North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson insists only Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera's four goals hurt the Kangaroos in their 31-point defeat to St Kilda.

Nearly a year to the day since he inspired St Kilda to a famous comeback against Melbourne, Wanganeen-Milera produced one of the best individual games of 2026 with 46 disposals and four goals on Sunday at Marvel Stadium.

The Saints superstar had a third quarter for the ages when he pushed forward, kicking three goals from 10 touches to destroy the Kangaroos.

But Clarkson said North "know the way he plays" and didn't want to send tagger Finn O'Sullivan to "the goal square to take our kick-ins".

"Their whole game plan is nearly set up around him; it wasn't so much the possessions that hurt us as the goals," Clarkson said.

"That's why he's best on ground - he kicks four goals.

"He's always going to get his touches ... he's running past, and every time he runs past, they give him the footy.

"As you'll see in a lot of cases, they give him the footy in wrong spots, and it actually hurts them.

"But four times he got the ball in the right spots and kicks goals, and that's what hurts us the most."

Wanganeen-Milera also registered 1062 metres gained - more than half a kilometre greater than the game's next best, St Kilda's Darcy Wilson (489).

He became just the fifth player in the AFL era to kick four goals and have more than 40 possessions, and the first since the legendary Gary Ablett Jr did so for Gold Coast in 2012.

"Perfection doesn't exist," St Kilda coach Ross Lyon said of Wanganeen-Milera's game.

"He'll get James Jordan this week (against Sydney), and it's going to get a lot harder, like it was against (Geelong's) Oisin Mullin.

"They're (North), like us, trying to improve their footy, and he (Wanganeen-Milera) got a bit more of a look, but he did work hard.

"He would have taken the feedback last week (against Geelong)."

Australian Associated Press