Steve Saunders is accustomed to being headhunted and each year, several sporting clubs would come knocking on his door with a view to securing his much sought after expertise.

In 2010, North Melbourne joined the long list of hopefuls trying to sway the highly regarded physiotherapist to join its team.

"I've worked with AFL teams for the last five years or so...I've worked with eight or nine of them and there have been a number of offers on the table," Saunders told kangaroos.com.au.

After 23 years in the industry and with a successful practice up and running in Adelaide, Saunders decided to bite the bullet and do what he had been craving most - join an elite sporting team.

"There's a number of reasons why I chose North; I was really excited about the team it has in place, the support staff and the head coach Brad Scott and the culture and history of the club and where I thought the club was at right now and what it was looking to achieve.

"I felt like the club was aligned with my beliefs and what I thought was important. I thought my family was in a better place to take on something like this and my practice was in a much better place to take it on too...so on a number of levels, a fair few stars aligned to make this the right choice for me but I've got no doubt that one of the biggest things was the culture at the club and the direction it is heading.

"To have the opportunity to work at the elite level with a club like North and to put in place programs I have been itching to put in place over the last four or five years, is really quite exciting because I'd really like to see them work and see the club succeed off the back off them."

Steve says his other motivation is to help prolong players' careers.

"One of the things I've always....hated seeing, is young players' careers ended early. So I really think I can play a part within the club structure to try and make sure that each individual reaches their potential but that the team as a whole reaches its potential as well."

Saunders name made headlines recently when it was revealed Jonathan Brown and Brendan Fevola had sought his treatment in Adelaide to rectify their groin injuries and since then, he says there has been some misinformation circulating.

"Certainly I did my PHD in the lumbar pelvic region and how muscles control the pelvis and the spine and the thigh during human locomotion and how deficits in muscle control relate to injury in that area and of course in AFL, we get a lot of injuries in that area. It just so happened, that over the last five years or so I've been asked to look at a number of high profile AFL players who have had groin issues and we've had a fair bit of success with those players.

"It's off the back of that that I have been tagged the 'groin guru' or the 'crutch doctor'...but groins are just one of many areas that I have experience in dealing with really."

Saunders was only at the club for a few weeks before jetting off with the team to Utah. His initiation has been fast-tracked but smooth.

"I've been nothing but impressed with the group, they are a fantastic bunch of blokes with an enormous amount of talent. From the screenings we did with each player before the camp I can see that there are a hell of a lot of things we can leverage off and get some improvement out of so I'm really excited about the potential they show.

"They're really embracing the strategies and training programs we are putting in place so I'm pretty excited about the future.

"I'm hoping that I can bring a lot of evidence based practice to the club so we can screen the guys better from both a medical point of view and strength and conditioning point of view."

As North's Director of Medical Service and Player Pathways, Saunders will be aiming to tailor each player's training program in conjunction with fellow North physiotherapist Konrad Slavinskis and Director of sports science Peter Mulkearns.

"One of the things we are really focusing on in the screenings we've done to date is not just to determine the deficits the group has, but what each individual has and which of those deficits relate to previous injury histories or previous limitations in performance they've had. So we'll be providing them with very individualised training programs.

"There is such a fine line between doing an exercise in a manner that can improve your performance and reduce injury risk, and doing an exercise in a manner that can either do nothing for you or can actually increase injury risk. So we really want to teach the boys the right ways to go about things and make sure they are all over it."