The Kangaroos were seeking their fourth straight win and their third since Shaw's appointment as caretaker coach. For much of Sunday afternoon's clash at Blundstone Arena, they looked a red-hot chance, matching their more fancied opponents across a bruising first half.

But the Giants rose to the challenge, cracking open the contest with an irresistible run of seven unanswered goals across the third and fourth terms to record their ninth win of the season.

The 14.7 (91) to 10.8 (68) result sees GWS jump Collingwood into second position ahead of their bye next weekend, keeping them well and truly in the mix for a top-four finish.

The Giants midfield unit was on fire - Josh Kelly (35 disposals, six clearances), Stephen Coniglio (27 disposals, two goals), Tim Taranto (30 disposals) and Jacob Hopper (29 disposals, eight clearances) all saw plenty of the ball, while Shane Mumford edged Todd Goldstein for hit-outs, and tagger Matt de Boer added the scalp of Ben Cunnington (16 touches) to his growing collection.

Tall forwards Jeremy Cameron, Jeremy Finlayson and Harry Himmelberg were reasonably quiet - each kicked one goal - but Toby Greene was electric in his return from injury and kicked three.

Former decathlete Jake Stein was also impressive on debut, laying on eight tackles and eight 'one per centers' as part of a defensive unit that kept North Melbourne to just three goals across the entire second half - the last two coming right at the death.

The first half was much more even. In fact, according to the scoreboard, it was even - scores were level at the long break.

It was a textbook clash of styles: the Giants dominated in the clearances, leading 30-19, which is where they generated all six of their first-half goals from, while five of North's six came from intercepts. That was the game in a nutshell. At the start of the second quarter it looked like the Giants were ready to run away with it. They kicked the first two majors through Zac Williams and Greene in the space of a minute to open up a 14-point lead. But the Kangaroos kept things tight in the clinches, reeled them in and fired straight back with two of their own.

They looked to have strung together a third, which would have given them the lead, when Ben Brown snapped in the 14th minute, but another highly contentious score review meant a behind was awarded instead. GWS co-captain Phil Davis supposedly got his finger on the ball but there was nothing conclusive about the footage.

North eventually put their noses in front just after half-time. Taranto was lining up for a shot on goal but, just as the ball left his boot, the umpires whistled for a turnover after spotting Himmelberg hit out at Sam Durdin in the goalsquare. It was harsh, and it felt doubly so after the 'Roos trundled up the other end and scored through Trent Dumont.

It was the only goal they scored all quarter. GWS finally started to get on top in the armwrestle and the scoreboard rewards flowed with a quick three-goal burst from Coniglio, Taranto and Brett Deledio.

Cameron added a fourth late in the piece and the margin blew out to 18 points - at that stage, the biggest of the game. From then on, it was one-way traffic.

Meanwhile, the Western Bulldogs and Tom Liberatore are breathing sighs of relief, with scans confirming the star midfielder has not ruptured an anterior cruciate ligament. Liberatore limped to the bench in the second quarter of the Dogs' three-point win over Carlton at Marvel Stadium on Saturday night after jarring his right knee while chasing Kade Simpson.

He was unable to return, raising fears he could need a third knee reconstruction.

But while he avoided the worst-case scenario, the 27-year-old is set for a period on the sidelines as he will undergo exploratory surgery to determine the extent of cartilage damage sustained in the incident.

He is expected to have surgery early in the week.