In defeating Gold Coast, North Melbourne was able to rectify a key area which it had struggled in the last two weeks.

As detailed in the Round 4 post-match wrap, both Fremantle and Melbourne had been able to score heavily against North after winning clearances.

Considering the likes of Gary Ablett, Aaron Hall, Michael Rischitelli and Jack Martin were on the field for the Suns, it could have quite easily become three weeks in a row. But North responded.

On the basic numbers, the clearance battle was essentially even; 30 to Gold Coast, 29 to North. But on the scoreboard there was a substantial difference - the Suns only kicked three goals from their clearances and the Roos seven.

With that area of the game tilted towards the visitors, they were also able to maintain their edge in another key area.

All season North has been able to take advantage of opposition mistakes and make them pay on the scoreboard. It was again the case on Saturday, with the Suns’ forced mistakes drawing a mention from the coach Rodney Eade post-match.

"We just made a lot of errors tonight," Eade said.

"The errors mounted, they cost us badly…we just made too many mistakes.

“There was enough errors there that they were able to get scores from and we should have been going the other way.”

It was the last quarter in particular where North’s pressure really told. All five of its goals came from forced turnovers. Despite the Roos not being recognised as one of the speedier sides on foot, Brad Scott explained how they gain an advantage.

"We look at speed of ball," Scott said.

"If we can get the ball moving quickly, while being able to break out of congestion, I think it's the combination of those sort of things.

"Sometimes leg speed can be a little bit overrated but I think what is underrated is our leg speed."

The turning point

Gold Coast was much the better side at the start of the third quarter. North’s 22-point lead had been cut to just three. Tom Lynch was up and about, the Suns were winning the majority of the ball and it seemed like just a matter of time until they took the lead.

Following the Suns’ goal to cut it to three points, North won the centre clearance and it led to a contested situation 50 out from its goal. Lindsay Thomas received a handball from Ben Jacobs and used the vision which makes him so effective, pulling his kick to a wide-open Shaun Higgins within range.

Higgins made no mistake from the set shot and it proved to be the spark the Roos needed. From that play onwards it was all the visitors.

In the next 30 minutes of play, North kicked seven consecutive goals to break the game open. It doubled the Suns’ inside 50’s (18-9), it won the ball around the contest (41-31) and Nick Dal Santo was extremely important (10 possessions, four inside 50’s).

The end result was a relatively stress-free final 15 minutes, a 38-point win and top spot on the ladder for another week.