After a summer when North Melbourne deliberately tried to keep a low profile, coach Brad Scott is ready for his Kangaroos to make some noise.
Scott named a strong squad for the club's AFL NAB Challenge opener against Adelaide in Port Lincoln on Sunday with recruits Jarrad Waite and Shaun Higgins joining the likes of Brent Harvey, Jack Ziebell, Andrew Swallow, Drew Petrie and Daniel Wells in the line-up.
Wary of the hype that will inevitably follow his side this season after last year's top-four finish, Scott opted for a quieter build-up, but is now keen to see how that preparation translates on the field.
"We've tried to keep a relatively low profile through the pre-season because we know that actions are what count," Scott said on Thursday.
"We're not suggesting that we're absolutely ready to go, but we're looking forward to taking the first step.
"We really feel that we've been training for a long time and we want to start to implement some of the things that we've been working on straight away."
The AFL have laid on a direct charter flight to Port Lincoln for North Melbourne, with Scott pleased with positive reports he's received on the condition of the surface at Centenary Oval, which will hold a sell-out crowd of 6000 fans.
The Kangaroos will kick off the season proper against the Crows at Adelaide Oval, but Scott isn't afraid of showing his hand in the pre-season series.
"I don't think we'll flirt with our form too much," he said.
"We trained all pre-season to practise some things so we're not going to try to hide those things away just because we play the Crows again in a month.
"We've got to focus a fair bit on our own game - we can't be too cagey about that sort of stuff."
Scott hasn't given up hope of important defender Lachie Hansen being part of that round one side, despite his ongoing recovery from post-season hip surgery.
"He's feeling a lot better than the medical guys think he's going - he really feels like he could get into full training now," Scott said of the defender who is listed as four weeks away from resuming.
"He's actually doing quite a bit of work. I suspect once he comes back into full training he'll come to hand pretty quickly and be available for selection."
Nathan Grima (back) and Aaron Mullett (shoulder) are the only other players currently unavailable through injury.
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