North Melbourne stunned the football world on Saturday, smashing flag favourite Adelaide by a whopping 59 points at Blundstone Arena.

It was a result few saw coming, especially the Crows and those in the media.

SEN

“With North Melbourne, they have been as honest as any side this year and dismantled a football club … that were undefeated and they did it with aplomb … they did it with style against a very good outfit. I just look at North Melbourne and go, ‘Yep, they’re honest. They’re really honest.’ They were struggling to find the finish line for a while but they’ve found it now and you’ve got to beat North Melbourne.” - David Schwarz

“You know what you’re going to get. It’s going to be a tough game that you’re going to win, lose or draw. You’re just going to be in for a battle.” - Nick Dal Santo

“Look at it this way; they’re within three goals of being five-two, not two-five.” - Rohan Connolly

Herald Sun

“This was supposed to be the most even season in years and, thanks to North, it has become so. Who’s to say the Roos can’t play finals? Key forwards, developing mids and goal options.” – Jon Anderson

The Advertiser

“North Melbourne coach Brad Scott delivered the first successful blueprint of 2017 against Adelaide – destroying it inside a quarter in Hobart on Saturday.

“The Kangaroos’ 79 inside 50s – four short of their own AFL record - swamped Adelaide’s defence for the first time this season.

“Brad Scott saw Adelaide coming and had a plan executed perfectly by a rebuilding team that had Jarrad Waite transform its structure.” - Richard Earle

Adelaide

“They set the standard. We had a shocking start. They beat us around the ball, we couldn’t get the ball in our hands, beat us in every facet of the game in the first quarter.” - Rory Laird

Twitter

North’s ten-goal first quarter one for the record books.

The Advertiser

“The Kangaroos’ 10 goal blitz included three from (Jarrad) Waite – leaving Adelaide bewildered by a 64-point first term deficit. Adelaide was held scoreless for the first time in six years and for the just the third time in its history.” - Richard Earle

Herald Sun

“Stunning football and if you want to see a complete demolition of an opposition team in 30 minutes, watch the replay on Fox Footy. Given the circumstances, a youthful team sitting at 1-5 versus a 6-0 premiership favourite, the 10.4 to 0.0 opening term might be the greatest quarter of football ever played. There will be larger scores in a quarter - such as South Melbourne’s 17.4 to St Kilda’s 0.0 in 1919 at the Lake Oval - but in context Saturday’s game is the winner. Who knows where Brad Scott will be next year, but he deserves credit.” - Mark Robinson

Twitter

Sam Gibson’s phenomenal blanketing of Rory Sloane didn’t go unoticed, nor did Robbie Tarrant’s job on Taylor Walker. 

The Advertiser

“Sam Gibson showed what can happen to Adelaide if Rory Sloane is hustled, harassed and reduced to mere mortal, 18 touch output.”

Herald Sun

“The trend of not employing taggers might be over as we’ve had two huge scalps in two weeks. Last week it was Levi Greenwood on Joel Selwood and on Saturday it was Sam Gibson on Rory Sloane. Accept the game has adopted an 18-man defence routine, but also accept this game adopts trends pretty quickly. Sloane has returned a bruising 31, 34, 30 and 33 possessions in his past four matches. Against Gibson, who had him for 86 minutes, he had just 14 disposals.” – Mark Robinson

The Advertiser

“Robbie Tarrant is the league’s No.1 ranked defensive 50 tackler but was given a licence to rebound and run off Taylor Walker and hurt Adelaide on the rebound with three inside 50s in the first term.” - Richard Earle

But Jarrad Waite stole the show with six-goals despite missing the previous six weeks with injury.

AAP

“It was Waite's first game since round one when he suffered a shoulder injury, but there were no signs of the ailment as the veteran led his team on a first- quarter rampage in Hobart.”

The Mercury

“Waite slammed six of the best - a game-high 6.2 - and his marking, tackling and all-round work rate made his performance a standout.” – James Bresnehan

The Advertiser

Veteran Waite returned from a six-week shoulder injury with a vengeance proving one key plank can make a difference to a team’s structure.” - Richard Earle

Twitter

AFL.com.au

“The end game the Kangas were hoping for when they made some major list changes at the end of last season was a forward line of Jarrad Waite, Ben Brown and Mason Wood. They played together for the first time and kicked 10 between them, with Waite the standout with six.” – Ashley Browne