NORTH Melbourne's much-hyped recruiting drive has had the added bonus of allowing the club's established and emerging stars to fly under the radar, coach Brad Scott says.
At an upbeat Kangaroos' season launch at the Melbourne Pavilion on Wednesday night, Scott also issued a warning to the football world: underestimate the Kangaroos at your peril.
The Roos confounded the critics last year to finish ninth after being just outside the top four at the halfway point, and their coach is buoyed by what he has hailed as the "best character group" he has ever coached.
North's busy off-season netted ex-Port Adelaide duo Jared Polec and Jasper Pittard, former Sun Aaron Hall and ex-Demon Dom Tyson, a quartet that will add further quality and depth to the club's running brigade – and remove pressure from some of their new teammates.
"All the talk about North has been about our new recruits – Aaron Hall, Jared Polec, Jasper Pittard, Dom Tyson, Tom Campbell – and then that flowed on to our draft recruits (with) a lot of talk about Bailey Scott and Tarryn Thomas," Scott told the Kangaroos faithful.
"I think that's great for a number of reasons. Firstly because these players add some serious capability to our list, they've been fantastic players to coach and I know they're going to have a huge impact on our football club. So that's attracted a lot of attention and I think rightly so.
"But there's another reason I'm really glad these guys have attracted a lot of attention from the experts: there hasn't been a lot of talk about Jack Ziebell, Ben Cunnington, Ben Brown, Shaun Higgins, Robbie Tarrant, Jamie Macmillan, Todd Goldstein, and the list goes on."
FULL INJURY LIST Who's racing the clock for round one?
North's list was in "really good shape", said Scott, who highlighted that most experts would be "blissfully unaware" of the impressive progress of rising stars such as midfielder Jy Simpkin, second-year young gun Luke Davies-Uniacke, defender Ed Vickers-Willis and tall backman Ben McKay.
"It's going to be, hopefully, quite a task to pick a team for round one, but what a great position we would be in if we have to make some really tough calls. We made some tough calls last week and we're still working out what that best combination looks like," Scott said.
The event started with a stirring video highlighting the naysayers who had derided North's hopes leading into 2018, only for the Roos to shock everyone for the bulk of the season. Scott continued this theme.
People continue to write us off, but we are Never Beaten. #North150 pic.twitter.com/20J74Eqamn
— North Melbourne (@NMFCOfficial) March 6, 2019
"As the video earlier shows, you write North Melbourne off at your peril," he declared.
"So let them gloss over our list, let them underestimate us again, let them play down expectations on our team, let them call us outside chances, because that's what we thrive on.
"Talk, at the end of the day, is cheap. So I would stress to everyone, no point in getting into arguments, no point arguing with people who question our list (and) our chances.
"I am coaching a group that, as a whole, is the best character group I have ever coached. They are a fantastic group of men and I know they're going to make you proud in 2019."
"Some might say it's about proving people wrong, but really it's just about executing what we've been working on in the pre-season. And I know that if we can (do that), season 2019 looks fantastic for us."
The Kangaroos play their final JLT Community Series game against Port Adelaide – the former club of both Polec and Pittard – at Alberton on Saturday.
In round one they face Fremantle in Perth on Sunday March 24.