Jack Ziebell is tipping midfield counterpart Ryan Bastinac to have a big impact this year.
Bastinac labelled his 2014 season as ‘disappointing’ in a recent Herald Sun feature, but his vice-captain is confident he can turn his fortunes around.
“Ryan’s had a fantastic pre-season. He’s trained his butt off and he’s played really well in the first two NAB Challenge games,” Ziebell told SEN on Monday.
“I think that’s going to be crucial for us a side going forward, because he’s such an important part of our team.”
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Despite playing every game last year, Bastinac was the substitute in each of the club’s three finals’ matches.
Adding versatility to his game by playing in every part of the ground at training over the pre-season, he looms as a vital cog in the Roos' outfit.
“When Ryan’s playing well we are a much better team. His ball skills and the way he uses the footy, his hard running and ability to shut down an opponent, we need that,” Ziebell said.
“He’s definitely part of our best five or six midfielders and will probably play every week, which is great.
“It’s always good to have him back in the side and playing really well, which is fantastic for all North Melbourne supporters.”
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Ziebell said North’s depth through the midfield is an exciting asset.
“The more guys you can have go through there and have an impact in games, the better off you are going to be as a side.
“We’ve built our midfield depth over a number of years and we’ve drafted really strongly over the last five or six years.
“You look through the guys at the minute; we’ve got Daniel Wells, Andrew Swallow, Ben Cunnington, Ryan Bastinac, Nick Dal Santo, even Trent Dumont coming through this year, who are all guys who can play the inside midfield role.
“It’s fantastic for us to have those options. If something’s not working, we can change it up with a couple of different guys and different personnel.”
Ziebell is confident delayed pre-seasons to several of the club’s key players, including himself, will not hinder performance.
“Every team at the end of the year obviously has a few injuries that need to be fixed up and we were no different,” he said.
“There were a few guys that went in for post-season surgery, but our medical and fitness staff have done a great job with those guys and I think now we’ve got pretty much the majority of our list training and playing in the NAB Challenge.
“For round one we are in a pretty good position in terms of availability, so that’s always nice.
“When you delay your pre-season a few weeks, potentially that could be a risk going into round one, but for us our availability is great and all the boys are training really well.”
Despite falling at the final hurdle last year in a resounding Preliminary Final loss to Sydney, Ziebell said the experience of wins against top four sides will be invaluable for North.
“The pleasing thing for fans coming out of last year would be the way we played against top four sides.
“We mixed it with the best teams last year, especially that game against Hawthorn (Round 16).
“We did all the hard work in the first half and put the Hawks to the sword, and we knew they were going to respond because they are the best team in the competition. It was great for our guys to get up and really show some fight and understand that they really want to win that game.”
The Kangaroos are aiming to replicate, if not go one step further in finals this year, but it’s not going to be an easy task.
“Another 12 months into our group, another pre-season and we’re all a very driven playing group. We are all really excited about this year,” Ziebell added.
“We understand our weaknesses coming out of last year and we’ve worked really hard on that in the off-season.
“We’re just really looking forward to getting stuck into round one and playing really consistent footy over four quarters. We know if we do that, whether we’re playing well or not so well, as long as the effort’s there and the intent’s right we’re going to be hard to beat.”
