Despite one of its best starts in history, no one at North Melbourne will be taking their foot of the pedal according to James Brayshaw.

In his final year as Chairman, he told The Age that the club is striving to build sustained success and must capitalise on two consecutive preliminary finals appearances and top four finishes.

"That's what Hawthorn have done. They've been brilliant at it," Brayshaw said.

"They've had an amazing run of success, and through their administration have been good enough to capitalise on it. They're an incredible organisation that is the envy of the competition."

Since taking the reins in 2007, Brayshaw said he's proud of what the club has achieved but insists there's still plenty to do.

"I looked on Friday night and saw 47,000 people watching us play the Western Bulldogs," he said.

"Go back to 2008, when this administration first took over, and that would have been a pipe dream. By the end of this year, we'll have less than a million dollars owing in debt. It was $8.5 million. The footy club's unrecognisable now to what it was back then."

"It's been an eight-year build," he added.

"Our footy department recommended to our board that we empty the list out and start again. We got rid of 28 players in three years, and a lot of them were pretty experienced. It was a pretty bold move. Mentally, we were resigning ourselves to some pretty tough years."

While it lead to some challenging years on the field, North stayed the course and it paid dividends.

Now six wins and no losses on the start of the year, Brayshaw hopes the team can build on the momentum and believes missing out the Grand Final after losing to West Coast last year will spur them on.

"My great hope is that some resolve would come out of the West Coast game. I think there's genuine belief in our club that if we keep our noses to the ground and keep working our backsides off, the chance is there to do something really special.

"We've got a huge amount of work to do. No one's getting carried away. No one at North ever does."

As for his third and final term at the head of the club, Brayshaw strongly believes nine years is plenty.

"Three terms is enough," he said Brayshaw.

"I think that's a good thing. It's an opportunity to get new eyes and ears into that role. I think it's really exciting. I can't wait to see where the rest of this year takes us. At that time, I will very happily hand over."