The trademark spirit and work rate of the Kangaroos was rarely in evidence on an important day for the club, which fought to wear its striped home guernsey against the Pies, only to see them rumble to an emphatic 21.17 (143) to 7.14 (56) win.
Dane Swan and Scott Pendlebury were left largely to their own devices as Brad Scott rolled the dice by taking them on in the hope team defence would win out, but he paid a hefty toll as the pair torched North with 40 and 39 touches respectively.
Travis Cloke led an attack that had 11 contributors with five goals while Lindsay Thomas and Lachie Hansen each booted two for North Melbourne.
Thomas, standing at 180cm, was the focal point of far too many Roos' forward thrusts with Aaron Edwards, Drew Petrie and Hansen largely ineffective components of a misfiring forward line.
North's only goal of the first term came after an interchange infringement gifted Ben Cunnington a set shot inside 50, but time and again the Kangaroos spurned the opportunity to reward their hard work further up the field on the scoreboard.
The Pies had no such issues with Pendlebury and Swan winning the hard balls and setting up twin towers Chris Dawes and Cloke to land blow after blow.
A 25-point quarter-time lead became a 41-point advantage at the main break as Swan kicked his game to another level with 17 possessions for the term.
The Roos managed two goals in the third, but the Pies put the result of the contest beyond doubt with six of their own on the back of their superiority around the stoppages.
Influential players
Dane Swan and Scott Pendlebury were in a class all of their own at Etihad Stadium on Saturday. The pair finished with 40 and 37 possessions respectively and rarely wasted a touch.
Brent Harvey (27) was once again left to fly the flag for the Kangaroos whose younger players did not stand up to the pressure exerted by the Pies.
What it means
It means the Pies have demolished two sides by a total of 162 points to open the season and they barely look to be raising a sweat. Nick Maxwell, who returns to further strengthen the side next week, said the team was intent on peaking later in the season and if that's the case, then 16 other sides will barely get a look in.
Conversely, it means Brad Scott has problems. Collingwood will expose cracks in most opposition teams this year, but the Roos' midfield just didn't look nearly up to the task on Saturday.
The next four
North Melbourne: Bye, Fremantle (Patersons Stadium), Richmond (Etihad Stadium), Port Adelaide (Etihad Stadium)
Collingwood: Carlton (MCG), Richmond (MCG), Essendon (MCG), Western Bulldogs (MCG)
Dream Team highlight
North Melbourne: Brent Harvey (102 points) and Daniel Wells (101) were head and shoulders above the rest of the Kangaroos. Dream Team favourite Drew Petrie scored 62 points in his first game of the season.
Collingwood: Dream Teamers who had Dane Swan as their captain will have gone a long way to securing a victory already. The prolific Pie scored 162 points with Scott Pendlebury next with 141. Much-selected player Andrew Krakouer only scored 48 after Mick Malthouse very uncoolly started him as the sub.
What the coaches said
Brad Scott (North Melbourne)
"It was a huge day for our football club and a really important day for our supporters. It was really an opportunity for our club to stand up and be counted and on the football front, from coaches to players, we failed dismally. It's a bitterly disappointing performance."
Mick Malthouse (Collingwood)
"I wasn't overly happy in the first half because I thought we mucked around with the ball a bit but once we started getting our forwards in position, then we had targets and on top of that, we were able to have good crumbing players which I thought we lacked a bit last week.
"The players were working together a bit better and I thought defensively, all over the ground, we were a bit better than last week."
Winning move
The Pies winning move was the same as it was last week and probably will be for the rest of the season. Their stifling pressure isn't a surprise to opposition teams but they do it so well with such hunger for the contest. Brad Scott declared them the best side in the competition by a long way after the game. You'd expect that from a losing coach, but he's actually right.
Turning point
As lopsided as the final score line was, North actually had a reasonable start to the game. They created several scoring opportunities after grafting their way through the Pies' midfield mire, but Lachie Hansen, Scott Thompson, Lindsay Thomas and Brent Harvey all missed eminently gettable shots on goal to effectively derail their day.
Match details
North Melbourne 1.4 2.9 4.12 7.14 (56)
Collingwood 5.5 9.8 15.12 21.17 (143)
GOALS
North Melbourne: Thomas 2, Hansen 2, Cunnington, Goldstein, Anthony
Collingwood: Cloke 5, Beams 3, Dawes 2, Didak 2, Sidebottom 2, Blair 2, Jolly, Pendlebury, Thomas, Swan, Krakouer
BEST
North Melbourne: Harvey, Rawlings, Swallow, Firrito
Collingwood: Swan, Pendlebury, Beams, Cloke, Dawes, Sidebottom, Thomas, Reid, Ball
INJURIES
North Melbourne: Nil
Collingwood: Nil
SUBSTITUTES
North Melbourne: Liam Anthony subbed in for Aaron Edwards in the third quarter.
Collingwood: Andrew Krakouer subbed in for Heath Shaw in the third quarter.
Reports: TBA
Umpires: Margetts, H. Ryan, S. Ryan
Official crowd: 40,578 at Etihad Stadium
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily of the clubs or the AFL
