COACH Brad Scott is pleased with North Melbourne's "emphatic" response to the humiliating 77-point round one loss to Adelaide but says his side still has work to do to prove it's a good team.
North mauled the Brisbane Lions by 82 points on Sunday at Etihad Stadium, making the most of its first opportunity to atone for the Crows thrashing.
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Scott told reporters after the game he was pleased North had improved on all the areas that let it down against the Crows.
Where Adelaide had beaten them in the clearances 40-27 and contested possessions 142-115, the Roos beat the Lions in the same areas 42-24 and 143-119.
North also moved the ball far more quickly and precisely, and was more prepared to take risks.
After the Lions kicked three of the game's opening four goals, the Roos held them to just four more goals for the next three and a half quarters.
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"I thought the response was emphatic and it needed to be," Scott said.
"It was a long week because we had a lot of work to do and we went to work early Monday morning and set about getting things back on track and little milestones along the way like getting our percentage back, for example.
"That's important – nowhere near as important as the players' attitude and effort – but I think that there was not much that we could say after a performance like round one, so we had to get out and do something about it.
"Unfortunately, you don't get it all back. We've still got to prove that we're a better side than we displayed last week and that's going to take a few weeks I suspect."
Todd Goldstein was one of North's few good performers against the Crows, outpointing his Crows ruck counterpart Sam Jacobs as he finished with 10 disposals, 35 hit-outs, three contested marks and four tackles.
Although former Blue Jarrad Waite starred against the Lions with an equal career-high seven goals, Goldstein was best on ground.
The big Roo dominated the ruck with 37 hit-outs despite being double-teamed by Stefan Martin (22) and Matthew Leuenberger (eight), while he also racked up 23 possessions – he has only won more of the ball twice in his career – took seven marks (three contested), laid a game-high eight tackles and kicked one goal.
Scott said Goldstein had set himself to become one of the best big men in the competition this season.
"He's looking as good as I've ever seen him and has really taken on board the attitude that he wants to assert himself as one of the dominant ruckmen in the competition," Scott said.
"I think he was absolutely fantastic, gave our midfield first use today and against two quality opposing rucks he was outstanding.
"Rucks have different styles, (Aaron) Sandilands is unique, (Nic) Naitanui is unique, but Goldy's unique in his own way.
"We think that other people will rate where he sits in the competition but we expect regardless of who we play that he'll give us first use and be a dominant player for us."
