North Melbourne have started their AFL season of great expectations with a monumental flop.

Coach Brad Scott was livid after Essendon beat the Kangaroos by 39 points on Friday night at Etihad Stadium.

The ‘Roos are widely tipped to return to the top eight, but they started slowly against the Bombers and never quite recovered.

Apart from briefly hitting the front in the second term, North failed to match Essendon’s intensity.

“The bottom line for us now is if you can’t win the ball and you can’t defend well enough to get it back, I don’t care what you can do with the ball in your hands,” Scott said.

“You won’t play for us – it’s as simple as that.

“Tonight’s performance was as disappointing a performance as I can recall.”

Scott was particularly alarmed that North lost the contested possession count by 47.

“That’s just so unlike the group we have – that came as a complete shock to me,” he said.

“We have a short amount of time to rectify it.”

Scott also promised some tough contact work at training ahead of the round-two clash against the Western Bulldogs.

“If we cop a few contact-type injuries at training, you have to live with that because we have to be better in the contest,” he said.

“We’ve been chasing our tails the last few years and here we are again,” he said.

“We have to make sure we turn it around in nine day’s time back here.”

Ruckman Todd Goldstein will have scans after hurting his left shoulder in the first term.

Goldstein bravely played out the game, but clearly was struggling.

It might mean Dan Currie comes into the side as their No.1 ruckman.

“If he gets his opportunity I expect him to take it,” Scott said.

For all his post-match severity, there was a glimmer of hope for the North coach.

“If there is a positive to come out of (Friday) night for us, it’s that we were horrific,” he said.

“Yet I felt we were in the game pretty much the whole night, right up until probably halfway through the last quarter.”