1. 100 of the best
Brownlow Medal favourite Nat Fyfe marked his 100th game with, dare I suggest, another three-vote performance against the Roos. Unstoppable as ever in tight, Fyfe racked up 20 disposals by half-time to drive the Dockers to a 34-point lead. By contrast only five Kangaroos had 10 or more at the long break, the best of them was defender Ben Jacobs with 12. By the end of the match, Fyfe had a career-high 37 possessions, including 21 contested and a game-high 11 clearances. 

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2. Fast start Freo
The first lecture for students in 'Beating Freo at Domain 101' emphasises not to let the Dockers get a fast start. They have proven very hard to catch with a start, Professor van Nostrum warns. Do you think anyone listens? Certainly not North Melbourne who fumbled, panicked and just gave the ball away as it plunged to a 26-point deficit at the first change. The worst of the damage was done inside the first six minutes when some shocking turnovers helped Fremantle belt on three goals - two to Michael Walters, the other off the shin of skipper Matthew Pavlich.

3. Battle of the giants 
The earth shook as the big men went to contest the first centre bounce. The combined 222kg of Todd Goldstein (103kg) and Aaron Sandilands (119kg) didn't get that far off the ground but when they came back to earth it was with a thud. The Roos had the better of the early running with five centre clearances to nil in the opening term and ended ahead of that ledger. But Freo turned those numbers upside down around the ground. Goldstein battled fantastically all night against two men – Sandilands and Zac Clarke – and won a game-high 31 hit-outs. Sandilands (30 hit-outs) also did some damage in general play, booting a goal and having 13 disposals. "I thought (the ruck contest) was compelling," North Melbourne coach Brad Scott. "I thought we got ascendancy in the middle, Goldie gave us first look. There are not many guys that can jump over Aaron, I don't think there's anyone but Goldie is the closest. I thought he was really good but Aaron still had influence around the ball-up, throw-in situation and Fremantle were able to get the ascendancy in there."

GAMEBREAKER: Michael Walters uncontrollable in the forward line

4. What did Goldie do?
It's not a Freo game without Hayden Ballantyne being involved in some sort of controversy. So it proved again midway through the first term when he went down 60m off the ball holding his head and won a free kick. Blurry replays suggested he collided with Goldstein possibly to block, but came off worse for wear when he copped a high knock from a raised arm. But it was far from clear-cut what happened. We'll be watching the outcome at the Match Review Panel with interest. For the record, Balla was superb for the home side. There is no doubting his ability, even among this star-studded Fremantle line-up. 

'We need to grow up': Scott rips into team for 'schoolboy errors'

5. Finally, a smashing
They've rarely looked troubled in their eight-game winning start to the season, but the Dockers only had one 10-goal plus win over those first seven victories – a 68-point triumph against Melbourne in round five at the MCG. Four of the wins had been by 20 points or less and the biggest victory at home had been by 28 points, despite consistent dominance. So it was a relief of sorts for the purple army to have the match sewn up early, and for Freo to march away and deliver a good old-fashioned 73-point thumping.

It was nothing to do with Hayden Ballantyne but someone got Todd Goldstein in the eye. Picture: AFL Media