NORTH MELBOURNE 5.3 13.5 15.9 20.13 (133) BRISBANE LIONS 3.2 4.5 5.8 7.9 (51)
GOALS North Melbourne: Waite 7, Brown 3, Petrie 2, Ziebell 2, Thomas 2, Higgins 2, Nahas, Goldstein. Brisbane Lions: Adcock 2, Christensen, McStay, Green, Taylor, Martin.
BEST North Melbourne: M: Goldstein, Waite, Swallow, Ziebell, Turner, Gibson, Brown, Nahas, Cunnington, Harvey, McDonald, Dal Santo, Higgins Brisbane: Redden, M Robinson, A Christensen, D Beams, D Rich, M Papparone.
Injuries: North Melbourne: D Wells (leg), N Dal Santo (hamstring), J Macmillan (leg) replaced in selected side by S Wright. Brisbane Lions: M Close (knee).
UMPIRES: Ryan, Mitchell, Harris.
CROWD 22,275 at Etihad Stadium.

Shaun Higgins was waiting in the goal square, right where he needed to be as the ball bounced past Ben Brown and into his hands. It was late in the second quarter, and his goal pushed North Melbourne 54 points clear of the Brisbane Lions. But it was how it came about, rather than how it finished, that said more about how quickly and emphatically the North players wanted to forget that their horrible round one loss to Adelaide ever happened.

It started in deep defence, which wasn't the truest reflection of how the half had panned out: step one for North was getting to the ball first and when they weren't able to do that at the centre bounce it hadn't taken them long to get it back.

They started winning because Todd Goldstein won almost every single ruck tap, because Andrew Swallow kicked the ball clear and because if he wasn't doing it, Nick Dal Santo, Daniel Wells, Shaun Atley or Ben Cunnington did. By quarter-time the clearance count was 13 to the Lions' seven, the Roos already well on top.

They kept winning because of  what they did with the ball when they had it, though. The Higgins goal began when a small handful of North defenders went up against their opponents in a marking contest, then had teammates waiting on the right side of the contest as the ball began to drop. They grabbed it and took off with it, working it out of trouble quickly, confidently and up towards half-forward, and Lindsay Thomas.

Thomas was on his own, in enough space and with plenty of time to think clearly about what to do next. Brown had a player on his hammer, but was strong enough to get the ball to ground and to the right side of goal. All quarter, the Lions had struggled to top North from scoring once they were able to force it past the half-forward line. Each goal seemed to get a little easier, a little more clinical, a bit more difficult to stop. This one was the simplest of them all, confidence in the contest meeting skilful finish.

At times, Jack Redden resisted, and tried to get the Lions going. At others times Mitch Robinson, Daniel Rich, Allen Christensen and Dayne Beams did what they could to either get in North's way or get the ball moving their side's way with enough pace and space to give their forwards a chance to do what North's were doing. But they were swamped, outnumbered all day.

North had options, all over the ground. Goldstein was hugely influential, against either Stefan Martin or Matthew Leuenberger. He had 24 hit-outs to their combined 17 by the end of the first half, when the win was well set up. Even when the Lions made their fast start – smooth ball movement setting up their three early goals – he was giving his players first chance to get to the ball and do something with it. If it wasn't one of the aforementioned players creating the play it was Jack Ziebell, Brent Harvey, Sam Gibson or someone else, the Roos able to cope as some had quiet patches and Wells and Dal Santo went off injured.

The same applied to the forward line. Jarrad Waite had four goals of his seven goals up by half-time, each one of them a little different. In the air he looked strong, hard to budge. Try as he did, Justin Clarke at times just wasn't able to even reach the ball let alone punch it clear. When he landed, he did so nimbly; his third goal was a banana snap, kicked after he scrambled quickly back to his feet after not quite managing to drag in another mark.

Higgins was an important player too, missing a couple of set shots in the first half but being in positions for his teammates to find him and in doing so helping keep the Lions' backline unsettled. Brown wanted the ball too, working in well with Waite and Drew Petrie while still wanting the ball and getting into positions where he was the best player for the ball to be kicked too. Petrie kicked two third-quarter goals to stretch the lead, taking his turn. And when the game was still being set up, the things Robbie Nahas and Kayne Turner did mattered a lot.