Defender Aaron Mullett admits he felt nervous ahead of his first AFL match of the season last Saturday night and says he is ready to play his 50th game this week.

The 23-year-old collected 17 touches against Geelong in his first appearance for North since round 23 last year after having surgery on his left shoulder in January.

Mullett said it took him some time to adjust to the pace of the game, but felt more comfortable after quarter-time.

"I was actually really nervous which is a good thing," Mullett told NMFC.com.au on Wednesday.

"I was defending well early (but) … I was a bit fumbly, missed a few handballs and thought the pressure was a lot hotter than it was.

"I missed a tackle that was pretty important and they kicked a goal, so I slowed it down, took a deep breath and just said, 'I'm out here now, let's just give it a full crack'."

Mullett returned from pre-season surgery in May via VFL affiliate North Ballarat and featured in eight consecutive games for the Roosters.

Although the 184cm backman acknowledged he would have liked to have earned a senior call-up much sooner, he said he had to fine-tune several aspects of his game before he could catch the selectors' eyes.

"It wasn't (about) getting the ball, it was more about defending one-on-one, beating your man, halving the contest (and) improving defensive running patterns," Mullett said.

"I did that for a few weeks in a row really well so I got rewarded."

Mullett said serving his time in the VFL also gave him the chance to build his overall fitness base levels after missing a large portion of the club's pre-season training program.

"Some people come out and they're ready to go, but it took me a bit longer," he said.

"I didn't really have much of a pre-season either so I didn’t really have a big base to work on so it took me a month until I started feeling good.

"With an injury it's pretty hard and you think playing AFL footy is a long way away when you get struck with shoulder surgery, so I did my time in the VFL and had to work hard doing plenty of extras."

Friday night's clash against Essendon marks Mullett's 50-game milestone since being recruited by the Roos with selection No.34 in the 2010 rookie draft.

The young backman said it was satisfying to have reached the milestone after working his way off the rookie list on two separate occasions.

"It's pretty exciting. Starting as a rookie, you don't think sometimes you'll get to 50 games," Mullett said.

"I worked hard and I did it the hard way, but 50 games, I'm happy with that now and hopefully I can get another 50 more and get to 100."