NORTH Melbourne was friendless going into Saturday’s match against Hawthorn, but David Hale says he and his teammates are used to being underrated.

After the Roos were replaced by Carlton in the top eight after a disappointing loss to Fremantle in round 12, not too many outside the club predicted anything other than a Hawthorn win at the MCG.

“It was the first time for the year that we’ve been out of the eight and we got written off pretty much straight after the Fremantle game,” Hale said after North's stunning 27-point victory.

“Nobody expected us to win today, but we had the belief in ourselves that we could. We know that we match up pretty well against Hawthorn, so it was never in our minds that we were going to lose.

“We knew if we played the way we’re capable of playing we could come away with the win.”

Those who doubted the Roos could perhaps be forgiven on the evidence of their performance in Perth, and Hale admitted the two efforts were like chalk and cheese.

“After the way we played last week we really wanted to come out and play some contested, hard footy and I think we did that for four quarters today which gets us the result we wanted. Hopefully that’s the sort of effort we can put in consistently from now on.

“I thought the way we went about it today in terms of our tackling [was good]. We were switched on from the start and that mental aspect makes a big difference.

“It was vastly different from last week. We just let them free-wheel, but this week we closed it down and played the footy that we wanted to play.”

Coach Dean Laidley successfully plotted a path through Hawthorn’s rolling zone defence, with hard running and tackling the keys to finding a way inside 50.

The tough legwork began in defence, with Josh Gibson, Shannon Watt and Michael Firrito able to keep dangerous Hawk forwards Lance Franklin, Jarryd Roughead and Tim Boyle quiet.

“It was something we spoke about, and when you’ve got players like Brent Harvey and Daniel Wells who can run and carry the ball and break the lines it really helps,” Hale said.

“It helps when the guys are shutting down the midfield run as well. It’s pretty tough down back when the supply is coming down lace out, but Spud (Firrito), Gibbo and Shannon did their jobs well down there.

“When we’re helping them out like that it does make their lives easier, whereas last week we left Spud out on his own and he got chopped up.”