BEN BROWN has no doubt prized recruit Luke Davies-Uniacke is ready to debut for North Melbourne in round one.  

Davies-Uniacke became North's earliest draft selection since 2006 when the Roos took him with pick No.4 at the end of last year.  

The former Dandenong Stingray has completed an impressive first pre-season at Arden St, rounding off his preparations with two encouraging performances in the JLT Community Series.  

Brown said on Thursday, Davies-Uniacke had been one of the positives to come out of North's winless JLT campaign, which ended on Wednesday night with a 70-point loss to Richmond at Ikon Park.  

In the key forward's opinion, Davies-Uniacke, 188cm and 85kg, is ready to step straight into the Kangaroos' midfield.  

"I think definitely he's ready for round one. That really comes down to selection but I think he's got the class that we want through the midfield," Brown said.  

"Not many kids who come in as an 18-year-old can go straight into a midfield that's been pretty settled for a fair while and really shake that (group up), but I think he has so I'll be really excited to see him come round one.    

"But, again, the expectations on him from our perspective aren't too high. We're really conscious of that.  

"We just want to make sure that Luke's enjoying his footy. He's an 18-year-old who's come in and, just like anyone, come his first game – whenever that is – he's going to have nerves. So we've got to make sure that he's feeling really comfortable for that."  

Brown said North remained confident ahead of its round one clash against Gold Coast despite disappointing JLT results, which included a 53-point loss to Melbourne in its opening game. But he identified defence and pressure around the ball as two areas the Roos could improve in.    

"We would have liked to play better, there's no doubt about that," Brown said.  

"But I think there are positives to be taken from it. We've had a long pre-season and we're really keen to get into the real stuff.  

"There have been a few things that we've been working on over the pre-season that we haven't quite got right, but that means we can work on the vision during the week and figure out where we are going wrong and fine-tune our game plan and our strategy a little bit.  

"It wasn't ideal the way that we've prepared ourselves for round one, but that doesn't necessarily mean doom and gloom. We're all still feeling positive about the season to come."  

Brown was speaking at the launch of North's Gender Equality Action Plan, the first of its kind in Australian sport.  

"I think it's just so exciting that North Melbourne is taking the lead and trying to be a community leader in areas such as this. I'm really proud to be a North Melbourne person and this is hopefully the start of something pretty special for us," Brown said.