Sam Wright, who watched on as the since- departed Lance Franklin kicked 13 goals in the Hawks' 115-point win, admitted it was something that had been mentioned each time the Roos have faced the Hawks since.

This attitude helped the team get within three and 14 points of the eventual premier last season.

They will take the same feeling into tomorrow night's NAB Challenge match, their first trip to Aurora since that fateful Saturday afternoon in 2012.

"We just have this mindset that it will never happen again," said Wright, who is used both in attack and defence for the Roos.

"As a group we lost a bit of respect from the Hawks, and I don't blame them for losing that respect, as we were awful that day, but that was a really big wake- up call, so we have put it on each other as a group that it will never happen again.

"But coming up against Hawthorn, there is no one better in the comp at the moment to test where you're at."

North Melbourne is coming off yet another close loss - to Carlton by seven points in its first NAB Challenge game - which came after a year of heartbreaking defeats and a missed finals spot.

Despite the nature of the defeat, Wright, who had 18 touches and took five marks against the Blues, said the positives of the first runs in blue and white of Nick Dal Santo, Luke McDonald and Mason Wood outweighed what is a continuing negative.

"But we've still got a lot of work to do before round 1, including with our defence," said Wright, the 27th pick in the 2008 national draft.

"We have taken steps with that, but we know we've still got a long way to go."

Wright has played 69 games in the blue and white, including 16 last season.