It was the acquisition of Emma Kearney and Kaitlyn Ashmore that grabbed most of the headlines, but quiet-achiever Jess Duffin’s recruitment has been as important as any according to North’s head coach, Scott Gowans.

The former Magpie arrived with little fanfare, joining in pre-season training late, after her cricket season with the Melbourne Stars ended.

Since then, she hasn’t put a foot wrong.

Despite being just 162cm, Duffin sits 2nd in the league for marks (25), 2nd for kicks (57) and 4th for intercept possessions (28).

The backline general, Duffin is a big reason behind the North Melbourne Tasmanian Kangaroos’ strong start.

“I was adamant, I still am adamant, she’s in the top five players in the competition,” North AFLW coach Scott Gowans said.

But the number 27 is quick to play-down her outstanding form.

“I honestly don’t feel like I’m in any better form than any other year,” Duffin said.

“I think it’s just because I have such good people around me in the backline that my job’s a little bit easier.”

The likes of Danielle Hardiman, Britt Gibson and Tahlia Randall have starred alongside Duffin down back, helping the Roos to a four-game unbeaten run.  

Her former Collingwood teammates Emma King, Jas Garner and Mo Hope have also played a key role.

“Emma can take the ruck and roll forward … she kicks goals late in the game because everyone else is tired — that’s exactly why she’s in the team,” Gowans said.

“If you’re going to have a fast ball movement side, you’ve got to have players up forward that can mark and kick straight; we chased Jassy (Garner) really hard.

“We wanted the best forwards in the competition and when you look up Champion Data, Mo was the third-best-rated forward, even though she hadn’t kicked seven goals every game.”

Talent side, Gowans said the Roos’ success was built on a defined game-plan.

“It’s not so much restricting oppositions – it’s about scoring more than the opposition,” he said.

“We built a team to play to a game plan. A lot of it was really significantly planned.

“There’s certain players that would be more rated in the competition than what we got, but we passed on them, even though some of them actually contacted us and we’re interested in having a chat, we sort of said, ‘no, sorry, you’re just not in our plans’.”

North will face perhaps its biggest challenge yet against the in-form Adelaide Crows on Sunday at Avalon Airport Oval, Werribee.

“We’re four-nil because we’ve had a little bit of luck and you need a little bit of luck to be a premiership side,” Gowans told the Herald Sun.

“Our focus this week is to play four quarters of footy.