After two impressive performances in North Melbourne colours, Billy Hartung is staking a strong claim for Round 1 selection.

17 disposals and two goals against Melbourne saw him among the Roos’ best players, and the former Hawk's efforts certainly didn’t go unnoticed.

“(He) showed why he’s a quality player and what he can add to our footy team as well,” Jack Ziebell said on Sunday.

“His elite attributes are his run and carry, he’s an elite kick when he gets the ball, especially in time and space. You saw that yesterday with his ability to break the lines.”

Ziebell said Hartung added a new dimension to the Roos’ on-ball brigade.

“It’s probably something we’ve lacked over the last couple of years (run and carry), so we are really happy to get Bill across.

“He’s been outstanding this season. Everything he’s done has been top notch. We’re looking forward to him slotting in hopefully Round 1, barring the coaches not picking him.”

Hartung was one of several new faces to play against Melbourne, with first-round draft selection Luke Davies-Uniacke and former Bomber Alex Morgan also gaining some valuable experience.

While a 53-point loss was a disappointing result, there were plenty of positives according to Ziebell.

“Any competitive player always wants to win, and that’s no different for us. We wanted to win yesterday, unfortunately we didn’t,” he said.

“We had a few inexperienced guys given opportunities to press their claims for Round 1, and there were some good things to come out of the game and some things to improve.  

“There’s obviously a lot of work to do before Round 1 kicks off, but that’s the first competitive hit-out of the year and it’s exciting for us to get that out of the way.

“We had a few defenders … Sam Durdin, Ben McKay, obviously Majak (Daw) who are pretty inexperienced down back.  I thought they did quite well under some trying conditions at times.

“Luke Davies-Uniacke was pretty impressive through the midfield with some things he did too.”

North now has 11 days before its next JLT Series clash against reigning premiers Richmond, the final competitive hit-out before Round 1.

“You look at the scoreboard (against Melbourne) and it wasn’t very flattering, but I think the more important thing is to learn out of that, getting our structures and setups right, and the way we want to play footy before for Round 1," Ziebell added. 

“The reason for these games is to iron the creases out and we’ll be looking to do that over the next couple of weeks.”