Ben Brown is in rare form if the North Melbourne spearhead can have an off day and still kick four goals.
Brown increased his lead in the race for the Coleman Medal on Saturday but his side suffered a 33-point AFL loss to Port Adelaide in front of 17,617 fans at Etihad Stadium.
Power defender Tom Jonas did a good job on the significantly taller Brown for the most part but the star Roo was still a strong focal point in attack, taking his season tally to 23 goals.
"If that's his worst game and he kicks four, we'll take it," coach Brad Scott said.
"He wasn't at his best today but he didn't get silver service.
"We'll continue to work on how we take the ball inside 50 because there certainly were parts of the game where on the slower play they were able to get numbers across to him."
Ben Cunnington was North's best player, with 27 touches and seven clearances, while skipper Jack Ziebell was quiet with 11 touches.
The Power got the contest going their way in a hotly contested opening term.
"We've been a pretty good starting team and we were beaten early," Scott said.
"We were beaten to the ball and allowed them to control it.
"I thought we got those things back on track after quarter-time but it was a bit of a slow burn today ... they just kicked four goals a quarter and chipped away at us.
"It didn't feel like there was a wave of momentum going against us but we couldn't get the momentum going our way either."
North slipped to a 3-3 record with the result and will look to rebound when they take on Sydney at the SCG in round seven.
