PORT Adelaide midfielder Hamish Hartlett believes the Power rediscovered their trademark work ethic in Saturday’s tight win over North Melbourne, after a difficult opening two weeks of the season.

Last year's preliminary finalists dropped their first two games of the season – against Fremantle and the Sydney Swans – before overcoming the Kangaroos in a thriller at Etihad Stadium.

Hartlett said the group had reflected on its losses and realised it needed to return to its 2014 standards if it was to beat the Kangaroos and kick-start the club's season.

"There's been a few positives out of the last couple of weeks, there's no doubt about that," Hartlett told AFL.com.au.

"But we think probably our work rate overall as a group wasn't up to the standards that it was last year so it was something we really tried to focus on. Throughout the game we worked really hard and North Melbourne certainly pushed us about as far as we could go.

"It was pretty hard-fought and we knew it was going to be. North Melbourne obviously had a pretty good win last week (against the Brisbane Lions) … so we knew it was going to be a tough battle. We fought it out right to the end and got the reward."

The Power has known since the fixture was released last October that they had a challenging start to the year. But after facing the Dockers, Swans and Kangaroos, Hartlett believes they will be better prepared to come up against reigning premiers Hawthorn on Saturday night at Adelaide Oval.

He also thinks the opening month will give the group an even clearer idea of what is required to take another step this year.

"These type of games are almost played at finals-type intensity so it's invaluable experience playing these games this early in the season," the 24-year-old said.

"It'll be a good catalyst for us later in the year and hopefully we can take winning form into next week and we'll be back at the home deck and make our fans proud over there."

They can also take confidence from beating the Roos in the best game of 2015 so far: it was a fierce and fast contest that looked set to go the Roos' way with minutes left and North leading by five points.

But youngster Aaron Young – set up by a handball from first-gamer Brendon Ah Chee – and Kane Mitchell kicked the Power to an eight-point victory. Hartlett admitted he had thought about falling to 0-3 during the frenetic final term.

"It does enter the mind and that's just when you have to dig deep and keep working and keep grinding and hopefully things go your way and thankfully for us they did," he said.