On face value, a seven goal to one second quarter seems a lot more important than a four goal to three third term. But Brad Scott thought otherwise.

“While it was almost 0-0 in the third term, I thought it was almost as telling as the second,” Scott said in his post-match media conference.

At times this season North Melbourne has been unable to stop a run-on once an opposition started throwing everything at it. Make no mistake, Geelong fired its best shot in the third term – absorbing that pressure while winning the quarter by five points effectively killed the game as a contest.

The Cats spent almost 10 more minutes in their forward half during the third quarter and had eight of the first 11 inside 50’s. Yet for all their attacking, their opposition held firm in defence, conceding just two goals.

When Todd Goldstein goaled at the 17-minute mark, the margin was 31 points – only two fewer than at half-time.

It was Goldstein who was also crucial in North’s game-breaking second term. The ruckman had arguably been best on ground in the last two games against Geelong and he went a long way to making it three on Saturday night.

In the second quarter he had 10 disposals, 14 hit-outs and four clearances as he helped North dominate around the ball. Of the seven goals in the term, four came from clearances.

Goldstein told the Herald Sun’s Matt Windley how the side combated Geelong’s third man up tactic.

“They started it off and so we adjusted a little bit,” Goldstein explained.

“I think our outside structure worked pretty well and once that started working it (the third man up tactic) definitely dropped off.

“The couple of adjustments we made with our wingers really helped us.”

Digging further into the clearance battle, it was from ball-ups where North excelled. Throughout the season it had been only middling in scoring in this area of the game, but it kicked a whopping seven goals against the Cats. Six different Roos had a ball up clearance which led to a major.

On the defensive side, North was able to restrict the influence Joel Selwood normally has from stoppages. Heading into the game, the Cats’ captain was particularly effective from centre clearances – clearly the best in the competition at creating scoring shots.

However from Selwood’s nine clearances, Geelong only managed one scoring shot. It spoke to the run-with role Ben Jacobs played.