NORTH Melbourne has rebounded emphatically from its humiliating round one loss to Adelaide by overpowering an undermanned Brisbane Lions by 82 points at Etihad Stadium on Sunday. 

After the Lions kicked three of the game's first four goals, the Roos put their foot down, kicking eight straight goals in less than a quarter and 19 of the next 23 to set up an imposing 20.13 (133) to 7.9 (51) win. 

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Former Blue Jarrad Waite bounced back from his goalless club debut against Adelaide to monster a Lions defence missing injured veteran Daniel Merrett to pile on a game-high seven goals.

But Todd Goldstein stood just as tall for the Roos, outclassing Lions duo Matthew Leuenberger and Stefan Martin in the ruck and finishing with 23 possessions, seven marks and one goal. 

Where North struggled to move the ball with any fluency in its 77-point loss to Adelaide, it played on at every opportunity against the Crows, often with the overlap handball that was the trademark of its 2012 run into the finals.

Five talking points: North Melbourne v Brisbane Lions

However, the Roos' win could come at a cost with Nick Dal Santo leaving the ground at the 12-minute mark of the third term after appearing to strain his left hamstring.

The star midfielder played no further part in the game even though Daniel Wells had been substituted out of the game at half-time. 

North said on its official Twitter account shortly afterwards that there was "no issue or reason for Wells' substitution" but the midfielder had an ice pack on his heel/Achilles as he watched the game on the interchange bench from the third quarter.

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It was the Roos' sixth consecutive win over the Lions at Etihad Stadium, with the visitors' last win over North at the venue coming back in round 10, 2009.

North coach Brad Scott said after the match his team's response to the Crows loss had been "emphatic".

"I think the effort in the contest, the things that we were really poor at last week were much better this week," Scott said.

"Brisbane started well, I thought they were up for the contest as well and I thought we probably absorbed that early and then responded and adjusted in kind.

"But we certainly wanted to be a lot more proactive in all facets of the game – in the contest, when we had ball in hand and defending – than we were last week."

Click here to watch Brad Scott's full post-match media conference

Ben Cunnington (11 clearances) and Andrew Swallow (seven) were important for North as it bounced back from its poor contested effort against the Crows to dominate the clearances (42-24) and contested possessions (143-119).

Jack Ziebell (27 possessions and two goals), Shaun Higgins (24 and two) and Robbie Nahas (22 and one) were also lively performers, while Sam Gibson curtailed Daniel Rich's influence while racking up a game-high 33 possessions himself.

The Lions' loss means it is the third consecutive year they have opened the season with two straight defeats.

Coach Justin Leppitsch said it was also the second week in a row that his team had been beaten in contested ball.

"When the ball was there to be won, we weren't," he said.

"We (were) pretty good at that in the pre-season but that's two in a row where we haven't been.

"What we've shown is our game style can hold up. We've done it and we've won (pre-season) games this year with the current group."

Click here to watch Justin Leppitsch's full post-match media conference

The Lions started brightly enough kicking three of the game's first four goals to lead by 11 points at the 13-minute mark of the first term.

They were able to prey on some haphazard ball movement from North early in the game, with the Roos intent on moving the ball as quickly as possible, more often than not by handball. 

But once North got its kick-to-handball ratio right – it had 45 kicks to 57 handballs in the first term – it took complete control of the game. 

Jack Redden (28 possessions), Mitch Robinson (25) Jed Adcock (16 and two goals) were the Lions' best on a tough day.

Veteran Brent Harvey fends off Allen Christensen's attempted tackle. Picture: AFL Media


NORTH MELBOURNE      5.3   13.5   15.9  20.13   (133)                  
BRISBANE LIONS          3.2    4.5     5.8    7.9      (51)           

GOALS
North Melbourne: Waite 7, Brown 3, Petrie 2, Ziebell 2, Thomas 2, Higgins 2, Nahas, Goldstein
Brisbane Lions: Adcock 2, Martin, Green, Christensen, Taylor, McStay 

BEST 
North Melbourne: Goldstein, Waite, Ziebell, Cunnington, Gibson, Swallow, Harvey, Higgins
Brisbane Lions: Redden, Adcock, Robinson, Martin

INJURIES 
North Melbourne: Jamie Macmillan (soreness) replaced in selected side by Sam Wright; Wells (calf/Achilles), Dal Santo (left hamstring)
Brisbane Lions: Michael Close (left knee) 

SUBSTITUTES
North Melbourne: Mason Wood replaced Daniel Wells at half-time.
Brisbane Lions: Zac O'Brien replaced Michael Close at quarter-time.

Reports: Nil

Umpires: Harris, Ryan, Mitchell

Official crowd: 22,275 at Etihad Stadium