Transforming Drew Petrie from a jack of all trades to a permanent forward has been the key to him becoming one of the league’s most dangerous players according to North Melbourne assistant coach Brett Allison.

“We’ve really tried to settle him down since Brad (Scott) took over,” Allison told SEN’s Mark Fine and Nigel Carmody.

“Before that time he seemed to be a bit of a spare parts man and was thrown around the ground a bit to fill holes.”

Petrie has kicked a remarkable 22 goals and just 1 behind in his past five matches.

“He seems to be enjoying it and we’re reaping the rewards for it.”

Allison believes North’s conditioning staff deserve credit for ensuring the club’s match committee has a full list to choose from each week.

“We had a lot of injury problems the first two seasons I was involved there but this year to the credit of the conditioners and the medical staff, they’ve been right on top of everything from day one in the pre-season.”

Getting games into the Kangaroos’ up-and-comers has also been vital. Allison works closely with excitement machine Kieran Harper and says he’s not far away from taking the leap from an impact player to a four-quarter performer.

“He (Harper) is a really exciting talent. He’s another who’s got some real pace and some tricks when he’s got the ball in hands,” he added.

“He probably suffers that half-forward graveyard-type syndrome at times. That position you can have days where the ball won’t leave you alone and then other days it seems it doesn’t matter where you go you can’t get it in your hands.

“We’ll just keep working through that with Harps, but obviously a few of the goals he’s kicked this season for us show he’s going to be a real player of the future.”

The two-time premiership player is also expecting big things from defensive pair Jamie Macmillan and Shaun Atley in years to come.

“Jamie and Shaun have really cemented positions in the team this season.

“Jamie’s been really reliable for us and played his role week in, week out for us.

“Shaun’s been fantastic back there. We’ve been able to play him on most of the opposition’s dangerous small forwards and he does a really good job there, as well as giving us a bit of rebound when we are able to turn the ball over.”

Allison says the club’s emerging stars will benefit from another pre-season in Utah but for now, the focus is firmly on the Bulldogs this Saturday with the Round 7 loss still fresh in the mind of the Kangaroos’ players.

“We were playing some not so good football and the Bulldogs were up and about. There seems to have been a bit of a reversal with the two teams.

“We know the Bulldogs have got some really dangerous players and Tory Dickson’s one that we’ll be keeping our eye on. (Daniel) Giansiracusa is a smart, crafty player that continually kicks goals for them and then you’ve got that midfield strength of (Matthew) Boyd and (Ryan) Griffen.

“There’s plenty of young talent there. The Bulldogs probably see themselves on the same path as us, trying to bring young talent through that’s going to play a lot of footy together for the next few years.”