Ben Brown says fellow forward Drew Petrie has played a huge role in his development as a footballer.

Petrie, along with Brent Harvey, Michael Firrito and Nick Dal Santo, is in his final year at North Melbourne, but Brown believes he’ll leave a lasting legacy.

"[I like] the way he (Petrie) goes about his preparation, everything he does at the club he does to try to improve, which is something that is quite rare," Brown told The Age’s Larissa Nicholson.

"That's something I've tried to take on myself, to make sure I make the most of my time here and really look to improve."

Brown said the departing players had dealt with last fortnight’s announcement with absolute professionalism.

"They all want a premiership; they understand that difficult decisions have to be made in a club scenario. I understand that too," he said.

"It was tough to begin with, but they've really focused us on the task at hand."

That task begins next Saturday night, with a cut-throat Elimination Final against Adelaide.

While Brown won’t have it easy trying to hit the scoreboard against the Crows’ defenders, it’s perhaps the other end of the ground where the game could be won or lost.

The likes of Eddie Betts and Josh Jenkins have been in fine form all year, with only inaccurate kicking stopping the former from kicking a bag when the teams last met.

Jenkins booted five back in Round 1 and has kicked 60 goals for the season.

"It obviously helps when you've got two star players dominating, that's even without considering Tex Walker and Charlie Cameron, Mitch McGovern, who have been playing really good footy," Brown said.

The Crows will go in as favourites in front of a huge Adelaide Oval crowd, but despite winning just two of their last 11 matches, the Roos have challenged some of the league’s best teams in recent weeks.

"I think we can take some confidence from that and our previous finals experience helps as well," Brown added.