The 23-year old has played just 16 games since being drafted in 2007, but his efforts in recent weeks suggest the wait has been worth it.
"(North Melbourne) has been unbelievable to me. I don't think it happens very often when clubs give a player a two-year extension on their contract when they are not playing senior football, but also barely out on the track," Tarrant told the Herald Sun's Glenn McFarlane.
"It has been a massive show of faith. It is something that hopefully I can start repaying soon."
Tarrant's bad run has been through no fault of his own with injuries plaguing his early career including four shoulder reconstructions.
"It's obvious that I have missed a fair amount of footy. But (this year) I have been fortunate enough to have a pretty solid pre-season in terms of continuity on the track and continuity of just being out there."
That continuity is starting to pay off with Tarrant booting 9 goals in the past 3 weeks.
"It's good to kick a couple of goals, but it is more about creating a contest in the air, trying to mark it, but also giving 'Linds' (Lindsay Thomas), 'Patch' (Leigh Adams) and 'Boomer' (Brent Harvey) a chance to crumb and kick some goals."
The pre-season presented another huge challenge off-field when his father passed away with cancer. Tarrant says it put things in perspective.
"It was a shocking time, but I was lucky to have the support of (coach) Brad (Scott), the coaches, (football manager) Donald (McDonald) and the rest of the boys," he added.
"He (Tarrant's father) was a good character to sort of learn life skills off.
"It was tough . . . it sort of shows that footy is not the be-all and end-all."
Tarrant will again line up alongside Drew Petrie, Lachlan Hansen and Lindsay Thomas in North's forward line as the club attempts to topple Carlton and snatch a spot back in the top eight.
