AFTER a white-knuckle night in the coach’s box, winning coach North Melbourne’s Dean Laidley could only ponder what it would be like to win a game the easy way.

“The day that we actually kick straight we will probably put the result away very quickly” said Laidley after his team’s amazing seven-point victory.

“Unfortunately we haven’t finished off our work. We played a very good football side tonight – both were evenly matched. There were ebbs and flows in the game, but I thought our work rate was good and some of our younger kids stood up in critical moments, and that’s what we talk about all the time, so that is really pleasing.”

When asked what he said to errant forward Corey Jones who had a scoreline of 1.5 at half time Laidley said simply, “Can you please kick straight?”

“No, I just said you’ve had your opportunities and you just need to make sure you nail them. He’s been very good for us, but tonight he didn’t kick his goals. Usually he is a pretty reliable kick. Tonight was just one of those nights for Corey.”

Laidley said that the calibre of the opposition made the win all the more noteworthy.

“We spoke about the challenge during the week and we felt that in the first four rounds we were getting better each week. When you play against fantastic opposition, a very good football side, it is very pleasing to come out with a result like that.”

Laidley said that his team now had more variety in attack after having to improvise when Nathan Thompson was sidelined with a knee injury in 2007.

“Since Thommo did his knee at the start of last year and we didn’t have him, we’ve been able to get a structure in the forward line where it doesn’t matter who kicks the goals. We’ve been able to keep the scoreboard ticking over.”

The Kangaroo coach said that the match had echoes of last year’s meeting in the opening round when the Roos went down by three points to the Magpies.

“I really thought the second half was played out exactly the same way as the second half had been played out in 2007. We kicked a lot of points in the third quarter. We had our opportunities and, bang they went down and kicked a goal. But we stuck at it.”

Laidley lavished praise on some of his lesser-known players.

“I want to make special mention of Mattie Campbell, Lindsay Thomas, and Ed Lower – some of our kids really stood up tonight. We wish they would get a little bit more exposure and perhaps a little bit more respect from the footy world.”

He also praised the Kangaroo supporters who fronted up in strength after a poor turnout seven days ago at the MCG.

“Tonight I thought as a crowd, our supporters were terrific – very loud, very vocal after getting slammed for last week’s crowd, or lack of it. Tonight they were in their droves and I hope we rewarded them with a good performance.”