North Melbourne 4.0 6.6 10.9 12.10 (82) West Coast 3.3 3.4 4.6 6.8 (44)
Goals North Melbourne: A Black 2, L Adams 2, D Petrie 2, S Atley, A Swallow, B Cunnington, B Harvey, L Thomas, l Anthony. West Coast: M LeCras 2, M Priddis 2, N Naitanui, J Cripps.
Best North Melbourne: N Dal Santo, B Cunnington, L Greenwood, S Thompson, R Bastinac, M Firrito. West Coast: M LeCras, M Priddis, S Hurn, J Darling, A Gaff, M Rosa.
Umpires: Luke Farmer, Brendan Hosking, Robert Findlay.
Crowd: 35,914 at Patersons Stadium.
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North Melbourne ended a five-game losing streak against West Coast, with a dominant 38-point win at Patersons Stadium on Sunday night.
The 12.10 (82) to 6.8 (44) victory in difficult conditions sees the Kangaroos maintain eighth place on the ladder, with a one-game break on Adelaide and Essendon.
But as impressive as North was in claiming its second win in Perth in six rounds, veteran Brent Harvey's contest with Scott Selwood looks certain to dominate conversations during the week.
The 36-year-old looks likely to face scrutiny from the match review panel for an off-the-ball incident that forced Selwood off the ground for the start of the second term.
It's the second consecutive week that incidents between a star midfielder and his tagger will be on the talk-back agenda, after the Gold Coast's Gary Ablett's contest with the Western Bulldogs' Liam Pickering led most sport reports early last week.
Harvey's problem is that there is clear TV footage of his incident with Selwood and he appears to have collected the Eagle high with an open hand.
He does have history against West Coast, having been suspended for striking Scott's brother, Adam, during the 2012 elimination final.
North also has injury concerns, with forward Lindsay Thomas being subbed out of the game at three-quarter-time with hamstring issues
Fortunately for the Roos, they led by 39 points at the last change.
West Coast looked a shell of the side that went within eight points of Collingwood at the MCG in round 10.
And Matt Priddis' goal after the siren saved the side from recording its lowest score at home.
The Eagles' sixth loss in seven outings means they are two wins outside of the top eight, with games against Hawthorn and the Gold Coast in the next fortnight.
They have their own injury concerns, with captain Darren Glass unable to play on Sunday due to soreness left over from the clash against the Magpies, and Xavier Ellis again subbed out of the game with a lower leg-muscle issue.
And after kicking 3.3 in the first quarter, they managed just 3.5 for the rest of the game, including 2.2 in the final term when the game was out of reach.
They didn't kick a goal in the second term – and were only in the game at half-time (trailing by 20 points) because of the Roos' inaccuracies.
Harvey made the most of Selwood being off the ground at the start of the second term. After managing just two possessions in the first quarter, he had 10 in the second.
He kicked the Roos second goal for the second quarter and had a hand in two further scoring shots – all in an eight-minute period.
But Aaron Black missed and Harvey then hit the post from close range – which accounted for two of at least four gettable shots before half-time that went abegging.
North managed 2.6 for the term, though from 14 inside-50 entries to take their lead to 20 points at the main break.
The hot and cold West Coast forwards managed just one behind for the term from 12 journeys into attack for the term.
While Mark LeCras threatened to take hold of the game in the opening term, with two goals, Josh Kennedy looked far removed from the player who kicked 11 goals against GWS the last time they played at Patersons Stadium; and most of Jack Darling's good work was done further up the ground.
