A FIRED-UP David Noble has declared North Melbourne received a "lesson" in the side's demoralising 12-goal loss to Essendon.
The Roos went into half-time 50 points adrift but cut the margin to 30 at the last change, before ultimately losing by 72 points.
BOMBERS v KANGAROOS Full match coverage and stats
"It was poor, it was really poor on our side. We let them start well, we couldn’t wrestle anything back and we got a tiny bit of momentum in the third term, and we got a lesson," Noble said.
"We clearly got a lesson today on quick use of the ball, turnover and punishing the opposition."
While Noble was happy with his side's third-term efforts, he wasn't thrilled with the fact it was only one quarter in length.
"We only rallied for a quarter though, that's not good enough. We don't want to be a club that rallies for a bloody quarter, that's the frustrating and disappointing thing, we've got to rally from the start," Noble said.
"We know they've got good speed, so we tried to force more stoppages, it was a little bit more of the plan to try and densify the numbers across the ground.
"Credit to our guys, they rallied no doubt, I think we've come to expect that, it's a good make-up they have, but that's not sustainable. We don’t want to have quarters where we just bounce and say 'that's good enough', because it's clearly not good enough."
Noble said he wasn't expecting to regain any players from the club's lengthy injury list till after the bye in round 12, although Robbie Tarrant (kidney) is a chance to play some footy in the VFL next weekend.
After the VFL side had a healthy win over Essendon's VFL side, Noble said Will Phillips, Tristan Xerri and the unused sub Bailey Scott were next in line for a senior berth.
Essendon coach Ben Rutten was pleased with the Bombers' final-quarter flurry, especially after losing the third term.
"The third quarter didn't go the way we would have liked it to, there are some parts to our game we want to keep working on there," Rutten said.
"But I thought our ability to talk at three-quarter time, adjust our game a bit and for the players to go out and execute it, that's great signs for our players' level of maturity. Our guys are beginning to understand more and more what we want to do."
The Bombers held North Melbourne to 10.9 from 51 inside 50s, and while the Roos' finishing skills were lacking, Rutten was pleased at the cohesiveness shown by the backline.
"That's another game that our defenders get to play together. We're about 10 games into their journey as a backline group.
"We're really positive about that backline group and what they can do together moving forward. Today's a little step forward and another experience they get to share."