THE FRANTIC last minutes of North Melbourne's win over the Power were tough enough for fans to watch, so spare a thought for the Kangaroos' players who suddenly found themselves in a dogfight for survival.

Port slammed on four goals in five minutes to set up the nail-biting finale that young Roo Ben Ross said was amongst the most physical football he's been involved in.  

"That was the longest quarter of footy I've ever played in. It was just so intense at every stoppage”, Ross said after the win.

"That last two minutes felt like 10. Everyone was around the ball and there was not one easy possession to be had out there. We just had to jam it up as best we could and hold on because they were coming home pretty hard.

"I'm not sure what happened exactly, we'll have to look at the review, but we may have switched off a bit mentally … It was great that we were able to hold on."

It was Ross' fourth AFL game, his first for the year and second against Port. His 20 quality possessions have him confident he can build on the performance in the coming weeks.

"I worked my arse off over the last couple of weeks to get an opportunity and I was able to make the most of it which was great," he said.

"Last year, I had a good game against Port Adelaide and then a pretty solid game against Collingwood before I injured my ankle.

"I had to have a bit of a look at myself over the first few weeks of this season because it probably wasn’t up to scratch for what the coach expects of me … It was good to get my hands on the footy a bit and hopefully I can just keep developing from here."