Fremantle’s pleas for a shot after the final siren have fallen on deaf ears as North Melbourne posted a pulsating one-point victory at Optus Stadium.
The Kangaroos looked home after Luke Davies-Uniacke kicked a 50m goal on the run to give the visitors a 20-point lead with under seven minutes remaining in Saturday’s match.
But two quick goals to Jaeger O’Meara and a major to defender Brennan Cox following a goal-line scrap reduced the margin to one point with less than two minutes to go, sending the 40,487-strong crowd into a frenzy.
The ball lived in Fremantle’s forward 50m for almost the remainder of the match, and Dockers players pleaded for a free kick for a deliberate out of bounds after a clearing kick went out about 49m from goal.
But luckily for North Melbourne, the siren sounded a split second before the ball went over the boundary line, meaning fulltime was called with the Kangaroos leading 11.7 (73) to 10.12 (72).
The result gave North Melbourne a perfect 2-0 start under new coach Alastair Clarkson, and capped off a week that involved more controversy around Tarryn Thomas, who has been stood down indefinitely after more allegations emerged of inappropriate behaviour towards women.
Kangaroos forward Nick Larkey booted four goals following on from his six-goal haul from last week, while former Docker Griffin Logue was a rock in defence against prized Fremantle recruit Luke Jackson and Matt Taberner.
Emerging Kangaroos star Harry Sheezel continued his hot start to his AFL career with 30 disposals, while Davies-Uniacke racked up 11 clearances from his 30 possessions.
Caleb Serong tallied a team-high 31 disposals for the Dockers, but Jackson was scoreless from 10 disposals and took just one mark despite having lots of opportunities.
