NEW NORTH Melbourne coach Brad Scott will address his players for the first time at Arden Street on Tuesday.

Scott was appointed on August 17 but has kept away from the role to allow interim coach Darren Crocker to see out the last two games of this season.

Vice-captain Drew Petrie said his teammates were all looking forward to meeting Scott, who has crossed from Collingwood where he was an assistant to Mick Malthouse.

"All the boys will be here and hopefully we all make a good first impression," Petrie said.

"His appointment's been very exciting. We've got some direction now with the new coach being announced and he'll be able to put in place his plans for the next 12 months and three years."

North will hope to end its season on a winning note when it meets Port Adelaide at AAMI Stadium on Saturday night.

The Roos' upset of ladder leader St Kilda last round was just their sixth win of the year, though Petrie didn't agree the side was waiting for its frustrating campaign to finish.

"Once we were out of finals contention, my thought process changed a bit," he said. "When you can't make it, you focus on trying to help develop the list so that we're better off next year.

"It was frustrating the first half of the year, coming off two finals campaigns in '07 and '08. You start to expect and want to play finals every year because it becomes the norm.

"I got frustrated with myself and others for the reason that we weren't going to be playing finals. But I was only like that for a couple of weeks.

"We never really got momentum at any stage throughout the season. When Dean (Laidley) left and Crock took over, it was like the beginning of a new season in a sense. We put a lot of energy towards making the finals, but a few weeks later on we couldn't."

Petrie has played each of North's 21 games this year and leads a low-scoring attack with 24 goals.

Given the opportunity to captain the Roos in Brent Harvey's seven-week absence through injury, he said he learnt a lot from that experience.

"The first few weeks were great," he said. "I tried to have my finger on the pulse and know everything that was going on and getting the boys wound up for the games.

"But we copped more and more injuries and it was more and more senior players who were going out of the side. Just before the halfway mark of the season, it started to be a little bit tougher."