Defender Jamie Macmillan says win-loss records will mean little when North Melbourne takes on Sydney on Saturday night.

Both teams have just two wins to their name after eight rounds, and sit 16th (Sydney) and 17th (North) on the AFL ladder.

But Macmillan knows things can turn quickly.

“Sydney has always had a pretty strong identity on how they play,” he told The Mercury.

“They’ve always played a tough, contested brand of footy and that hasn’t changed for them.

“It’s like all games of footy, it’s about winning the ball in the contest, and we’ve rediscovered our identity, or really brought it back, over the past couple of weeks.”

Macmillan believes the Roos have overcome their tough start to the season and are starting to hit their straps.

“The feeling in the group is really positive and the club has got a really good feeling about it,” he said.

“That’s more come about over the past three weeks as opposed to the start of the year, where we weren’t going so well in the first few rounds and we were really struggling.

“The past three weeks we’ve been able to peel back what our game looks like and put in some really good performances.

“Everyone talks about the wins and losses, and they are the outcomes of the processes you are going through.

“But when you are a little bit lost on the process, which we probably were earlier in the year, you lose your way a bit.

“We’ve been really strong in the last few weeks on what the process looks like.

“Yes, we lost against Port Adelaide but we played some really good footy in patches, and we lost last week to Geelong, which is obviously disappointing, but the process piece around what our game should look like was really strong.

“That’s where you get the confidence from.

“The guys are pretty confident that we will be able to play some good footy.”

The players travelled to Hobart on Friday afternoon, ahead of the Saturday night fixture at Blundstone Arena.