a 30-point advantage early on, the Kangaroos were quickly caught out by the Eagles, surrendering their lead early in the third term and failing to recover late on.

Within their big win over Port Adelaide, the Roos established dominance in the midfield, controlling the clearance game to score 52 points directly from stoppage - +30 in a 46-point win.

However, despite finishing +9 in the clearance count against the Eagles in Round 2, North Melbourne finished -7 in scores from stoppage, outscored 50-43 from the source.

North Melbourne have clearly developed a major strength on the inside, however, as King identified, the club failed to maximise the return on that strength.

“How can they be so dominant at clearance in patches of that game, and then just not be able to move the ball once they’ve won it?” King told SEN Fireball.

“We see the best teams work the ball from inside to out, and you get a pure disposal in an uncontested manner around the edges.

“The amount of times I saw - I think Harry Sheezel was the biggest offender in this - just basically kick it up! He could have kicked six balls up a chimney and not hit soot!

“It just went straight up, spun backwards and went straight to the Eagles. Their work immediately post clearance went straight back to the Eagles.

“I think there’s some strategy in that. There’s some tactical nous in that; how you get those guys to the edges and free.

“For all the hard work that Tristan Xerri did, if it wasn’t Luke Davies-Uniacke, they didn’t get to the outside.

“There are still some issues there, and I know Finn O’Sullivan is young, but even when Jy Simpkin went in it was really haphazard. That’s the core of the problem.

“If you can’t make your strength an absolute weapon, then what have you got?”

North Melbourne have a great opportunity to rectify their Round 2 loss, facing a struggling Essendon at Marvel Stadium this Saturday night.