Improving the work in the contest was one of the main aims for North leading into Sunday, and it paid off handsomely en route to an 82-point victory at Etihad Stadium.

After conceding three of the first four goals, North kicked 14 of the next 15 to blow the game wide open. The dominance was based around the Roos’ work winning the contest and pressuring the opposition when they were in possession.

Unsurprisingly that dominance resulted in an almost 50 possession swing from Round 1 at the Adelaide Oval.

In Round 1, North’s inability to get hands on the ball at stoppages led to the Crows dominating the clearance count, while scoring at will with that advantage.

The script was flipped against the Lions. It was more than a 10 goal difference between the first two weeks.

The extra pressure applied by North around the contest also had a benefit in forcing Lions’ ball movement to be a lot slower than they’d intended.

When Brisbane did eventually create inside 50’s, it was held up enough that North’s defenders and midfield had clogged up the space.

After quarter-time, the Lions managed only four goals, as North was able to find some of the defensive form that held it in good stead during 2014.

Individually, Todd Goldstein continued his fine start to 2015 with arguably a best-on-ground performance.

Matched up against the tag-team of Matthew Leuenberger and Stefan Martin, Goldstein was the dominant big man on the field.

The ruckman also chipped in all over the ground, filling up the stat sheet. Goldstein notched 23 disposals (10 contested), 37 hit-outs, 7 marks, 8 tackles and kicked a goal all in 87 per cent game time.

It’s been 17 matches since the left-footer played has played less minutes, illustrating his efficiency while on the ground.

Meanwhile down forward, Jarrad Waite equalled his career-high with seven goals in just his second game for the club.

The former Blue was almost unstoppable under the roof, reflected in the results when he was the target going inside 50.

Waite was the intended recipient of nine inside 50’s; six of them ended in goals to the key forward. As a point of comparison, normally anything over 35 per cent is an excellent conversion, so 66.6 per cent is a remarkable achievement.