Nash Holmes isn’t taking the efforts from last week’s thrilling upset over Port Melbourne for granted.

The hard-working midfielder has heaped praised on North’s emerging youngsters following a resilient showing against reigning VFL premiers at North Port Oval.

“It was a really good effort,” Holmes told North Media.

“We came out there with Port Melbourne being clear favourites to win, everyone just played their role. Like one of our quotes, we’re never beaten.

“We just stuck with that all day. We played really good footy and to get the four points at their ground, it was a really good win.”

A member of club’s VFL leadership group, Holmes has slotted seamlessly into North’s midfield engine room.

Despite superb statistical showings in back-to-back games against Port Melbourne and Richmond, he echoed the thoughts of another North midfielder, Nathan Hrovat, expressing the importance of not just looking at numbers. 

“The stats aren’t everything,” he said.

“I just try to play my role every week. As long as I’m doing my role for the team and we get the four points, that’s the main focus. That’s what we look forward to every week.

“We try hard every game and during the week to get better, trying to win a lot of that inside footy and get it to the outside players. It’s what we want to keep doing every week.”

With one of the league's strongest sides, Box Hill next up, Holmes and his teammates are ready to embrace the challenges. 

“The message has been to maintain the effort and make sure we don’t drop off,” he said.

“To believe in ourselves and to believe in what we’re doing will work. If we play our role and play as a team, [the results] will continue to come.

“It was really good to see our composure in the dying stages [against Port Melbourne]. We were just up but we were good with the footy. We weren’t rushing it too much. They were really good signs for us moving forward.”

Patience has been a consistent theme at Arden St, with a young list that is continuing to show promise.

One player who had an immediate impact last week was Nick Hogan. 

“For Nick to come in and make an impact like he did, he was really good,” Holmes said.

“We’re getting around the young kids to make sure they get involved with everything they can. They didn’t build Rome in a day, it will take time as we’re gelling together as a team.

“We need to make sure we don’t stop believing and keep going forward.”

Fans are invited to attend Saturday’s VFL match against Box Hill at Avalon Airport Oval, with the first bounce at 2.10pm. Entry to home games is free for NMFC members.