North Melbourne co-captain Jy Simpkin has praised the attitude and discipline shown by his teammates in last Friday's match simulation against Richmond.

Simpkin (managed) watched the club's first competitive hitout against non-club opposition in 2023 from the sidelines, one of the notable absentees along with veterans Todd Goldstein and Ben Cunnington.

The Kangaroos would ultimately fall two points short of the Tigers after four 'periods,' but the stark improvement displayed by the squad under new senior coach Alastair Clarkson has Simpkin full of confidence ahead of the new campaign.

"It was really exciting (to watch)," Simpkin told RSN.

"All the things we've been working on over the last 10-11 weeks of pre-season - it was awesome just to see it come out in a game.

"We didn't have too many dominant performers, I mean 'LDU' (Luke Davies-Uniacke) dominated through the midfield and Harry Sheezel was very exciting but there weren't too many standout performers, it was just a really good team game from everyone.

"We stuck to the gameplan, Richmond had a pretty good team in and got a little bit of a run on here and there … in the past our ability to stay with teams has been pretty ordinary so to come back and stick with them until the end of the game was very impressive."

It was ex-Sandringham Dragon Sheezel who began the match sim in blitzing fashion, kicking an early goal after pinning Richmond's Tim Taranto and winning a free kick for holding the ball, before going on to finish the day with three goals to his name.

The crafty forward has been a talking point throughout North Melbourne's pre-season after coming in as the club's top draft selection, and Simpkin says the degree of discourse is for good reason. 

"He's silky-smooth with all his skills, he shows that at training everyday which is awesome for us," he mentioned.

"But I reckon the most impressive thing, along with a couple of the first-year boys, is their work off the field, they just want to get better.

"They're doing extras in the gym, extras with the coaches, always asking us older boys what they can do to get better, so they're going to be terrific players for us in the future."

Simpkin also expressed how the experienced recruits have begun to influence the group, with Darcy Tucker, Griffin Logue, Liam Shiels and Dan Howe all valuable additions to what was a relatively young list.

"They've been awesome for us, in particular Liam Shiels," Simpkin revealed.

"His knowledge and voice around the ground has been second to none, (while) teaching the younger fellas what it takes (to have an impact).

"Griffin Logue has settled in beautifully. Over the pre-season he's showed glimpses of what he's going to be able to do for us which is exciting.

"Dan Howe and Darcy Tucker have been a little bit injured, but we've seen that they've had performances throughout the past few years that show they're good enough to compete at the level."