While admitting it wasn't pretty, David Noble has lauded North Melbourne's scrappy first win of the AFL season as "important nourishment" for his developing playing group.
Behind Nick Larkey's six goals and Hugh Greenwood's strong midfield showing, the Kangaroos scrapped their way to a 10.14 (74) to 8.11 (59) victory over a severely undermanned West Coast on Sunday.
It was North's first triumph in front of a home crowd in Victoria since August 2019 - when Rhyce Shaw was still at the helm - in part because of bans on crowds at sporting events during the pandemic.
"For our fans to finally get back and see us have a win, albeit not a pretty one, but four points on the board, is not only important for our fans to come and celebrate with us," second-year coach Noble said.
"It's also important nourishment for our players.
"We shouldn't underestimate the fact we won today and our players had to grind it out.
"Whether or not we should have or should not have won by more is irrelevant.
"We won the game, it's great experience for those (players) and it's a great celebration for our fans to come back to the ground and see us win."
The narrow margin raised eyebrows after West Coast were forced to make a record 14 changes to their side, having been smashed by a COVID-19 wave and injuries during the build-up.
But Noble bristled at suggestions the Kangaroos should have had a more comfortable outing against the Eagles' patchwork team, which featured three debutants and five top-up players from their contingency list.
"I think it's a bit disrespectful to some of the players that have come in for the opposition," Noble said.
"(West Perth midfielder Aaron) Black's won a Sandover Medal, played over 200 (WAFL) games - he's a very good player that just unfortunately hasn't had an opportunity - and there's 22 players that are trying to stop us scoring.
"I don't know why there's all of a sudden just an expectation that we should win this game by X-amount.
"We needed to win this game, we needed to go to work and there were some things that we didn't get right, but there were a lot that we got right and got better than last week."
The Kangaroos face a far greater challenge against flag contenders Brisbane at the Gabba on Saturday night.
Noble knows the Lions well, having served as their football manager before taking over as North Melbourne coach in November 2020.
