Against an elite defence, a four goal quarter time deficit and 44 inside 50 entries for the afternoon usually doesn’t make for a winning formula.

However North Melbourne overcame the odds in arguably its best victory of 2015, with Brad Scott’s post-match media conference offering an insight to how the Kangaroos approached the matchup.

“Today was never going to be about bombing the ball into our forward 50 and trying to win through a weight of entries,” he said.

RELATED: Brad Scott’s full post-match media conference

“It was always going to be about quality. To generate 25 shots from a not overly high number, that was the way we approached it, with quality not quantity.”

It was the second successive week North made the most of its inside 50’s. After St Kilda had six more entries in Hobart, Fremantle had nine more at Etihad, finishing with a 53-44 edge.

The quality of entries enabled the Kangaroos to kick a winning score, but there was still the defensive side of the game to work out.

In Round 8, Fremantle scored a whopping 86 points from North’s turnovers, finishing the evening with more than a 10-goal advantage in that side of the game.

At quarter time it appeared things were heading down a similar route with four of the Dockers’ seven goals coming from turnovers. However the team talk at the break worked a charm, with the visitors’ scores slowing to a crawl in the final three terms.

Fremantle only managed five goals after quarter time, with just two from North’s mistakes.

Combined with Todd Goldstein working into his matchup against Aaron Sandilands, it meant North was able to get a foothold in all areas of the game.

Therefore the 24-point quarter time deficit had been trimmed to seven with one term to play. For the Kangaroos to get over the hump and lead for the first time since the early minutes of the game, they ramped up their work on the outside of the play.

Looking back briefly to Blundstone Arena against the Saints, North struggled in the first half when the oppoisiton were able to control possession and tempo with uncontested possession. Eight days later, the script was flipped and it was the Roos with the advantage.

In the last term the home side had 49 more uncontested possessions, an enormous discrepancy. Leading the way was Sam Wright (eight), Brent Harvey (six) and Robbie Nahas (six). North flew home with five goals in the final term, acing the three pre-match keys and winning its seventh in a row.

Three keys for #aflnorthfreo today pic.twitter.com/1usksmlfDR

— North Melbourne (@NMFCOfficial) August 23, 2015

On an individual note, while Ben Jacobs’ afternoon was mostly recognised for being on the end of Nat Fyfe’s match-day report, the tagging role played by the Roo was first class.

Of Fyfe’s 21 disposals, just five were kicks. Only twice in his career has the Dockers’ midfielder played a full game and had fewer disposals by foot, with both of those instances all the way back in his debut season.