North Melbourne's perseverance has paid off with coach Brad Scott claiming their thumping 59-point win over AFL competition leaders the Adelaide Crows shows his side's true capability.
The Kangaroos dominated play from the opening siren, keeping the Crows scoreless in the first quarter and maintaining their lead at every break in the 22.13 (145) to 13.8 (86) victory at Blundstone Arena on Saturday.
The win improves the Roos' record to 2-5 and handed the Crows their first loss of the season.
"We've talked all year about how bright the future looks and hopefully our supporters got a good look at it today," Scott told reporters.
"How we've gone about our footy this year has been pretty strong but we haven't necessarily got the reward for effort ... but today a lot of things came together for us."
Returning from a shoulder injury suffered in round one, Jarrad Waite booted six goals, three of which came as the Roos raced to a 64-0 lead at the first break.
Scott described the veteran forward as super.
"There aren't too many players who can miss six weeks of footy, even though he's been able to train really strongly, most players come back rusty," Scott said.
"He just came in like he hadn't missed a beat."
But Waite's effort might be clouded with officials expected to review a possible sling tackle on Tom Lynch, who left the ground concussed just before half time.
Waite was the Kangaroos' leading goal scorer, also finishing with 22 disposals, while Ben Brown booted three goals.
Scott also noted Sam Gibson's efforts against Adelaide's midfield star Rory Sloane.
"I don't think there are too many football experts who tipped us this week," Scott said.
"We've just got to hang in there and persist with what we think is the right way to go about it and to our players credit they have persisted when the results have been going against them."
The early outlook for Adelaide was bleak, admitted coach Don Pyke.
"They hit us right between the eyes and the game was effectively over at quarter time," he said.
On a positive note for the Crows, Eddie Betts booted his much-anticipated 500th goal.
In doing so the forward was flattened on the goal line by North's Scott Thompson, giving Betts a second kick at goal to immediately move to 501 goals, the second of his three for the game.
Before the game, The Roos called in Corey Wagner to replace Taylor Garner who was suffering hamstring soreness.
After just 14 minutes, playing his first game for the season, Wagner left the ground and will undergo scans to assess the seriousness of an ankle injury.
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