NORTH Melbourne coach Dean Laidley has praised his players' focus on the contested footy after the Kangaroos stunned Port Adelaide on Saturday night at Docklands.
The Power's leg speed has troubled many opponents so far this season, but Laidley was delighted with the way his players' combated their opponents in close to come away with a five-point win.
"We've been on the end of some hidings from Port Adelaide, but when we've been able to control certain areas of the game we're a show,” Laidley said after the Roos held off the fast-finishing visitors.
“I thought the boys' endeavour across the 22 players [was great].
"They've got some very, very quick players and at some stage they were going to get outside of us. It was only a matter of when.
“We really planned for that, but when they get a run on they're very hard to stop."
The win keeps the Roos in the thick of the pack on a congested AFL ladder after successive losses threatened to see them drop off the pace. But Laidley wasn't getting too carried away with the gutsy victory.
"I don't know about season defining. I never spoke about the result today. I spoke about being accountable and responsible all week [as well as] our ability to execute," he said.
"I thought our efforts over the last few weeks had been pretty good, but we need to be better than that, so we spoke about that all week."
Youngster Jack Ziebell put in yet another eye-catching performance to edge closer to what must be an inevitable NAB Rising Star nomination.
"He's from North Melbourne so people probably don't know about him," Laidley remarked.
"The kid's going to be a superstar and I'm not afraid to say that because his work ethic, the way he attacks the football, has been fantastic. He is a leader in his own right at the football club already just by the way he goes about it."
Daniel Wells was in fine touch in the first game back from a hip injury and Laidley was pleased with his precision delivery to the forwards.
The Kangaroos made the most of their scoring opportunities, kicking 15 goals straight at one point, with Laidley happy to witness a reversal of a worrying recent trend in front of the big sticks.
"Our goal kicking [accuracy] has dropped seven per cent from last year," he said.
"We haven't made a real emphasis on it [other than] to point out that you need to get reward for effort.
"We need to execute. We spoke about this week being accountable and responsible in your ability execute and that was one part of it that they really took on board."
Brady Rawlings was a late withdrawal with a leg injury suffered at training with Laidley rating the veteran tagger only a 50-50 chance to resume against Geelong next week.
