THE last quarter had just ticked into time-on when Shannon Grant marked about 60 metres from the North Melbourne goal. Harry O'Brien arrived late, Grant hit the ground and the umpire decided to knock 50 metres off his set shot.

Ten minutes earlier, North had seemingly been out of the match. The Roos had scored the second goal of the last quarter but Collingwood had kicked the first and the third, Josh Fraser's snap pushing the Magpies 21 points clear in a match they had always seemed to hold some level of control over.

If Grant kicked a goal, North would take the lead, and he would also replace one of his more infamous moments with a fonder memory. In round one last year, Grant had a shot for goal from almost the exact same spot, late in the game, and against the team. He missed, and the Kangaroos lost.

This time was different. He kicked a goal, North hit the lead and then held on to win.

"I can't lie," said Grant after the game, which his team won by seven points. "It did run through my head, but the only thing I thought was: 'Kick the goal.' I kept it pretty simple. I'm glad it was a better result."

North had never been entirely out of this match; the one time it did seem gone, when Fraser kicked that goal, was when it actually did get going. The Roos lost all inhibition, pumping the ball from the centre time and time again.

Nathan Thompson created contests that Matt Campbell sat at the bottom of. Lindsay Thomas missed a low, skimmed snap by centimetres and curled another set shot into the post, but the Roos kept kicking it to him and in the end, he scored, kicking three of the seven his side threw together from nothing.

After Grant scored, Ed Lower snapped another, thanks largely to a shonky centre bounce, but with 30 minutes gone, there was time for Paul Medhurst to stand and deliver his fifth goal.

There was time again for Collingwood to win a rare centre clearance, to bash the ball forward and for Alan Didak, who had been so good all night, to push his running shot to the right.

There was also time for North to force it back to the other end where, with 33 minutes gone, Campbell sat at the bottom of yet another pack, grabbed the ball, turned almost a complete circle and snapped what was, finally, the sealer.

North came from nowhere, but had been in the game earlier, when it was a messy and mistake-ridden contest.

The game wanted someone to do something — it was simply a case of which team or players would make the move — and it happened midway through the second term. Didak was the man.

In one moment, Didak watched a ruck contest, saw the ball flying his team's way and jumped to tap it, almost moving forwards himself while in the air. His tap fell to Tarkyn Lockyer, whose pass found Medhurst, for the third of three goals in three minutes that pushed Collingwood seven points ahead.

Medhurst had three second-quarter shots, and kicked two of them. Leon Davis made the most of two small moments, too, dishing a quick handball to Dane Swan before getting it back in the next instant and kicking a goal on the run.

But it was Medhurst's cameo that mattered when compared to what happened at the other end, Corey Jones taking and missing his set shots, the last on the half-time siren.

But North was still getting more of the ball. Simpson was busy, while Grant and Sam Power were sharing the ball around, and Daniel Wells' long sideways pass to Grant created the Kangaroos' seventh goal midway through the third term.

Matt Campbell had a chance to bring the Roos closer and Lindsay Thomas did just that on the run two minutes later, dragging the margin to five points. Brent Harvey and Daniel Harris got involved in the middle and then Grant snapped them to the lead after Thomas wrenched Holland to ground in the goal square.

Neither Drew Petrie nor Michael Firrito let Anthony Rocca or Travis Cloke do a huge amount and Leigh Harding was important, too, but a Fraser goal just into time on restored Collingwood's lead. While Lower scored at the start of the last, Lockyer set up two Collingwood goals before and after his shot.

First, he pumped the ball into the arms of Davis, who scored on the run. Next, he kept his feet on the wing, in a one-on-one marking contest with Hamish McIntosh that seemed impossible for Lockyer to win. Lockyer got the ball this time to Medhurst, whose standing snap put Collingwood two goals clear 10 minutes in. Fraser scored twice then, his second goal, a snap, stretching.

All night, the Magpies had seemed to know how to keep themselves just far in front enough.

This time, it wasn't quite far enough.

NORTH MELBOURNE 3.4 5.9 9.12 16.16 (112) COLLINGWOOD 2.4 8.6 10.11 15.15 (105)

GOALS: North Melbourne: Grant 3, Thomas 3, Campbell 3, Lower 2, Thompson 2, Simpson, Jones, Hale.Collingwood: Medhurst 5, Fraser 4, Davis 2, Didak, Pendlebury, R Shaw, Rocca.

BEST: Collingwood: Didak, Fraser, Davis, Medhurst, R Shaw, Lockyer.North Melbourne: Wells, Grant, Harvey, Firrito, Harding, Campbell.

REPORTS: North Melbourne: Pratt by umpire H Kennedy for allegedly charging Fraser (Collingwood) in the first quarter.

UMPIRES: Donlon, Kennedy, Sully.

CROWD: 51,990 at the MCG

THE UPSHOT

The boys from Arden Street continue to confound the critics — and it's not all just because of their fighting spirit. They created plenty of chances, missed some sitters and will front for their round-six clash with Sydney in a confident mood. The opposite will be the case for Collingwood, who must back up on a six-day break to take on Essendon in the Anzac Day blockbuster on the back of successive losses.

TALKING POINT

Collingwood's stand-in skipper Josh Fraser showed plenty of commitment and courage when he stood tall to take marks in the first and second quarters only to get crunched by Daniel Pratt, then Shannon Watt, the first transgression earning Pratt a report. Fraser made sure he hit back hard, goaling from the 50-metre penalty he received for Pratt's foul.

HOT AND COLD

Paul Medhurst had an afternoon to forget last week against Carlton. He didn't make the brightest start here, either. But he came alive in the second quarter with two majors and then buzzed brightly thereafter, notching another three.