A strong final term took the edge off of a difficult defeat to St Kilda, with North Melbourne’s five goal to one fourth quarter serving as a reminder as to what this young side is capable of when everything clicks.

Much like against Essendon in Round 10, North started slowly but rallied after the main break, going on to win the second half, but lose the game by 20 points.

While there are plenty of positives to take from the game, a fast-starting opposition once again had North on the back foot from the first bounce, once again forcing the boys in royal blue and white to battle back after early setbacks.

“I still think our trend is going forward if you have a look at our numbers in totality … there are parts of our game we’re still growing and developing,” coach David Noble said.

“I thought we battled back well in regards to clearances, contested ball and uncontested ball in the back end. There are some markers in there that we’re still reasonably happy with.

“The last fortnight we haven’t been able to restrict teams and get a bit of scoreboard pressure ourselves. 

“Overall, we still feel like there’s areas of growth we’ve improved in, and they’re probably more internal markers than just the raw numbers that come out.”

The improvement and performance of Bailey Scott after proving himself at VFL level shows despite North’s crop of injuries, there is competition for spots in the senior side, and arguably no player has embodied that more in 2021 than Tristan Xerri.

The young ruck has been a dominant force at VFL level, but the strong form of Tom Campbell and Todd Goldstein in the senior side means an AFL recall in 2021 has eluded him.

Noble says Xerri needs to provide more in the forward half of the ground to usurp one of two current rucks.

“We looked at Tristan coming in and he hasn’t had enough time forward. Tom (Campbell) kicked two goals last week and was still pretty reasonable in regards to his movement around the ground, up forward and in the ruck. There’s no doubt Tristan is putting pressure on,” he said.

We’ve been working with Tristan really hard on his forward craft. Tom probably leads a little bit more naturally and supports Nick (Larkey) down that end.

“If ‘TC’ (Campbell) or ‘Goldy’ (Todd Goldstein) aren’t performing well enough then obviously ‘X’ (Xerri) comes into the equation. We’re conscious of it, but there needs to be a bit of credit given to Tom as to how he’s actually been performing.”

Aaron Hall once again put in a strong performance from the half-back flank, combining well with Jack Ziebell to launch forward forays through the middle of the ground.

Hall’s move to the backline has been something of a revelation for an undermanned North defence, with the veteran’s leadership, experience and vocal instruction all lending themselves well to the new role.

Just a few games into his new role, Hall is thriving. Noble says while his ball use out of the back third is impressive, it’s not the only strong part of his defensive game.

“We threw the challenge to him (Hall) about six weeks ago now. We felt we didn’t have enough bounce to get into the front half of the ground,” Noble said.

“The two things are to be able to defend your man and then bounce and give us some run. When we can get him to find that short target and create that option and overlap it becomes really good, but he’s also got that functionality to be able to kick it long and get it out of the danger zone.

“We talked to him about how we’d like the half back role to be played … credit to him, he’s playing really consistently back there.”