Nathan Grima says North Melbourne isn’t worried with its winless start to 2014.

“The season’s so long and you have that many up and downs you don’t want to be putting blokes on tenterhooks on the back of a couple of poor performances,” Grima told SEN’s Morning Glory.

With the focus on the regular season opener, the players are being prepared to hit 100 per cent on March 21 against Essendon.

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“We’ve had a huge pre-season, the workload like every club has just gone up.

“We haven’t de-loaded into games or played an internal practice match like we usually do.

“Internally we know we’re doing a lot of things right. We haven’t lost any confidence on what we’re about for this year.”

Like everyone on the list, the key defender has been happy to see the addition of Nick Dal Santo to the group while adding it would be a group effort to return to the finals in 2014.

“Dal has been great, to get someone with his standing and profile within the game at North Melbourne is a huge plus for the club and also the image of the club.

“He’s a super player, obviously he’s fitted in really well, and he’s in our leadership group.

“We’re going to need more than just Nick for us to go up the ladder, which we are endeavouring to do, but he’s going to be a huge help for us.”

Grima himself is coming off his first hit-out of the season, taking part in a Werribee intra-club game last Friday at Arden Street.

“The boys obviously played down in Hobart on Friday night and a few of the guys that have had a limited preparation we just played an intra-club with one our affiliates, Werribee, at Arden St.

“It was a long way off AFL standard, I guess, but it was just nice to have a run around.

“I’ve missed a bit of the pre-season and hopefully can progress nicely and get back into the team.”

Werribee will face Box Hill in a practice game at Arden Street on Saturday from 1:00pm.