North aim to stop Port’s run in AFL

North Melbourne defender Jamie Macmillan notes there is a guaranteed solution for Port Adelaide’s impressive run.

“If we have the footy, it’s hard for them to run off with it,” he said.

Port’s impressive start to the season has dominated talk ahead of Sunday’s AFL match at Etihad Stadium.

The Power have used relentless gut-running to take the game away from Carlton and Adelaide.

North are backing their own fitness and speed, but Macmillan said there is a lot more to beating Port Adelaide than that.

“When they get out, if we can stop them running down the ground – be it through body work or just getting into good positions – then we can turn it into a battle and hold them up a bit more,” he said.

“If we can get the ball in our forward half and then stop Port in their tracks, well then all the run is gone for them.”

In other words – defence.

North were criticised for the defensive side of their game last year, when they gave up several leads in matches and narrowly missed the top eight.

While they were terrible against Essendon and then scrapped out a win over the Western Bulldogs, Macmillan said their defensive work had been better in those two games.

Macmillan noted that one big reason the Essendon match did not become a blowout was because North’s defence has improved.

“The stats that came out of the game against Essendon were just deplorable for us and it was only 39 points,” Macmillan said.

“It should have been massive.”

Macmillan added that North are looking forward to showing they have become much better at finishing matches strongly.

“You can argue that going on pure form at the moment, Port are the best fourth-quarter side going around,” he said.

“So we’ll be testing ourselves out against them.”

North and Port will have unchanged lineups, although Kangaroos midfielder Jack Ziebell is in some doubt with a shoulder injury.

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