After taking a strong contested mark and kicking his first goal in the opening minute, the Sudanese-born Daw had set the game alight.

But it all came crashing down just 18 minutes later.

Daw was spun around in a tackle from Lions defender Daniel Merrett and clashed heads with Cunnington as he fell to the ground and was substituted out of the game.

But after waiting three years at to get his AFL chance, he did enough to impress coach Brad Scott, who said he had been excited by the efforts Daw.

"I did probably go up with the rest of the crowd and half our box when he took the first mark," he admitted.

"I was, not concerned, but a first-game player and particularly one as hyped as Majak is, the risk is that they get confused and the moment gets to them.

"Majak, in his short time on the ground, didn’t put a foot wrong.

"He positioned himself exactly where we wanted him to, he jumped at the footy, he competed on the ground, and he showed some of the things he can do on a footy field. That was most pleasing.

"The thing is with Maj, if he gets into position he's pretty hard to stop."

Scott said Daw seemed "fine" when he spoke to him at three-quarter time, but added the Roos would assess his fitness later in the week before deciding whether he would play against Hawthorn.

Another pleasing aspect of the dominant win for Scott was the third term, with the coach confident his players had made a positive step towards dispelling the perception that they go to water in the third quarter.

In the so-called 'premiership quarter' in opening three rounds against Collingwood, Geelong and the Sydney Swans, the Kangaroos conceded 22.12 while scoring just 5.8.

This was after enjoying half-time leads on two of these occasions, and trailing narrowly the other time.

These horror periods proved the most critical aspect their 0-3 start to the season.

It all came to a head against the Swans last week at Blundstone Arena, when the Roos surrendered 11.4 while managing just 1.3.

Scott specifically addressed the issue with his players in the lead-up to their clash with the Brisbane Lions at Etihad on Sunday night, and was so pleased with their response.

Leading at half-time by 32 points, North powered away with the next five goals to extend their advantage to an unassailable 63 points.

"I did make mention of the fact that people probably think we've had issues with third quarters," he said.

"I don’t see it that way personally but the reality is, in retrospect, we've had poor third quarters in the opening month.

"But that's been as a result of some pretty fundamental mistakes, so at half-time we really focused on … staying organised and not getting confused like we did last week in the third quarter."

Scott believes the Roos finally have strong competition for spots.

"We've been working really hard towards a situation where the pressure's now on the match committee. Up until now there hasn’t been enough pressure, (but) now there is," he said.

"Aaron Black kicked five for North Ballarat and we think he's going to be a really good player.

"So we've got pressure for spots now, and guys have got to perform.

"Good clubs have that problem."

Scott praised his defence, led by Scott Thompson, and also singled out vice-captain Jack Ziebell for a "fantastic" game after being "a little bit disappointing" in the opening rounds.

Asked whether he had asked Ziebell for a special effort this week, Scott said: "I didn’t need to. A few little subtle comments, but he knew."