North Melbourne fans should be excited by the progress of the club’s emerging youngsters according to Rhyce Shaw.

While a three-win season was extremely disappointing, Shaw said there were plenty of positives to take into next season and beyond.

“We’ve got some amazing young kids, and we’ve got an amazing group of players that I think can really do something and really build something from here on in,” he said.

“Just looking at the guys who really stepped up over the last couple of weeks and even tonight – Benny McKay, Flynn Perez, ‘LDU’ (Luke Davies-Uniacke) again, Bailey (Scott), Cam (Zurhaar), Jy (Simpkin), ‘Larks’ (Nick Larkey) … some really young guys that through a shocking year, have made some real gains.

“That’s fantastic for our footy club going forward.”

Simpkin (32 disposals), Davies-Uniacke (24) and Perez (15) were among North’s best against West Coast.

Shaw was pleased with the performance against a finals-bound side, but admitted change for the future was imminent.

“We’re in a position where we need to get better,” he said.

“We’re going to look at every avenue and every part of our club and every part of our list and see what we need to build a list and a team that can play finals footy.

“Footy’s a strange game … you can go through these periods and come out pretty quickly. I think we’ve got the ability to do that.”