When the word ‘pre-season’ springs to mind, it’s almost impossible not to immediately think of one thing - bulk running.

With the AFL pre-season soon to get underway, North Melbourne’s players are gearing up for the hardest phase of physical conditioning of one of the most physically taxing professional sports in the world.

After a decade in Collingwood’s high-performance department, this upcoming block of training will be the first for Kevin White at North Melbourne, having taken on the role as the club’s new head of performance.

White says his approach to the players’ conditioning goes beyond just racking up the kilometres.

“The biggest thing is separating running conditioning from football conditioning,” he told North Media.

“A lot of the old-school methods of training had skills separated from the conditioning aspect.

“The program and philosophy I’ll bring is a football/fitness program. Everything we do is running the patterns the boys will run in the roles they play.

“Basically, it’s divided into two phases. The first phase was purely running and conditioning to maintain leg load and fitness. The last three to four weeks they’ve been in a football condition phase where the load starts to gradually ramp up.

“There’s combativeness, there’s contest, there’s ball-work, and 90 per cent of the conditioning aspects they’ll have in the program moving forward will be fully role specific.

“It bleeds into them developing to their game demands, and hopefully enhancing overall team performance.”

While North’s players are technically in their off-season break, they’ve taken the initiative to return early and try to get an advantage over the competition.

Every player on the list is also tasked with an off-season program to complete, ensuring they come back to formal training in tip-top shape.

While many of North’s Victorian contingent have been training under the watchful eye of White, he says he’s still aware of how the interstate players are travelling.

“Basically, I do a voiceover of what their conditioning and strength programs look like, and then it’s just about touching base on the phone every week,” he said.

“Whether it’s Tom Powell in Adelaide, or Kyron (Hayden) in Perth, it’s been really easy to see how they’re progressing so they’re in the same position as the Victorian boys, come day one.”

White is far from the only new addition to North’s high-performance department, with reconditioning coach Daniel Cross also joining the Roos’ ranks.

A former player with the Demons and the Western Bulldogs, White says Cross can add a different perspective to the club’s performance staff, and he’s keen to get to work at the club.

“‘Crossy’ has been a brilliant addition here … the fact he was an elite player who got the most out of himself … he’s been through injuries himself so he has the ability to relate to players about how they might be feeling mentally as well as physically,” he added.

“He (Cross) has the respect from the players as someone who understands the game, and understands the demands and stresses around it, [which is] invaluable.

“He’s been brilliant in the short time I’ve got to work closely with him.

“That, coupled with ‘Nobes’ (David Noble) being really impressive … I feel like [North] is a good place to challenge myself.”