North Melbourne has registered a thrilling one-point win over Port Melbourne in its final VFL practice match, with a five-goal last quarter sealing the comeback victory.

North found itself down by 13-points at the half-time break, having registered one goal and nine behinds in wet and windy conditions that favoured neither side.

As the weather fined up though, so did North, with AFL-listed players Tristan Xerri and Matt McGuinness kicking five goals between them as the home team stormed home to a 58-57 win.

VFL coach Leigh Adams says he is proud of his team’s efforts over pre-season, and hopes the win will give the team confidence heading into round one next week.

“We’ve been talking about how we’ve been happy with our pre-season in terms of how we want to play, we’ve been executing the game plan for two or three quarters but just letting it get away from us,” Adams told North Media.

“The way we played the second half is the way we want to play the game every week. I was really happy to get a win just to give the boys a bit of a lift heading into round one.

“I couldn’t be more impressed with our VFL boys to be honest … I can’t speak highly enough of how they’ve come in and adapted.”

With Tom Campbell receiving a call-up to the AFL side this week, Tristan Xerri took on the role of primary ruck against Port and thrived in the absence of his partner in crime.

Kicking three goals for the game, including two in the final quarter, Xerri provided a strong contested marking target forward while dominating the ruck contests.

“'X' (Xerri) had a really good game, he rucked for about 90 per cent of the day … [and] clearly won the ruck duel in the air,” Adams said.

“We’ve been trying to add a little bit of consistency to his game and his ability to fire out of the contests and go forward was great.

“He took some big grabs when we needed him to, but even more impressive were his finishes. I know they weren’t exactly hard shots but with that wind and fatigue, to go back and slot them was impressive.”

Another forward to impress throughout the course of the game was McGuinness, as the Tasmanian kicked two majors of his own and was crucial in swinging the momentum to the way of North Melbourne.

Initially drafted as a defender, Adams said McGuinness’ performance was indicative of the hard work he’s been putting in on the training track.

“He has the ability to float up the ground and get involved … his game is in pretty good order at the moment,” he said.

“He had a bit of an interrupted pre-season having had finger surgery, but now he’s finding some week-to-week continuity in training and is improving every week.

“He took some contested grabs as well today which I know he’s been working really hard on. It was a good performance.”

While the AFL-listed players often steal the limelight in VFL fixtures, VFL-listed Jacob Heron helped sealed the game with a vicious run-down tackle late in the fourth quarter.

“Jacob in particular I’ve been pretty hard on the last few weeks having come from an AFL list,” Adams added.

“I thought his form hadn’t been great, but today he was really good.

“He’s obviously pretty quick as we all saw from that run-down tackle … hopefully he can take that forward.”