Forward Mason Wood says he’s “itching” to get back to competitive action and repay the club for rewarding him with a lengthy new contract.

Wood signed a four year deal midway through 2016, a breakout year which was ultimately cut short by a knee injury.

“It was amazing to get the backing of the club at the same time to say, ‘Yeah, we’re going to put our faith in you for the next four years’, so hopefully I can repay that faith,” Wood told The Herald Sun’s Rebecca Williams.

“Looking forward, it gives me four years to really dig in and create that spot in the forward line with a few of the other boys ... hopefully it’s longer than four years, but I’ve got four years under my belt.”

After going down injured against West Coast in Round 16, Wood pushed hard to return to the side in time for North’s finals campaign, but narrowly missed out on being declared fully fit.

Now, his focus is firmly on 2017 and making an impact with a full pre-season under his belt.

“I have been itching to get back forever,” the number 32 said.

“I had a really good off-season and all that stuff. I guess I was sort of refreshed and ready to go by the end of the season after missing 10 or something weeks before the season was out, so I was ready to go.

“There have been no hiccups so it feels really, really good. Taping is probably the only difference that there’s going to be for the next couple of months.”

Wood knows there will be plenty of young forwards also sticking their hands up for selection in the pre-season, but he said that competition will only drive him to get better.

“It’s going to be really interesting coming into the AFL Challenge (pre-season competition) to see how they want to structure the forward line,’’ the 23-year-old said.

“But the way I see it is there are a lot of blokes going for a few positions, which is the same as every other year, so you have got to make sure you are at the top of that list and be ready to be picked.”

Wood knows he can offer plenty of versatility to what is a tall forward line filled, with plenty of talent.

“I guess I am a little bit different to the other forwards that we have got here ... let’s say my running capacity is as good as anyone at the club and I can play a little bit taller or smaller and really just mix up that dynamic whatever way they want to go with that forward line.

“So it will be a few things that I need to work on — contested marking and that kind of thing — to make sure that I can play that taller role as well. But I guess having that ability to go either way is hopefully something that Scotty (coach Brad Scott) holds in high esteem because I think that’s my point of difference.’’