NORTH Melbourne interim coach Darren Crocker says his side made real progress on Sunday despite losing by 22 points to the highly-rated Western Bulldogs.

Crocker revealed he had issued players with a 10-week vision for what he wanted them to achieve in the rest of 2009.

He said they had taken significant steps along that road at the MCG on Sunday, his first game in charge.

The Roos bettered their recent efforts in getting 52 inside 50s, beat the Bulldogs at the contested ball and played with more dash and daring than earlier in the season.

And Crocker suggested that bold attitude would continue despite the Roos conceding more than 10 goals from turnovers.

“Obviously we made a few blues at different times but we are going to really encourage the guys to take the game on,” Crocker said.

“We wanted to win the contested footy today, which we need to do to make sure we have a hard edge, and I thought our uncompromising attack on the footy was good.

“And I thought at times, our supporters would have been excited with the way we moved the footy through the middle part of the ground.”

One player who won’t be part of the run home in ’09 is Ben Warren who broke his fibula early in Sunday’s game.

Crocker visited him in hospital last night and said it was shattering blow for the youngster.

It raised the degree of difficulty in the coaches’ box but Crocker said he was proud of the effort of the other 21 players.

“You come in first game and you want to have a win first up but, unfortunately, [as] I just told my children, fairytales don’t always come true,” Crocker said.

“I was really proud of the guys in the way they approached the game, I thought their effort and endeavour was fantastic and it has been since the Tuesday that Dean announced that he was giving it away.”

North really damaged their chances of victory when they booted 3.5 in a third term they dominated.

To make matters worse, they conceded late goals through turnovers.

“When you look at scoring from turnovers they were a lot more accurate than us,” Crocker said.

“We had one more shot from turnovers, which was a big part of the game, but they were a hell of a lot more accurate, they kicked 10.5 from turnovers whereas we kicked 7.9.

“But the effort and the intent and the way they applied themselves was spot on.”

Crocker also suggested out-of-form full forward David Hale was not far away from a break-out game.

“There was one [mark] in particular where I thought I saw a little bit of David of old,” Crocker said.

“Brian Lake was right up his ginger and Haley marked it in a really strong contested situation so I reckon there are some signs there.”