NORTH Melbourne coach Dean Laidley says his side beat Richmond on “an unfair playing field”, with the Tigers enjoying an “11-day break” after their season opener on Easter Thursday.

In fact, Richmond’s break was 10 days.

Speaking after the Roos cruised to their season’s first win by 41 points at the MCG, Laidley was upset his side had been asked to back up fewer rest then its opponent.

"I thought last week was probably one of the worst performances that I've had since I've been coach, and we were really pleased that six days later, we got another opportunity," Laidley said.

"But, as a coach, you were concerned, and I know it's an unfair playing field, this competition, in some regard, but when your opposition has an 11-day break and you only have a six, I reckon that's a bit too much."

Laidley said he wasn't surprised his players looked lethargic at times throughout the game, and even wondered if the 46-point lead the Roos held at three-quarter time would be enough to win the game.

"You're always going to look heavier in the legs,” he said. “We got a good start, which was terrific, but there were patches in the second quarter were we did get a little bit wobbly.

"When fatigue sets in and you've been going for 45 minutes … but they steeled themselves and they held up, and they were mentally strong in that area.

"We've then come out after a break in the third quarter and played terrific footy again, but in the last quarter, I was thinking, ‘Are we enough in front?’

"If it was six days versus eight days, we'd back our conditioning staff every time, but when it's 11 versus six, that's huge, in this day and age."

Forward Corey Jones kicked a match-winning seven goals in his return for the Roos; missing last weekend's game after being knocked out in the first 20 seconds of the match.

"You can see how important he is to us," Laidley said.

"He basically missed all of last week bar 20 seconds, had the weekend off the previous week, so he got a bit wobbly later in the game as well.

"He pulled up fine and it was a fantastic effort. He did have concussion, he wasn't going to train on Friday, and I said, ‘If you don't train today and you don't show me that you're ready to go, I'm not playing you’.

"If you go back and look at the history of players coming back from concussions, it's probably not great. He trained very, very well, and straight after training, I said, ‘You're right’.

"I thought today his performance carried on from that, which is again a sign of a great leader."

The Kangaroos' coach also praised midfielder Daniel Wells, who put in a strong game after being publicly criticised for a lack of work ethic against Essendon.

"It's a credit to himself. We spent a lot of time together this week," Laidley said.

"[What was said] will stay between us two, but the kid's got a lot of character. He's had some issues that he's working through and will continue to work through, and we'll be right by his side.

"We want people with great character at our football club, and Daniel tries to be the best person that he can, on and off the field."

Wells said he felt he worked harder this weekend after spending time soul searching following the negative reviews of his round one performance.

"After last week, and I don't want to harp on that, but I thought I let the club and the team down," he said.

"I got a lot of help from my teammates today and it was a great team effort. I worked closely with ‘Laids’, and we got the result we wanted."