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DESPITE a bright start, Carlton has suffered a 51-point defeat at the hands of North Melbourne at Telstra Dome on Sunday.

The Blues held a six-point lead after a high-scoring opening term that saw 11 goals kicked, but the Roos piled on the first six majors of the second quarter to set up the 22.9 (141) to 14.6 (90) win.

Brendan Fevola was the dominant forward on the ground with six goals, but the Kangaroos had a more even spread of contributors in attack with 11 goal kickers to Carlton's seven.

Marc Murphy was the leading possession winner for the Blues with 29 with Chris Judd (23) and Nick Stevens (22) also prominent.

Prolific Kangaroo onballer Brent Harvey did his Brownlow Medal chances no harm with 30 disposals and three goals with Dennis Armfield, Steven Browne and Andrew Walker all struggling to contain him at different stages throughout the course of the match. 

Fevola was switched on right from the start with the first two goals of the day, including a brilliant volley, but it went goal for goal after that with North able to conjure a reply every time the Blues edged away.

Judd coolly converted a running shot after a clean pick-up at pace and Fevola's third were among the highlights in an entertaining quarter of football, but a late goal to Lachlan Hansen made it a six-point game at quarter-time.

Any hopes the shootout would continue were soon extinguished as the Kangaroos ran amok in the second term. The Carlton midfielders were unable to prevent the Roos getting first hands to the ball out of the middle with David Hale proving a handful up forward with two goals as North streaked away to a 34-point lead.

A long-range bomb from Fevola broke the sequence and his fifth soon after made the margin a manageable 21 points, but he turned from hero to villain when he gave away two 50m penalties in the shadows of half-time that saw Leigh Harding goal to extend their lead to 26 points at the main break.    

Simon Wiggins' day took a turn for the worse when he went into the umpire's book for charging inside the last minute of the half.

Matthew Kreuzer scrapped hard at ground level to earn a free kick which he put through the middle after the restart, but it was Carlton's only major for the term with the Roos bounding away with the last four goals of the quarter to lead it by 45 points at the final change.

The sting was well and truly out of the contest as the last quarter progressed with most interest, from a Blue perspective, centred on Fevola's bid to get closer to the 100-goal mark.

The big spearhead managed one more early in the last, but that was it as North cruised to a 51-point result that moved them into fourth spot on the ladder.

GOALS
Carlton: Fevola 6, Cloke 2, Fisher 2, Judd, Kreuzer, Russell, Scotland
North Melbourne: Grant 3, Hale 3, Harding 3, Harvey 3, Hansen 2, Jones 2, Thomas 2, Brown, McMahon, Petrie, Rawlings

BEST
Carlton: Judd, Fevola, Carrazzo, Murphy, Walker
North Melbourne: Harvey, Grant, Hale, Firrito, Harris, Pratt, Harding, Jones, Rawlings

INJURIES
Carlton: Nil
North Melbourne: Nil

Reports: Wiggins (Carlton) for charging Harding (North Melbourne)

Umpires: Vozzo, Meredith, Jeffrey

Official crowd: 43,406 at Telstra Dome

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily of the clubs or the AFL.