North Melbourne was a force to be reckoned with at Marvel Stadium on Friday night, thanks to its ferocious attack on the ball.

Led by the midfield group of Jack Ziebell, Ben Cunnington, Jed Anderson and forward Cameron Zurhaar, the team’s pressure was relentless, the making of a memorable victory.

“We played very well tonight, everything came together really well,” Anderson told North Media post-game.

“We dug in and stuck together, worked hard on the inside, got the ball forward and kicked a good score to win the game.”

North laid 72 tackles compared to Richmond’s 55, led by Zurhaar who had 11, Trent Dumont with 8 and Mason Wood, Ziebell and Anderson who all had 5 or more.

“As a group we focus on being hard and clean,” Anderson said.

“We want to get it inside the contest, but also own the outside, get forward and use the numbers.

“We want to get it forward to (Nick) Larkey and (Ben) Brown, (Cam) Zurhaar, (Mason) Wood because our forwards are really dangerous when we get it in there, so why not use that?”

Getting the better of an on-ball brigade consisting of Dustin Martin, Trent Cotchin and Dion Prestia a week after defeating a talented Bulldogs’ midfield will do wonders for North’s confidence.

“When we’re on we’re very good,” Anderson added.  

“We’ve shown that we can match it with the best teams out there.

“When we hold that inside-outside balance well, we can compete, go hard and get it forward to our forwards and our defenders can setup behind the ball.

“We all dug deep tonight, worked well in our lines and came out with the win.”