North Melbourne will quickly move onto plans B and C after Dustin Martin advised the club he would be staying at Punt Rd, according to GM Football Cameron Joyce.
"We went right down to the wire on this one," he told The Herald Sun.
"We are talking about a potential Brownlow medallist, a multiple All-Australian, best-and-fairest winner and a superstar of the competition who was seriously considering coming to North Melbourne.
"That is the huge positive in this - he saw something in our club versus others that drew him to come to a decision very, very late in the year which has ultimately seen him stay at Richmond.
"We totally respect that, and wish him all the best as he is a terrific guy."
While its obvious the club now has significant cash in its cap, Joyce said North would be strategic and 'open minded' with its next move whether it be in the Draft, Free Agency or the Trade Period.
"They [North members] should know that we are leaving no stone unturned to aggressively improve our list," he said.
"We want to add elite talent ... and we will look at Plan B and C, if we need to get to that.
"We are very prepared. We are not going to just go and try and get any player ... we targeted the elite to add to our group and we will continue to do that if we can this year, otherwise it might be next year.
"We are putting ourselves in a really good position in terms of both our salary cap capacity and our list management, we are feeling we are really targeted at the moment in terms of what we want and we have shown we are prepared to be really bold and aggressive in terms of what we want.
"We understand the system, we have been the beneficiary of it, but we have also been on the other side of the ledger.
Joyce said he is supremely confident with what lies ahead for the Roos.
"One of the things we know with certainty is we have got two really good picks in the draft - two top 20 picks , a pick 4 - our highest pick in the time I have been at the club which is almost 10 years is pick 5, Ben Cunnington.
"We are open minded, but at the same time it needs to fit the bill. if that means this year or next year, we will be on the hunt for the right players."
