While Drew Petrie starred in the AFL pre-season win over Carlton, North Melbourne coach Brad Scott was keen to see what happened around him in their attack.

Petrie was best afield with seven goals and some strong marking as the Kangaroos won by 16 points on Sunday at Visy Park.

But Scott knows if the Kangaroos are to break into the finals, they need to rapidly develop their key forward options.

So he noted post-match how Robbie Tarrant had helped isolate Petrie, while ruckman Hamish McIntosh had also been a useful marking target during the match.

“What every coach is looking for is a spread of goalkickers and one week it’s going to be one player,” Scott said.

“Hopefully the next week it will be another.”

However well the Kangaroos develop their scoring options this season, Petrie will remain their main man.

He was outstanding for North last season, making his first All-Australian team and kicking 48 goals to be their leading goalkicker.

The year before, Petrie had only managed two games because of a succession of foot injuries.

Petrie talked down Sunday’s performance, pointing out he had shanked one of his shots at goal.

“So there’s still something to work on,” he said.

Petrie also knew he had benefited from plenty of good work further up the field, with the Kangaroos rebounding extremely well out of defence and setting him up with some excellent passes.

“We managed to get some good flow, some good run off half-back,” he said.

Petrie said the biggest positive to come out of the game was that North had held on when Carlton challenged in the final term.

“It was important we played the four quarters and at three-quarter time we had control of the game,” he said.

“So it was important we didn’t stop, turn off and try to save the game, but continue to win it.

“They did come at us a little bit and they’re a good running side.

“But we managed to hold up pretty firm.”