North Melbourne will use the experience of its Preliminary Final defeat as the catalyst to go one step further next season.

After almost two months to reflect, Brad Scott can’t help but be excited by the positives to take into 2015.

"Top four in any year is a really good achievement," he told NMFC.com.au from Utah.

"We really feel we improved in a lot of areas. We had some things during the year but we even improved on them, and really the character and the measure of players and teams are franked in finals; two really good quality finals the boys stood up and performed really well."

A heavy loss in Sydney put a dampener on an otherwise outstanding campaign, but Scott is confident his players will improve after a taste on the biggest stage. 

"Finals experience is invaluable. There haven’t been too many sides in my living memory that have gone outside of the finals, into the top four and won a Preliminary Final. It’s very rare.

"I think back to the sides like Geelong in 2004 lost a prelim before they went on to their great era. Collingwood lost a prelim in 2007 before they went on to win a premiership in 2010.

"We were beaten by a much better side on the night up in Sydney, but we feel we beat most of the good sides throughout the year; we’ve just got to do it more consistently and at the very pointy end of the season next year.

"It does take a lot to get to a Preliminary Final, but then it takes a lot to get to take that next jump as well. But you’ve got to get there first, we’ve done that and now we’ll look at building that next year and beyond."

Joining the club’s youngsters in Utah on Monday (local time), Scott is excited to get a new campaign underway.

"I’m really looking forward to it," he added.

"We don’t have a lot of time off these days with October being as busy as it is in the AFL now, but the week-to-week competition phase seems a long way behind us, so I’m really looking forward to getting back into that and approaching 2015 with renewed enthusiasm.

"We are as keen as ever to get back into it."

NMFC.com.au will be there every step of the way over the next two weeks in Utah. Stay tuned for further updates.