Injuries to key players meant fans had the opportunity to see several emerging players step up against Adelaide. 

After losing Luke McDonald and Cam Zurhaar to a pec injury and concussion respectively, David Noble praised the ability of his players to adapt. 

Nick Larkey was back to his best with three goals, Ben McKay blanketed Taylor Walker for much of the contest and Luke Davies-Uniacke was influential running through the midfield.

“Someone like Nick Larkey needs to step into the breach … Luke Davies-Uniacke needs to take a little bit more of that lead if and when our senior players go down,” Noble said.

“It’s frustrating … but we’ll keep bringing our young guys through that are ready to play, we’ll give them that exposure and we’ll keep working hard.”

Once again North’s midfield contained the trio of Will Phillips, Charlie Lazzaro and Tom Powell, with the first-year players all gaining valuable experience playing on more experienced players like Rory Laird and Paul Seedsman.

To cap off an impressive individual performance, Phillips kicked his first goal in the famous number 29 jumper, sharing the moment with his mentor and coach Brent Harvey.

“We ran Powell and Phillips on Laird early, we thought that was a really good tool for those two guys to get them into the game,” Noble said.

“Some of the things we really liked was our movement of the ball, particularly in our young guys. There were a couple of chains where Lazzaro, Powell, (Jack) Mahony, (Jaidyn) Stephenson got hold of the ball. That’s the vision we have in our heads.

“He (Phillips) New has grown really fond of 'Boomer' (Harvey) … it was a pretty special time for Boomer and Will. I saw when Boomer went out there and gave him a high five so that was pretty cool.”

North led at three-quarter time, but was on the receiving end of eight goals in the final term, as the Crows stormed home to a 41-point win.

Noble said he was prepared to take the positives out of the first three quarters, but the fourth quarter collapse showed there was work still to be done with a young group. 

“We want to play the way we played today each week. We need to come out and understand that’s the manner and the way we need to deliver our performance, but as you can tell from the last quarter we’ve still got a bit to learn,” he said.

“I thought 'Buckets' did a terrific job on 'Tex' (Taylor Walker) today … 'Bon' (Aidan Bonar) plays taller, he competes really hard and makes it difficult for opposition forwards regardless of their size. Kayne Turner when we moved him on Rory Laird and Jack Mahony running with Paul Seedsman did a good job.

“We have to learn how to fight it out … what we saw in the first three quarters is a result of us doing a lot of hard work in a short period of time and that’s been really encouraging.”