Talk to the North Melbourne leaders, and they simply can’t wait for 2019. It’s a new year, and with that, a new opportunity. 

“I am very upbeat and very positive,” captain Jack Ziebell told the crowd at Monday’s Season Launch.

“We’re very keen to get stuck into some games.

“We definitely weren’t satisfied with finishing ninth and missing finals last year, even though a lot of the external footy world were surprised with that result.” 

The addition of recruits like Jared Polec, Aaron Hall, Dom Tyson and Jasper Pittard has brought a renewed energy to the group. 

And Round 1 is just around the corner. 

“We’ve seen everything that has been written about them (the recruits) and more,” Shaun Higgins said.

“We are really fortunate as a club in being able to add four guys with 50-100 games experience. I can’t recall many other clubs being able to do that.

“They are guys that will fill a specific role for us, and they have all been really impressive so far in the pre-season.” 

Higgins individual accolades since joining North have been nothing short of impressive, but for the 2018 All-Australian, team success is the number one goal. 

“It’s been a really enjoyable four years at this club, and I’ve been lucky enough to be rewarded in the last couple of seasons. But it’s trying to help the team win that is the motivation for me,” he said.

“We’ve had a really strong pre-season, which has really helped the enthusiasm of a young group, and also for the 12 new guys coming to the football club. 

“The motivation to improve has come pretty easy, because I look over my shoulder and we have plenty of guys knocking on the door for selection.”