A spirited North Melbourne line-up fell to the Casey Demons on Saturday afternoon, 18.9 (117) to 16.6 (102).

The Roos brought the fight to the reigning premiers but ultimately fell by 15 points, mostly due to the home side's strong second quarter which saw it kick four goals to North Melbourne's two.

Tom Lynch's side wasn't out of the game until the final siren though, booting six final-quarter goals which instilled the opposition with a touch of panic.

"There were plenty of positives to take out of today," VFL coach Lynch told NMFC Media post-game.

"We're pleased with the last quarter in particular but we gave ourselves a chance to produce what we did in that quarter because of the way we played for the majority of the game.

DEMONS v KANGAROOS Full match coverage and stats

"We lost based on our ability to compete in the air, they had far too many intercept marks, I think one out of every three entries we had going inside 50 it was Casey who marked the footy and that's never going to help you ... but we kept fighting and with some of our other entries we became really potent.

"It was a bit of a weird feeling post-game because we played really well for most of today."

In his second reserves game of the season, Ben Cunnington stood strong in midfield, extracting a ridiculous 17 clearances and 32 disposals, while fellow onballers Charlie Lazzaro (33 disposals, seven tackles, six inside 50s, one goal) and Tarryn Thomas (26 disposals, nine inside 50s, eight tackles, one goal) did everything they could on a slippery deck at Casey Fields.

"'Cunners' (Cunnington) had a really good game today," Lynch said.

"Casey themselves have a quality midfield so it was a good contest in there and Ben was supported by Charlie Lazzaro who was great and Tarryn Thomas who was really exciting for us.

"Everyone found a way to contribute today, which was really pleasing." 

VFL-listed forward Ben Bath kicked off proceedings with a goal for the visitors inside the match's opening 90 seconds, and it quickly became a shootout with Casey and North Melbourne kicking five and four goals respectively in the first term before both going onto top 100 points for the day.

The forward line charge was led by 2022 draftee Cooper Harvey, who was the Kangaroos' main energiser in attack with a game-high five goals and 20 possessions.

Curtis Taylor responded to his AFL omission with 24 disposals and six marks playing between the arcs, while ruck Hamish Free continued to improve his craft, tallying 31 hitouts to help his side win the clearance battle 39-34.

In defence, a knee knock saw Aiden Bonar ruled out of the game midway through the second term, leaving the Roos with tough backline matchups in regard to height until Kallan Dawson was injected into the game in the third quarter, after serving as an AFL emergency pre-game.

"Our defenders competed really well undersized today," Lynch mentioned.

"We lost 'Bon' (Bonar) early, so hopefully he's going to be OK."

CASEY                      5.1    9.4    14.7    18.9  (117)     
NORTH MELBOURNE     4.0    6.0    10.4    16.6  (102)     

GOALS
Casey: Melksham 3, Schache 3, J. Smith 3, Brown 2, Laurie 2, Woewodin, Jefferson, Sestan, Steele, White
North Melbourne: Harvey 5, Sellers 2, Lowson 2, C. Smith, Bath, Cunnington, Lazzaro, Thomas, Turner, Watkins

BEST  
Casey: Turner, Jordan, Tomlinson, Schache, Laurie
North Melbourne: Lazzaro, Harvey, Thomas, Cunnington, Butler, Free

INJURIES
North Melbourne: Bonar (knee)