SENIOR coach Daniel Harford has praised Carlton for not giving in to a fast-starting North Melbourne in Saturday’s practice match.

North Melbourne raced out of the blocks at Ikon Park, kicking away to a five-goal lead in the first quarter.

However, Harford spoke proudly of his player’s efforts in the way they responded, shifting the momentum back in their favour to only narrowly miss out on the win.

“We got jumped early which we knew they’d come out pretty aggressively,” Harford said following the game.

“They came out through the week and said they wanted to win it. We knew it was going to be pretty full-on from the start.

“We let them dominate us through the first quarter but, pleasingly, once we reset we got the game back to neutral pretty quickly. Then we were able to - over the course of the last two quarters - start to gain some ascendency which was really pleasing.”

Carlton began to rally in the second half, with Maddy Prespakis, Katie Loynes, Alison Downie, Georgia Gee and Tayla Harris all showing plenty of class in the second half.

First-gamers Lucy McEvoy, Mua Laloifi, Grace Egan and Irish cross-coder Joanne Doonan also showed many positive signs as the Blues enter final preparations for their Round 1 clash with Richmond in less than two weeks.

The ability to stick to the game plan and work hard against the flow of play was reassuring for Harford, who views the team as well-prepared for the upcoming season.

“We get a fair bit out of it. It would have been easy being a practice game and the way they’ve been hyped, and the quality of players they are and the class team that they are, that when you’re five goals down to just sort of mope and sink your heels in a bit and let them have control of the game,” Harford said.

“The biggest thing we take out of today is that we trusted what we were going to do. Win, lose, or draw... that’s the biggest take out for us that we trusted what the plan was going to be and backed it in.”

Carlton will now turn its attention towards preparing for its historic season opener against Richmond on Friday 7 February.

Taking place at Ikon Park, Bluebaggers are encouraged to come down and show their support as the Blues kick off what they're hoping is another memorable campaign in 2020.