After a physically testing fortnight for North Melbourne, its 22 players and coaching staff have traded the cold Melbourne weather for the Gold Coast sun.

Having secured a hard-fought win against Brisbane on Saturday, the group has spent the past two days in Broadbeach, in a bid to physically and mentally refresh with finals on the line.

“We all got together a few weeks ago to map out the remainder of the season, so the staff, coaches and players worked-out what the best way to tackle the last three rounds would be,” general manager of football Cameron Joyce told North Media.

“It gave us an opportunity to stay up here for a day or two to do our full program in a different environment.

“Also it provides a bit of mental refreshment for the boys knowing that it’s such an important three weeks to go, with our season firmly still alive.”

The change of scenery is all about recovery and looking forward with the staff and coaching team ensuring the players go through the same training and review programs they would at Arden Street.

“Being able to be all together in the one spot, there’s a lot of intangibles you can get out of that,” Joyce said.

“We’ll still continue our same program, but it will just be in a different environment.”

With an eight-day break before Sunday’s match with the Dogs, the players will also be bolstered by the return of superstar Shaun Higgins.

“We expect Shaun to play this week,” Joyce declared.

“He’s done a little bit of training over the weekend and he was pushing us to play him last weekend against Brisbane, but off the back of his surgery, he’s pulled-up really well and we expect him to do main training.

“He jumped on the bike the day after the surgery just to tick the legs over.

“He is your consummate professional.

“He’s done everything right so far, and he’ll just need to tick a couple of boxes later this week and he’ll be ok to play.”

Having injured his hamstring in North’s most recent clash with the Bulldogs, speedster Billy Hartung will make his long-awaited return to football.

“Billy’s missed the past six weeks after the Bulldogs game in Round 14.

“His recovery has stepped-up in the past couple of weeks and he’s done a lot of game-sense training, so if he gets through this week he’ll be available to play again.

“Obviously we’ll have to ease him through the VFL, but it’s good to have Billy back and add some more run to our side which is good.”