Sam Gibson says he’s feeling energized and excited ahead of the club’s 2017 campaign.

The 30-year-old, who currently leads the league for consecutive games played with 108, believes a new-look list and training regime has proven a motivator for the senior group.

“We had a quarter of our list turnover in the pre-season and we’ve had a tweak to our schedule which is a bit different than past years. It’s a really different vibe which is sort of good,” Gibson said on SEN Breakfast.

“The younger guys don’t know too much better, but for the older guys it’s a bit of a reinvigoration and gets you excited about getting to training every day.”

While North went from the second-oldest list to the second-youngest in the space of two months, Gibson is confident that won’t result in a slide down the ladder.

“We’re probably not buying into the speculation that we’ve lost a lot of experience and therefore we have to tumble down the ladder. We don’t think that at all,” he said.

“The core group of guys who’ve been playing since I’ve been there, are still there, and we’ve still got a lot of good experience and a lot of good players across each line.

“We are reasonably optimistic about this year.”

Gibson is enjoying an uninterrupted pre-season campaign and hopes that will hold him in good stead for games.

“Last year I had a bit of an interrupted pre-season with a bit of ankle surgery and this year I’ve had a pretty clean run at it,” he said.

“I’m obviously wary of the fact that I am 30 now and probably not going to be recovering as good as I was five or six years ago, but I feel really fresh, really good and ready to attack another year.”