COACH Dean Laidley took the unusual step of singling out a specific player — Daniel Pratt — as being largely to blame for North Melbourne's sudden demise after quarter-time against Adelaide at AAMI Stadium.

Asked why the Kangaroos suddenly folded, Laidley said: "We gave the ball back to them … they kicked 11.8 from our turnovers, so that's it in a nutshell."

Laidley then focused on Pratt, saying: "I thought our pressure was very good (early). We should have only been two goals (behind) at half-time, which I was pretty pleased with, but then you get undisciplined Daniel Pratt, and he really has to look at himself because the coach is getting sick and tired of him giving away 50-metres penalties.

"You end up going three-and-a-half goals down and all of a sudden you quickly find yourself seven or eight goals down and the game's been blown open."

Laidley was not interested in the Kangaroos' last quarter, when they kicked 6.2. "The game was all over then," he said. "The result was beyond doubt. We were very poor in the third quarter. You talk about critical moments in games of footy and they were very good in critical moments when the game was won."

The win for the Crows came with a price — forward Richard Douglas strained the medial ligament in his left knee and will be assessed further today or tomorrow.

Coach Neil Craig was naturally pleased with Adelaide's slow start, but slammed his players for a tame last quarter.

"I thought our first three quarters were fantastic against a real quality side," Craig said.