North Melbourne coach Brad Scott declared Andrew Swallow is a genuine AFL star after the midfielder's extraordinary performance against Adelaide.

Swallow torched the Crows in the first quarter and was easily best on the field as the Kangaroos beat the Crows by 47 points on Sunday at Etihad Stadium, 19.7 (115) to 10.8 (68).

Three days after his 24th birthday, Swallow kicked the first goal of the match and went on a ball-winning rampage through the first term.

At quarter-time, he had a whopping 17 possessions, 14 of them contested, and 10 clearances.

The entire Adelaide side had 29 contested possessions in the first term and only three clearances.

Despite a quiet second term and a brief spell in the final quarter, when Swallow thought he had suffered a leg injury, he finished the game with 39 disposals.

His 18 clearances were one short of the AFL record.

Scott said Swallow and his fellow midfielders had combined superbly in the first term.

"It (Swallow's first quarter) is certainly up there. He was absolutely fantastic and against some really good-quality inside midfielders from the opposition," Scott said.

"I also thought Jack Ziebell and Daniel Wells, Levi Greenwood played a really important role in that first quarter as well.

"Our midfield is starting to develop slowly and Andrew Swallow is now a genuine star of the competition."

The Kangaroos' third win of the season honoured Brent Harvey as he equalled the club record of 311 games.

It also came on the back of more accurate goalkicking - a big problem for the Kangaroos this season.

"It was nice to get my hands on the footy early. It was just good we went down and kicked the goals this week - that was probably the big difference," Swallow said.

It was also pleasing for Scott that they were finally able to kill off an opponent after working hard to gain the ascendancy.

But they still gave away two 50m penalties - another ongoing problem - in the third term when Adelaide were only four goals behind.

Scott forgave Ziebell for his 50m penalty, but was blunt in assessing defender Scott Thompson's blunder.

"There's no point in me asking what he was thinking, because he really wasn't thinking anything - he needs to think," Scott said of Thompson.

Jamie MacMillan was taken to hospital with a fractured cheekbone after a heavy collision in the first term, and Adelaide's Richard Douglas will come under video scrutiny for the incident.

It was another bad loss for the Crows, who share a 3-7 record with the Kangaroos, but the two teams were heading in opposite directions.

Crows coach Neil Craig said his team showed more spirit than during last week's shock loss to Brisbane, but added their underperforming midfield remained a major problem and one they would not fix quickly.

"At least today we showed some fight to stay in the game to a certain extent - as in we're not going to get blown away by 15-16 goals," Craig said.

"But we need to do a lot of work on our stoppages and our mid-field in general."

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