2026 AFL Season Round 4: Essendon v North Melbourne

This is the match report for the match played on 28 March 2026 between Essendon and North Melbourne during round four of the 2026 season of the Australian Football League. Essendon hosted North Melbourne at Marvel Stadium. Andrew McGrath captained the hosts. Nick Larkey captained the visitors with Harry Sheezel as vice-captain. The hosts were coached by Brad Scott and the visitors were coached by Alastair Clarkson.

Essendon (9.15.69) were defeated by North Melbourne (12.9.81).

Match Details

Season: 2026 AFL Season
Round: Round 4
Teams: Essendon v North Melbourne
Date: Saturday 28 March 2026
Time: 7:35 PM
Venue: Marvel Stadium
Attendance: 40,154

Match Results

Outcome: Essendon def. by North Melbourne
Score: 9.15.69 - 12.9.81

Quarter Breakdown

	Q1			Q2			Q3			Q4			Final
Essendon	2	.	5	4	.	8	5	.	12	9	.	15	9	.	15	(69)
North Melbourne	3	.	2	7	.	2	12	.	6	12	.	9	12	.	9	(81)
Margin	NMLB by 3			NMLB by 12			NMLB by 36			NMLB by 12			NMLB by 12
Duration	29:10			29:07			27:53			27:29			1:53:39

Score Worm

This chart is oriented such that the margin is positive when the hosts (Essendon) are in the lead and is negative when the visitors (North Melbourne) are in the lead.

Honour Roll

Essendon

Captain: Andrew McGrath
Coach: Brad Scott

North Melbourne

Captain: Nick Larkey
Vice-Captain: Harry Sheezel
Coach: Alastair Clarkson

Brownlow Votes

Player	Team	#	Votes
Luke Parker	NMLB	26	3
Colby McKercher	NMLB	10	2
Harry Sheezel	NMLB	3	1

AFLCA Champion Votes

Player	Team	#	Votes	5	4	3	2	1

Player Statistics

Essendon

#	Player	Pos.	ToG%	GL	BH	DI	KI	HB	MK	HO	TA	CL	CR	FF	FA	RF	IF
46	Blakiston, Lachlan	RU	70%	1	1	12	8	4	5	18	1	3	4	3	3	3	2
30	Caddy, Nate	CHF	95%	1	2	9	4	5	2	0	1	1	4	2	2	0	1
6	Caldwell, Jye	C	71%	1	2	22	11	11	3	0	4	4	2	1	1	0	5
44	Day-Wicks, Archer	HFFR	79%	0	0	15	9	6	2	0	3	1	6	1	2	1	5
22	Durham, Sam	HFFL	81%	0	0	19	6	13	4	0	1	4	8	0	5	2	4
28	Duursma, Xavier	WL	74%	0	0	17	6	11	5	0	2	0	1	2	0	2	2
41	El-Hawli, Saad	INT	68%	1	1	13	7	6	1	0	1	1	1	1	1	1	2
2	Farrow, Jacob	INT	76%	0	0	13	12	1	6	0	3	0	3	1	1	5	1
11	Gresham, Jade	INT	66%	1	1	11	4	7	1	0	3	1	2	2	1	0	0
35	Guelfi, Matt	WR	60%	0	0	9	1	8	0	0	3	0	1	0	1	0	2
40	Johnson, Zak	RR	72%	0	0	9	5	4	3	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
10	Kako, Isaac	FPL	81%	1	0	12	6	6	1	0	1	3	1	1	1	0	3
4	Langford, Kyle	FPR	85%	0	2	19	12	7	7	0	4	0	5	0	1	1	3
26	May, Archie	INT	53%	0	1	7	4	3	4	0	3	0	1	0	1	1	3
1	McGrath, Andrew (c)	BPR	85%	0	0	22	13	9	6	0	1	0	0	1	0	2	4
32	McKay, Ben	FB	100%	0	0	5	3	2	3	0	1	0	1	0	0	2	0
7	Merrett, Zach	RO	88%	1	1	10	6	4	1	0	9	1	1	2	1	1	2
3	Parish, Darcy	INT	69%	0	0	19	8	11	6	0	3	1	1	0	1	1	3
16	Perkins, Archie	HBFR	77%	0	2	16	7	9	6	0	1	0	2	1	0	0	2
25	Prior, Jaxon	BPL	89%	0	0	18	14	4	5	0	5	0	0	2	0	1	2
31	Reid, Zach	CHB	95%	0	0	11	6	5	7	0	1	0	2	0	0	6	0
21	Roberts, Archie	HBFL	83%	0	0	25	16	9	2	0	2	0	1	2	0	6	3
20	Wright, Peter	FF	82%	2	0	15	10	5	5	7	1	1	2	2	1	1	3
Rushed					2
Total (23 players)				9	15	328	178	150	85	25	54	21	50	24	23	36	52

North Melbourne

#	Player	Pos.	ToG%	GL	BH	DI	KI	HB	MK	HO	TA	CL	CR	FF	FA	RF	IF
39	Blamires, Tom	INT	81%	1	0	17	12	5	6	0	1	0	1	1	0	2	2
21	Coleman-Jones, Callum	INT	35%	0	0	6	2	4	1	2	2	2	2	0	1	0	1
30	Comben, Charlie	BPR	97%	0	0	12	7	5	6	0	2	0	1	3	0	0	0
4	Corr, Aidan	FPL	60%	0	0	5	5	0	2	0	1	0	1	0	1	0	1
25	Curtis, Paul	HFFL	63%	1	0	9	6	3	3	0	2	0	5	1	1	0	1
5	Daniel, Caleb	CHB	84%	0	0	23	17	6	7	0	1	0	2	0	0	4	1
9	Davies-Uniacke, Luke	RR	82%	0	1	31	16	15	11	0	4	4	4	0	1	2	7
1	Dovaston, Lachy	INT	61%	1	1	7	5	2	3	0	1	0	3	0	1	0	0
7	Duursma, Zane	INT	74%	3	0	5	4	1	3	0	0	0	2	0	1	0	0
20	Larkey, Nick (c)	FF	97%	2	1	12	7	5	5	0	0	0	4	0	2	0	0
11	McDonald, Luke	BPL	85%	0	0	18	13	5	8	0	2	1	3	1	0	7	2
10	McKercher, Colby	HFFR	77%	0	0	35	22	13	5	0	2	1	2	1	0	6	2
2	O'Sullivan, Finn	HBFL	91%	0	0	24	14	10	8	0	3	3	2	3	1	2	5
26	Parker, Luke	FPR	91%	0	0	33	19	14	13	0	3	0	2	2	1	3	0
32	Pink, Toby	FB	94%	0	0	19	13	6	8	0	0	0	3	0	2	5	2
24	Powell, Tom	C	83%	0	1	23	16	7	13	0	4	0	5	0	1	2	3
3	Sheezel, Harry (vc)	RO	73%	0	0	33	18	15	11	0	5	0	3	2	1	2	6
12	Simpkin, Jy	WL	85%	0	0	22	13	9	7	0	1	3	2	0	0	1	4
15	Stephens, Dylan	WR	90%	0	1	23	15	8	7	0	1	2	5	1	1	2	2
47	Trembath, Cooper	CHF	86%	2	1	9	7	2	4	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	2
6	Wardlaw, George	INT	54%	0	0	16	11	5	3	0	2	7	4	3	3	2	6
38	Xerri, Tristan	RU	84%	1	0	15	6	9	1	11	1	8	7	4	3	0	1
44	Zurhaar, Cameron	HBFR	73%	1	1	8	6	2	3	0	0	0	4	1	3	2	1
Rushed					2
Total (23 players)				12	9	405	254	151	138	13	39	31	67	23	24	42	49

Legend

ToG%: Time-on-Ground Percentage, GL: Goals, BH: Behinds, DI: Disposals, KI: Kicks, HB: Handballs, MK: Marks, HO: Hitouts, TA: Tackles, CL: Clearances, CR: Clangers, FF: Free Kicks For, FA: Free Kicks Against, RF: Rebounds Inside 50, IF: Inside 50s

Player Line-Up

Essendon							Coach: Brad Scott
BACK							FOLLOWER		INTERCHANGE
	11	L. McDonald	32	T. Pink	30	C. Comben	46	L. Blakiston	41	S. El-Hawli
	4	K. Langford	20	P. Wright	10	I. Kako	40	Z. Johnson	2	J. Farrow
FORWARD							7	Z. Merrett	11	J. Gresham
HALF-BACK									26	A. May
	2	F. O'Sullivan	5	C. Daniel	44	C. Zurhaar			3	D. Parish
	44	A. Day-Wicks	30	N. Caddy	22	S. Durham
HALF-FORWARD
CENTRE
	12	J. Simpkin	24	T. Powell	15	D. Stephens
	35	M. Guelfi	6	J. Caldwell	28	X. Duursma	FOLLOWER		INTERCHANGE
CENTRE							38	T. Xerri	39	T. Blamires
HALF-FORWARD							9	L. Davies-Uniacke	21	C. Coleman-Jones
	25	P. Curtis	47	C. Trembath	10	C. McKercher	3	H. Sheezel (vc)	1	L. Dovaston
	16	A. Perkins	31	Z. Reid	21	A. Roberts			7	Z. Duursma
HALF-BACK									6	G. Wardlaw
FORWARD
	4	A. Corr	20	N. Larkey (c)	26	L. Parker
	1	A. McGrath (c)	32	B. McKay	25	J. Prior
BACK
North Melbourne							Coach: Alastair Clarkson

Score Timeline

Quarter	Team	Scoring Event	Score			Time
Q1	NMLB	Dylan Stephens behind	0.0.0	-	0.1.1	00:55
	ESSE	Lachlan Blakiston goal	1.0.6	-	0.1.1	01:58
	NMLB	Tom Powell behind	1.0.6	-	0.2.2	06:07
	NMLB	Cameron Zurhaar goal	1.0.6	-	1.2.8	07:23
	ESSE	Jye Caldwell behind	1.1.7	-	1.2.8	08:39
	ESSE	Archie Perkins behind	1.2.8	-	1.2.8	09:46
	ESSE	Kyle Langford behind	1.3.9	-	1.2.8	12:03
	NMLB	Zane Duursma goal	1.3.9	-	2.2.14	14:13
	ESSE	Nate Caddy behind	1.4.10	-	2.2.14	16:39
	ESSE	Saad El-Hawli behind	1.5.11	-	2.2.14	19:05
	NMLB	Zane Duursma goal	1.5.11	-	3.2.20	20:35
	ESSE	Isaac Kako goal	2.5.17	-	3.2.20	27:53
Q2	ESSE	Nate Caddy goal	3.5.23	-	3.2.20	02:12
	NMLB	Nick Larkey goal	3.5.23	-	4.2.26	04:35
	NMLB	Zane Duursma goal	3.5.23	-	5.2.32	06:57
	NMLB	Tristan Xerri goal	3.5.23	-	6.2.38	10:01
	ESSE	Nate Caddy behind	3.6.24	-	6.2.38	13:05
	ESSE	Rushed behind	3.7.25	-	6.2.38	13:38
	ESSE	Peter Wright goal	4.7.31	-	6.2.38	16:28
	ESSE	Kyle Langford behind	4.8.32	-	6.2.38	23:49
	NMLB	Lachy Dovaston goal	4.8.32	-	7.2.44	27:21
Q3	ESSE	Archie Perkins behind	4.9.33	-	7.2.44	01:12
	NMLB	Nick Larkey goal	4.9.33	-	8.2.50	02:28
	NMLB	Rushed behind	4.9.33	-	8.3.51	04:57
	NMLB	Cooper Trembath goal	4.9.33	-	9.3.57	08:04
	ESSE	Peter Wright goal	5.9.39	-	9.3.57	09:50
	NMLB	Lachy Dovaston behind	5.9.39	-	9.4.58	12:45
	ESSE	Lachlan Blakiston behind	5.10.40	-	9.4.58	14:30
	ESSE	Archie May behind	5.11.41	-	9.4.58	15:35
	NMLB	Paul Curtis goal	5.11.41	-	10.4.64	17:01
	ESSE	Zach Merrett behind	5.12.42	-	10.4.64	18:12
	NMLB	Cooper Trembath goal	5.12.42	-	11.4.70	19:13
	NMLB	Cameron Zurhaar behind	5.12.42	-	11.5.71	23:24
	NMLB	Rushed behind	5.12.42	-	11.6.72	24:44
	NMLB	Tom Blamires goal	5.12.42	-	12.6.78	25:53
Q4	NMLB	Cooper Trembath behind	5.12.42	-	12.7.79	00:24
	ESSE	Jade Gresham behind	5.13.43	-	12.7.79	02:19
	NMLB	Nick Larkey behind	5.13.43	-	12.8.80	04:02
	ESSE	Rushed behind	5.14.44	-	12.8.80	06:26
	ESSE	Jye Caldwell goal	6.14.50	-	12.8.80	08:03
	ESSE	Jye Caldwell behind	6.15.51	-	12.8.80	09:58
	NMLB	Luke Davies-Uniacke behind	6.15.51	-	12.9.81	17:56
	ESSE	Saad El-Hawli goal	7.15.57	-	12.9.81	19:02
	ESSE	Jade Gresham goal	8.15.63	-	12.9.81	20:48
	ESSE	Zach Merrett goal	9.15.69	-	12.9.81	24:20

Links

2026 AFL Season

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