AFTER the frustrations of last week’s draw, North Melbourne came out yesterday and made a statement yesterday against Melbourne, much to the absolute delight of Kangaroos coach Darren Crocker.

“The first thing that stood out was just the response,” Crocker said post match.

“Even though we got the draw last week and all credit to Geelong, you know, they were really good last week as well. But there was just a feeling amongst the group that we didn’t put our best performance out there.”

“The week was really good, really strong and to come out and get a response like that against a quality opposition, it was really encouraging.”

One particular area of the game that impressed Crocker was the run and carry game, which he described as “probably the cream on top.”

“We knew that we had to take away Melbourne’s contest,” Crocker said. “In the past if you look at Melbourne, when they get the ball, the game around the contest looking really strong, they can shape the ball really well with their hands so we knew we needed to take it up to them in that space and we also knew that we needed to have our pressure where it needed to be. to also just pressure that chain type of football that they like, slingshot football that they like to play.

So both of those areas were the focus, and I thought our girls did really well in both of those spaces.”

Individually there were a number of players whose performance impressed their coach, including Kate Shierlaw, Mia King and Taylah Gatt.

“Kate was fantastic,” Crocker said.

“It wasn’t just inside forward 50 where she obviously kicked five goals straight. I thought that she connected us really well across the ground as well …

“I thought, um, some players who were a little bit down last week really responded. I thought Mia King was really good around the footy, you know, back to her best at hunting the footy and hunting the opposition when they’ve got the ball. I thought Taylah Gatt really set a strong scene for us early in the game with her work rate and her ability to get up in the ground, down the ground and challenge and tackle.”