Round 8, 1996 - North Melbourne vs Richmond

North Melbourne have shown that they are one of the teams to beat in season 1996, defeating Richmond in comfortable fashion by 55 points at the MCG.

After a tight first term which saw Richmond take a slight advantage, the Roos kicked 16 goals to 9 for the remainder of the game to win 20.24 (144) to 14.5 (89).

Laidley leads Bond to the ball.

It was a strong flex by North Melbourne, who have now beaten the Tigers on three straight occasions since Richmond recorded a stirring win against them in Round 4, 1995.

The Tigers looked lively early, and were looking to get a win on the board with two of their young cubs, Matthew Richardson and Matthew Rogers, notching up their 50th games for the club.

One of the key matchups throughout the match was that of an undersized Duncan Kellaway taking on Wayne Carey.

Kellaway was brilliant on arguably the AFL's best player, showing that he didn't need to match the King in kilos to be able to hold his own in a marking contest.

Carey finished with just two goals and four marks despite the Roos resounding win, while Kellaway picked up 18 touches with 5 marks. In fact, Carey didn't take his first mark until the second half.

Three goals in seemingly as many minutes in the second term blew the game open for North Melbourne, while it took the Tigers more than 20 minutes to register their first score of the second term.

At the other end of the ground, a similar battle was going on with an undersized Glenn Archer on Matthew Richardson.

Archer well and truly took the chocolates on the day, keeping the Tiger champ to just one goal.

It was really just a precession in the second half, with North Melbourne looking every bit the premiership contender, while Richmond clearly showed it had some work to do to return to the heights of 1995.

Matthew Rogers was another shining light for the Tigers, having the equal most disposals for his club with 21, while also kicking two goals.

He was well helped by Mark Merenda, another player who has taken his game to another level in 1996. Merenda kicked three goals.

Down back, Jason Torney played the best game of his career to date, with some wonderful defensive efforts given how much ball was being pumped into the Roos 50.

A sad note to this game was that it would be Stuart Wigney's last ever AFL game. After crossing to the Tigers ahead of the 1995 season, Wigney had shown some great signs that year before a broken ankle derailed his year.

He returned but was still clearly hampered by the injury, and finished the Richmond portion of his career with 14 games and a goal, after spending time with Footscray, Sydney and Adelaide prior to his move to Punt Road.

Stats for the game courtesy of AFL Tables

A Fighting Fury player ratings - click here for explanation

Jason Torney	6
Mark Merenda	6
Matthew Rogers	6
Duncan Kellaway	5
Paul Broderick	5
Justin Charles	5
Jamie Tape	5
Chris Naish	5
Michael Gale	4
Chris Bond	4
Wayne Campbell	4
Ashley Prescott	3
Matthew Richardson	3
David Bourke	3
Brendon Gale	3
Darren Gaspar	3
Scott Turner	3
Stuart Wigney	3
Nick Daffy	2
Ben Harrison	2
Ross Funcke	0