From day one of the 2021 season North’s focus has been on the development and improvement of its young list, and Saturday’s win over Carlton shows it’s all coming together for David Noble’s side.

While there had been flashes of brilliance and consistency over the first half of the season, it’s only since the bye that North has become a genuine force to be reckoned with.

In winning three of the last five games, different players have stepped up at different times in recent weeks, however each of North’s young stars stood tall against the Blues.

Fifteen of North’s 18 goals were kicked by players under the age of 23, including a career-high 7 majors for Nick Larkey. Tarryn Thomas and Jaidyn Stephenson chipped in with 4 and 3 goals respectively.

Bailey Scott registered a career-high 26 disposals - 23 effective - including 10 touches in the first quarter, while Luke Davies-Uniacke finished with 28 touches of his own.

Curtis Taylor backed up a career-best performance against Essendon with 15 touches and 5 tackles, while the returning Atu Bosenavulagi’s pace and composure saw him make the most of his 16 disposals and 6 intercepts.

“Particularly I think if you take a look at that younger brigade, I thought they were really solid across the board,” David Noble said.

“Curtis Taylor, ‘Scotty’ (Bailey Scott) I thought was really good, Tarryn (Thomas), I thought Will Phillips again showed some really good signs.

“’Big X’ (Tristan Xerri) as a tall ruck, it’s a difficult craft to learn, and I reckon you’d put Nick Larkey in that group as well.

“That evenness I thought was a great strength of ours today.”

Larkey has been threatening to explode for a number of weeks after kicking 3 goals in four of his last five games heading into Saturday’s clash, and he showed his quality by kicking 7 goals on All-Australian fancy Jacob Weitering.

Such was Larkey’s dominance, Weitering was thrown forward in the final term, however that didn’t stop the number 20 from kicking 2 goals in the fourth quarter to round out the game.

His recent run of strong performances has seen him surge into 15th in the Coleman Medal race, with 34 goals for the season.

Noble says Larkey’s improved performances are down to his hard work on the training track.

“He’s (Larkey) been working really hard behind the scenes in understanding ball flow, ball movement and guys delivering the ball to him. Today was one of those days where it all connected really well for him,” Noble said.

“Nick would probably say that there was some pretty good ball delivery down there, but he’s still got to put it through the big sticks. I was really pleased for him to get some reward for that today.”

It seems the more time Tarryn Thomas spends in the midfield, the better he plays, and his 4 goals and 23 disposals from 70 per cent midfield time against Carlton is a great indicator of that.

After spending time running with Sam Walsh, Thomas was an effective influence in all areas of the ground, also registering 5 tackles and 3 intercepts as he fulfilled his defensive responsibilities.

“He’s (Thomas) worked really hard at training and he’s now putting more time into understanding what midfield roles look like, where he runs, how he runs. He’s certainly very competitive,” Noble said.

“One of his tasks today was to spend a bit of time with Sam (Walsh). We wanted to give him a bit of that experience to play against another elite midfielder.

“The capacity for him to then go forward and stay involved in the game, he’s a young guy learning you’ve got to play the game out for four quarters … but I think that’s about the blend we want to see, that 70/30 split.”