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Dockers make it eight from eight

Fremantle have maintained their two-game buffer at the head of the AFL table, grinding North Melbourne into the Domain Stadium turf in a resounding 73-point win.

With small forwards Michael Walters and Hayden Ballantyne making welcome returns to form and Nat Fyfe continuing his stellar start to the season the Dockers ran up their eighth straight win 17.13 (115) to 5.12 (42).

Walters kicked four goals from 16 possessions and Ballantyne kicked one with three score assists from 20 possessions, also laying four crunching tackles in his best game for some time.

Fyfe - in his 100th game for the Dockers - ran up 37 possessions including 11 from clearances, a whopping 21 in contests. He would be vying with Walters, Stephen Hill, Michael Barlow and David Mundy for yet another best on ground performance.

The Dockers established their dominance early, then rammed it home with an overwhelming second half when North were outscored eight goals to one.

The Dockers celebrate a David Mundy goal. Pic: Lincoln Baker/WA News

At quarter time, the Kangaroos had issues both in manpower and on the scoreboard. Power forward Jarrad Waite was in the rooms having a sore ankle attended to. On the board, the Dockers had kicked five goals to one in the opening term.

Even North’s solitary goal, kicked by Jamie MacMillan, was the result of a Fremantle turnover rather than of their own doing – with Michael Johnson missing Cam Sutcliffe with a simple kick from defence allowing Macmillan to run inside fifty unchallenged with the ball.

Otherwise this was a quarter marked by home team domination from siren to siren. The Dockers had kicked the first goal of the game inside two minutes with Michael Walters running down Ben Jacobs directly in front of goals to earn a free kick for the first.

The second came just as quickly by virtue of a Matthew Pavlich soccer and the third, yes, just as fast again – Walters this time pouncing on a loose ball from a boundary throw in to snap truly.

The Roos improved in general play after that but didn’t make inroads on the scoreboard and the Dockers were nursing a 26 point lead at the first change.

Zac Clarke and Todd Goldstein jostle for position. Pic: Lincoln Baker/WA News

The second quarter was more even but the Dockers had still edged a further eight points clear by the main break. They had to withstand a mid-quarter rally by the Kangaroos to do it.

Lindsay Thomas had kicked the first goal of the quarter after a holding free paid against Lee Spurr on a lead from the goalsquare and Jack Ziebell and Shaun Higgins got back to back goals mid-term to drag the lead back to 20 points.

But late goals to Ballantyne and Lachie Neale eased Fremantle clear at the main break.

Fremantle were accumulating a mountain of midfield possession without really translating it onto the scoreboard. Fyfe went to half time with 20 touches including 11 in contests while Stephen Hill had had the ball 18 times, Neale and Clancee Pearce 16 times each.

Jacobs, Brent Harvey, Sam Wright and Ben Cunnington had all gathered a reasonable amount of ball for the visitors and Scott Thompson was doing a good job on Pavlich but North had a lot of work to do in the second half to get themselves back into the game.

Mundy, right, remonstrates with Goldstein, as Aaron Sandilands looks on. Pic: Getty Images

And by three quarter time they were further out of it with little or no hope. The Dockers kicked four goals to one to blow the lead out to 53 points. It was a gradual grind rather than a surge by now. They pressed up on North defenders trying to shift the ball across the ground to find a way forward.

Matt Taberner, Chris Mayne, Walters and Mundy all cashed in on North disposal errors. North’s solitary goal came from a fast break all the way from defence which Harvey was able to get on the end of.

And the last quarter was more of the same. Ross Lyon subbed a sore Pavlich out of the game early in the term but it was still a four goals to noting result as Taberner, Mundy, sub Tom Sheridan and Barlow hit the scoreboard.

North did themselves no favours in trying to make the scoreboard more respectable with Waite, Todd Goldstein and Lindsay Thomas all missing reasonably straight forward shots on goal which might have at least put a dent in the margin.

A night to remember for Nat Fyfe. Pic: Getty Images

Dockers coach Ross Lyon said Pavlich had a tight adductor during the week and was subbed off as a precaution.

"It was a good performance off the challenges that were in front of us - a very good football team and a six-day break," Lyon said of the performance.

"We're hungry and we're working hard."

North Melbourne coach Brad Scott conceded "schoolboy errors" let his team down.

"We just got killed in terms of errors," Scott said.

"I thought we were monstered in the contest at times.

"Fremantle provided and produced a really solid team effort where everyone contributed and no one let them down.

"That was one of the differences in the end result, that's for sure."

- with AAP