As Prime Minister Julia Gillard watched from the stands, the Dogs piled on nine goals to two in the final term to win 22.11 (143) to 10.12 (72).
Barry Hall finished with seven majors, and is now level with Richmond’s Jack Riewoldt in the race for the Coleman Medal. Both have booted 65 for the season.
Also playing deep in attack for much of the afternoon, Daniel Giansiracusa chipped in with five goals, while Matthew Boyd (40 possessions) and Adam Cooney (28 touches, 10 contested) were outstanding in the midfield.
The Bulldogs also achieved a statistic of note by notching up 157 rotations, breaking the previous record of 156, which was set by Hawthorn earlier in the season and again last weekend.
After the game, Dogs coach Rodney Eade said the huge number of interchanges happened because his side was still recovering from its match against Port Adelaide in Darwin two weeks ago.
“We did it in Darwin on purpose, we did it last week on purpose as a recovery process, and today the guys were a bit sluggish in the legs early,” Eade said.
Leigh Adams (24 possessions, eight contested), Brent Harvey (three goals) and Sam Wright were among North Melbourne’s best players.
Wright booted two goals early in a very physical opening quarter, but thanks to a pair of majors from Hall - who began on Scott Thompson and was later picked up by Josh Smith - the Dogs were 17 points clear by the first change.
A terrible turnover from Easton Wood and a huge tackle by Thompson on Hall helped the Kangaroos narrow the margin to five points in the opening stages of the second quarter.
But although the Bulldogs weren’t at their best, they were good enough to keep their noses in front at half-time.
Still, Eade was far from pleased with their performance to that point.
“They just needed a wake-up call,” Eade admitted.
“There are some areas that we rate ourselves in that don’t take talent and they dropped off.”
Despite losing Griffen for around 10 minutes of the third quarter, after he was accidentally flattened by teammate Daniel Cross, the Dogs extended their advantage to 29 points at the last break.
“In the third quarter, it turned around,” Eade added.
“It was epitomised with Giansiracusa’s chase in the forward pocket where he read the play well enough to put pressure on the right person rather than be standing still.
“He turned the ball over and I think that was the catalyst for getting us back.”
The final term was a low intensity affair, as Eade’s men maintained their place in the top four by cruising to their 12th victory of the season.
The Bulldogs travel to Adelaide next weekend for a Sunday twilight meeting with the Crows.
They should regain dashing defender Jarrod Harbrow, who withdrew from the team that beat the Kangaroos after coming down with a virus.
North Melbourne takes on Fremantle at Etihad Stadium next Saturday afternoon.
“We’ll learn a lot from today’s game, as to what finals football looks like,” said Roos coach Brad Scott.
“It starts to become make-or-break next week. We’ve got to start playing footy that’s good enough to make it to September, otherwise it’ll all slip away from us.
“We’ve got a really intense six days in front of us.”
Western Bulldogs 6.2 9.3 13.7 22.11 (143)
North Melbourne 3.3 6.6 8.8 10.12 (72)
GOALS
Western Bulldogs: Hall 7, Giansiracusa 5, Griffen 3, Higgins, Johnson, Higgins, Grant, Wood, Jones, Moles
North Melbourne: Harvey 3, Wright 2, Adams 2, McIntosh, Hansen, Edwards
BEST
Western Bulldogs: Boyd, Morris, Cooney, Griffen, Hall, Williams, Picken
North Melbourne: Adams, Harvey, Rawlings, Wright, Lower
INJURIES
Western Bulldogs: Harbrow (virus) replaced in selected side by Everitt, Griffen (concussion)
North Melbourne: Campbell (calf) replaced in selected side by Bastinac
Reports: Nil
Umpires: Rosebury, Nicholls, Wenn
Official crowd: 28,038 at Etihad Stadium
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.
