It was North Melbourne’s best performance of the season, with winners all over the field en route to a 59-point victory.

A smiling Brad Scott talked through the key points of the win in his post-match media conference.

A first quarter onslaught

“It was awesome. It was terrific intent and attack on the ball, and then we were able to go forward really effectively and score. I think it was something like 24 inside 50s in the first quarter.

“When you have that high a number of inside 50s, it’s usually because it’s going in and coming back out. But we were able to be pretty efficient going forward too, which was terrific.

“I think it’s the fourth-highest first quarter score in North Melbourne’s history.”

A 10-goal first quarter presented all sorts of barely believable numbers to look at.

It was North’s best ever quarter against Adelaide, narrowly edging out the 10.3 kicked in Round 7 of 1999, and also the Roos’ best quarter of any kind since all the way back in 2004.

Using the knowledge of the Blundstone Arena conditions to its advantage, North dominated in every facet of the game, keeping the ball in areas of the field where it was easier to score.

Only three of the 10 first quarter majors came from the right hand side of the 50, where the wind was pushing the ball directly away from goal – and none of those three were on an acute angle.

North was then able to force a plethora of turnovers on the left hand side of the ground, which meant it was able to enter 50 in an area where it was easier to score from.

It kicked 7.1 from set shots for the term, with two early goals from Ben Cunnington and Jarrad Waite setting the tone.

There were an incredible 28 inside 50s for the quarter compared to only four for Adelaide, and the Crows only had 13 disposals in their forward half for the entire term.

Team defending

“The defenders were fantastic, they stuck to their task really well. But I think that any defender will tell you that the supply of ball coming down is going to be probably the number one factor in whether you’ll be able to defend effectively.

“Our midfield got right on top in the contest and gave our defenders the best sort of help they could give them, which was pressure on the ball.”

On face value, losing a quarter by five goals to two doesn’t seem particularly impressive. But the second half of the second term arguably sealed the game for the Roos.

Adelaide had started the quarter well, kicking five of the first six goals and cutting the margin from 64 points to 39. The Crows were still kicking to the scoring end and had momentum.

There was form for these sorts of turnarounds, especially after Melbourne had kicked nine second quarter goals last year. But North knuckled down defensively and didn’t concede a goal to Adelaide for the rest of the quarter.

The Roos were able to keep the ball on the right hand side of the ground – as mentioned it’s the side of the ground which is harder to score from.

Although Adelaide had 14 inside 50s to 4 in the last 14 minutes of the second quarter, it only managed 4 behinds; 1 of them rushed.

Of the three genuine scoring shots, none of them were inside 50. North entered the rooms at half-time still 42 points up and was never seriously challenged after that.

Running with Sloane

“He’s (Rory Sloane) the best – in my view – probably alongside Dustin Martin as the best midfielder in the competition at the moment.

“His first six weeks have been exceptional. He’s not only been able to dominate in possession, he’s been a terrific defensive player for Adelaide too. We felt he was massively important to the contest and Sam Gibson was fantastic.

“We’ve had (Ben) Jacobs in the past and Sam can play those particular roles, but he’s been so important to our outside run as well. We’ve got to be careful we’re not robbing Peter to pay Paul but that speaks to how highly we rate Sloane.”

In the past, most of Sam Gibson’s run-with roles have been on players crucial to an opposition’s outside run, along the lines of Brandon Ellis, Lewis Jetta and Andrew Gaff in the 2015 finals series.

On Saturday, Gibson was tasked with stopping one of the most well-rounded players in the entire competition; Rory Sloane coming into the game off the back of four consecutive 30+ disposal games.

Gibson was able to completely minimise Sloane’s impact on the game. The Crow had just five disposals to half-time, finishing with 18 and only three score involvements.

The Roo was also able to collect 20 touches of his own – 14 of them contested – to go with 6 tackles, 4 clearances and 4 inside 50s.