The unbeaten and ladder-leading Casey proved too strong for North Melbourne's VFL side on Sunday. A brutal second half that saw the Demons kick 15 goals led them to a 110-point victory over the Kangaroos.

The experience and quality of a Casey side boasting the likes of Sam Weideman, Luke Dunstan and Adam Tomlinson proved too much for the Kangaroos in the clash, but Leigh Adams believed his side played better than in its Round 2 loss to Brisbane.

"We spoke post-game about comparing this game to the Brisbane game where we lost by a similar margin and we spoke about how, in patches, today looked a bit more like how we want to play," Adams told North Media.

"Although the scoreboard looks horrendous there were some more positive plays where we actually played how we wanted to play.

"We'll look at those bits and try to encourage the boys to keep getting better, but we also have to look at how we gave up far too many easy goals.

"It's very hard to sometimes feel like you're not leading people on when you say you're getting better after a 100-point loss, but although the scoreboard doesn't say it at times, we are actually improving."

A lack of genuine second ruck options saw Max Mitchell-Russell shift from his defensive role into a more attacking ruck/forward role and he got his side off to the perfect start with a goal in the first minute of the game. 

He was one of a raft of players to support primary ruck Zach Monkhorst in the middle of the ground, however Demons ruck duo of Majak Daw and Jack Bell proved too strong for North's rotating cast of second rucks.

"I actually came across Max at Coburg and he was a forward back then. He's been playing well as a defender for Port Colts in the last couple of years so we brought him over to play key defence for us, but the amount of AFL-listed defenders we had saw him on the outer a bit," Adams said.

"With no (Charlie) Comben or (Jacob) Edwards we needed some talls down forward and he competed really well. The thing about these games where you have limited AFL-listed players is you find a lot out about your VFL-listed boys and I thought there were some really good signs not just from him, but from some of the younger boys too."

KANGAROOS v DEMONS Full match coverage and stats

One major positive for the Kangaroos this season has been the goalkicking form of Mat Walker. After four goals against Carlton and three against Geelong, he continued his strong run of form with a pair of majors against an experienced Demons defence.

Adams says Walker should continue to earn opportunities in front of goal as the midfield improves its ball movement.

"'Walks' isn't a player who's going to clunk 10 marks, he relies on ball movement a fair bit because he's such a classy and smart forward. Hopefully you could see at times our ball movement today was better and we got some good opportunities," Adams said.

"When we do get that movement right he's the one on the end of it nine times out of 10 because he is such a smart player. The better we can get our ball movement the better he's going to be for us. 

"I thought our mids in patches did OK in negating them coming out the front of the stoppage too much, but weight of numbers in hitouts eventually took its toll and they were able to get out.

"Hopefully Walks can get an injury-free year for us because he's kicking goals which is good."

The Kangaroos have a Round 9 bye to recharge and reassess a tough month of football before taking on Sandringham in Round 10.

After winning two of its opening three games of the season North has now fallen to a 2-5 record to sit 17th on the ladder.

Adams says the bye will hopefully see a number of players return from injury as he looks to continue his side's education.

"We need to get some more AFL-listed boys back, five isn't enough. Hopefully after the bye next week we can get four or five boys back in which will strengthen us and then just continue to educate all the boys about how we want the game to be played," he said.

"We just need to continue to educate all the boys about how we want the game to be played and work as hard as we possibly can to get the game on our terms for as long as possible. 

"In patches today when we got that balance right we were actually able to move the ball OK. We just have to keep looking at areas of when we get it right and why we get it right, and then go to work on the areas where we're getting it wrong to turn them around.

"Hopefully in a couple of weeks time the improvements we feel like we're getting on the training track start to show on the scoreboard."

>> Full VFL fixture and results

NORTH MELBOURNE     2.2     5.3     7.4     10.7     (67)
CASEY DEMONS             5.7     11.12     20.17     26.21     (177)

AFL-listed

Jackson Archer: Four disposals, two tackles, one clearance
Josh Goater: 12 disposals, 4 marks, two tackles
Charlie Lazzaro: 13 disposals, 4 tackles, two marks
Matt McGuinness: 10 disposals, two marks, two hitouts
Pat Walker: 11 disposals, one mark, one tackle

Best of VFL-listed

Marty Hore: 33 disposals, four marks, one goal
Harry Jones: 25 disposals, four tackles, one goal
Max Mitchell-Russell: 11 disposals, five marks, two goals
Bode Stevens: 10 disposals, two tackles, two goals
Dom Tyson: 29 disposals, nine clearances, five marks
Mat Walker: Five disposals, five marks, two goals