BRAD Johnson, the man who has so often been the Fairy Godfather of the west, could not quite conjure one more great escape for his team last night, and so ended the Bulldogs' unbeaten run at the hands of an unrelenting and worthy North Melbourne.

The Kangaroos were able to chair their 250-game champion Brent Harvey off to delirious acclaim after Johnson pushed his 35-metre, post-siren kick at goal to the right, ensuring there would be no repeat of his round-one heroics, when three last-quarter goals pipped Adelaide at the post in his own 300th outing.

Johnson had already hit the post twice in the last quarter, hinting that the gods of football's great escapes were not with the Dogs this time.

The first of those, slammed into the upright on the run from 10 metres as Jason Akermanis bayed for the ball to his left, will haunt him as much as the last kick of the match.

The Dogs had led by as much as four goals midway through the third term, but were worn down by North's unforgiving football, allowing Harvey to cap his milestone more fittingly than seemed likely at the opening, when he was ushered from the field a stumbling, disoriented mess after an accidental meeting of his head and Ryan Hargrave's boot.

Harvey came to his senses and came back, of course, and although his influence wasn't at its usual level, he provided the game's best goal — after a three-bounce, baulking run — and one of its most crucial, screwing home a rover's special to give North the lead six minutes into the last quarter.

The Bulldogs responded immediately through a scorching left-foot pass from Robert Murphy that gifted Akermanis his fourth goal, which preceded a bizarre stretch of near misses from both teams.

Drew Petrie, whose powerful mark had begun the quarter perfectly for the Roos, got a hand across Cameron Wight's boot at half-back and followed up the smother with a dish to Shannon Grant. The left-footer's eighth possession for the term crashed into the post that haunted Matthew Pavlich the previous afternoon.

Johnson then hit the woodwork twice in two minutes, before Ed Lower put the Roos back in front with a long bomb after Daniel Pratt had underscored an eight-touch finale with a booming clearance to Adam Simpson, who was also running riot at game's end.

Petrie contributed a poster of his own, but made up for it soon after when the seas parted for him at the fall of the ball and he was allowed to stroll in and convert from 20 metres.

Replays of this will not please the Bulldogs, but there were other moments — Daniel Cross inexplicably handing the ball to Shannon Watt in the middle of the ground, and Wight's unnecessarily hurried, inside-out shot on goal at the end of the third quarter — that will have eyes downcast at today's game review.

That North could bustle its way back into the contest was due in no small part to its work at the stoppages, where the grunt of Bulldogs Ben Hudson and, at his feet, Ryan Griffen, Adam Cooney and Matthew Boyd was matched and ultimately bettered by Hamish McIntosh, Simpson, Brady Rawlings and, until his knee went in the third, the scintillating Daniel Wells.

The Dogs had kept themselves moving with the caring-and-sharing football that has defined their season to date. They have not simply kicked more goals than anyone in 2008, but have kicked them in all manner of ways and through a wide variety of avenues.

Akermanis heads their goalkicking with 21, Murphy one behind him after missing the target only twice for the year, yet neither is in the league's top 10.

The trademark Bulldog goal is the slick ball-movement special, and several bore fruit last night through the sure hands and clinical feet of Akermanis.

But while there were others borne of withering pressure and old-fashioned grunt that would have pleased coach Rodney Eade, the Kangaroos were well served by more traditional mark-and-kick men in Petrie and Nathan Thompson, who was given too much latitude by Brian Lake and cashed in with four goals.

North's grip on the game's pressure valve was strong, but when it slipped with two minutes remaining and Johnson was allowed to scrub home his third goal it could so easily have been the beginning of a familiar Bulldog end.

Lining up the match-deciding shot soon after, Johnson needed to kick it to keep his team's record of scoring at least 112 points each match this year going.

In a boon for Boomer Harvey and his boys, he could not make yet another dream come true.


NTH MELBOURNE 5.3 7.7 12.11 16.17 (113)
W BULLDOGS 5.3 11.7 14.10 16.14 (110)
GOALS: North Melbourne: Thompson 4, Petrie 3, Harvey 2, Harris, McIntosh, Rawlings, Campbell, Harding, Lower, C Jones. Western Bulldogs: Akermanis 4, Murphy 3, Johnson 3, Minson 2, Cooney, Hahn, Welsh, Gilbee.
BEST: North Melbourne: McIntosh, Simpson, Pratt, Grant, Thompson, Petrie, Wells. Western Bulldogs: Akermanis, Boyd, Griffen, Cooney, Murphy, Hudson.
UMPIRES: M Nicholls, Ryan, Stevic.
CROWD: 34,971 at Telstra Dome.

THE UPSHOT
At one stage yesterday, with Melbourne leading Hawthorn, it seemed possible the Bulldogs could finish round nine on top of the ladder. In the end they missed a chance to sneak past Geelong, and the marketing dream that might have been next weekend's meeting with the Hawks in Launceston didn't quite eventuate.

THE TALKING POINT
Brad Johnson's kick after the siren, which somehow just never seemed like it was going to produce another fairytale result. It will be replayed endlessly, no doubt, but no more than his two last-term posters.

HOT AND COLD
Brent Harvey's 250th started in a blur when he was knocked senseless four minutes in, yet by quarter-time he had produced the game's best goal with a searing run down the wing. His influence was limited, but a second major early in the last term gave the Roos the lead.