Scott Thompson says that Friday night’s win over Richmond can be used as a catalyst to jump-start North's season.

Thompson believes North's ability to tighten up defensively in recent weeks means they can cause some real problems for opposition teams going forward. 

“I think in the first six weeks we were the most heavily scored against team in the competition by a long way,” Thompson said on RSN.

“We’ve been working on a few [defensive] things behind the scenes … it seems like it’s working and everything else is following on from that.”

Despite the win over Richmond, Thompson said that North can’t afford to look too far ahead, with the competition as evenly contested as it's been in recent years. 

“If we keep producing what we did against Richmond then who knows what will happen,” he said.

“This season is so competitive that if you’re off by a couple of per cent then you’re in trouble.”

But things are looking up. 

“We went in [against Richmond] with a game plan to go hard at the footy, and that’s what we did,” Thompson said.

“We got a contribution from pretty much every single player. Everyone played their role and produced.”

Thompson spoke glowingly of the impact that interim coach Rhyce Shaw has had on the side, despite only being handed the role a week ago. 

“[Shaw] gets around the boys a lot. He’s still pretty young and hasn’t been out of the game for too long,” he said.

“As a backs coach he was really good and as a senior coach he’s kept that way so far.”