North skipper Andrew Swallow says he doesn’t expect the club to slide down the ladder next season, and that his side still has plenty to achieve in 2016.

Following the news of the club’s decision to not offer Brent Harvey, Drew Petrie, Michael Firrito and Nick Dal Santo contracts in 2017, Swallow insists North won’t bottom out next year and will be “super competitive”.

“The core of our team is still pretty young — we have got Jack Ziebell, Ben Cunnington, Shaun Higgins, Robbie Tarrant, Luke McDonald, Jamie Macmillan, I could keep rattling them off,” he said.

“It is going to be hard not having Brent Harvey and Drew Petrie out there (in 2017), but we feel like the core of our team is still really young. It will be great to see Corey Wagner playing a few more games, it will be great to see Ryan Clarke more, even big Benny McKay running out and clunking a few.

“I still think we will be super competitive. I don’t think we will be going down the bottom too soon.”

The 29-year-old said North was eager to send out the departing legends in the best way possible in this year’s finals series, starting with a win against Adelaide in their Elimination Final blockbuster next week.

“We just want to go out there and put some good performances on for the guys because they have been legends of our club and we want to do the right thing for them,” Swallow added.