While every team hopes they are ‘flying’ going into Round 1, it’s simply impossible to gauge how a team will fare until that very first bounce. 

For North, it all kicks off on Sunday against Fremantle, in the perfect test of the team’s progress.

With the crowd against them, and injuries to key players, the Roos will need to be at their very best to take home the four points.

“It will be great to bring out all the things we have been practicing in pre-season,” forwards coach Leigh Tudor told North Media. 

“It’s been a long pre-season but a really good one. ”

The Roos were experimental during the JLT Community Series, with numerous players moving through the attacking half of the ground.

Like the entire team, Tudor’s group of forwards are desperate to put all their hard work into action.  

“We tried a few things in the pre-season, especially in the JLT games. We’ve had a lot of guys go through there, and tried some different positions,” he said. 

“We’ve had good couple of weeks on the track and we know exactly what we want to do and we’re ready to go.

“Forward pressure has been a really massive part of how we’ve played in the last 5 or 6 years. We want to see that pressure, and we want to be able to score on turnover.”

But North won’t have it easy.

“Ross Lyon sides’ are really good defensive sides, so we know we will have to be at our best,” Tudor said. 

One player in particular catching Tudor’s eye, with a potential match-up against milestone man Ben Brown on the cards. 

“(Joel) Hamling is a premiership player and a very underrated player,” he added.

“Browny (Ben Brown) has done a lot of work this week so he knows how to get him and how to give himself the best chance to beat him.”