Ruckman Majak Daw has gained new-found confidence after making a successful comeback from injury, but says there is still plenty to learn.

In his first game back since dislocating his foot in August last year, the 23-year-old accumulated 24 hit-outs, 14 disposals and seven marks in North’s first NAB Challenge match against Adelaide on Sunday.

Daw, who showcased his strong vertical leap in the ruck and in marking contests, said it was pleasing to take part in his first competitive match in six months.

“For me personally, there’s a few things that I’ve been working on during the pre-season with my development coaches which is my marking technique and ... my ruck work so I was happy to see what I’ve been working on at training come out in the game,” Daw told NMFC.com.au on Monday.

“But in saying that, I’ve still got a long way to go and I’ve just got to keep training.”

In another plus, Daw said he has pulled up well from the match after his extended period on the sidelines.

“It’s been a pretty solid pre-season, I’ve pulled up a lot sorer at training than I have in the game so that’s a positive,” he said.

In his post-match media conference, senior coach Brad Scott was satisfied with Daw’s efforts but said he still has “a lot of work to do” in refining parts of his game – and the 195cm big man shares the same view.

“Scotty’s point is spot on ... and that will come with more training, more games that I play and it’s really up to me how much development I want to do in that area,” Daw said.

“(That includes) watching a lot of games, picking the brains of guys like Drew Petrie and watching other forwards of the competition.”

If the Roos’ first hit-out of the year is any indication, Daw is aiming to spend time in the ruck this season with stints in attack, easing the load on first-choice ruckman Todd Goldstein.

Despite the 10-point loss to the Crows, Daw said the clash provided a good chance to get some much-needed game time under the belt.

“As a team, we started off fairly slow ... and we were a little bit underprepared but we worked on our defence and our ball movement,” he said.

“It was just good to see guys like Ben Cunnington, Jack Ziebell put in a good contest, win the ball inside and, importantly, the way the forward line functioned.”