NORTH Melbourne's tough start to the 2013 season has helped the Roos by exposing shortcomings they can address now rather than later in the season, coach Brad Scott says.
The Roos have played 2012 finalists Collingwood, Geelong and the Sydney Swans – the past three premiers – in the opening three rounds and now sit 0-3 and 16th on the ladder.
All three losses were characterised by third quarter fadeouts, with the worst coming last Saturday at Blundstone Arena when the Swans piled on 11 goals to one in the third term.
Scott said North's review of the Swans' game had shown the Roos had made a wide variety of mistakes in the third quarter.
But he said his players now knew exactly what they had to work on and took confidence from knowing that 80-90 per cent of their game was on track.
"In terms of our improvement as a footy side I do think it is a good thing that we're not kidding ourselves," Scott said.
"If we'd played inferior sides and we were 3-0 the risk is that we'd be getting carried away on the upside.
"We've been exposed by some very, very good sides through small patches of games.
"If we played inferior teams and got away with wins, potentially it papers over a few cracks that might become evident later in the season.
"So we've got the opportunity to address those things now and we think it will hold us in really good stead for the rest of the season."
