AFTER his impressive debut season, Shaun Atley wants to go backwards in 2012.

Atley played predominantly on the wing in his 16 games for North Melbourne in 2011, impressing with his ability to lose opponents with his take-off speed and clever side-stepping. 

But this pre-season, Atley's No. 1 focus has been improving the defensive side of his game with the aim of playing in North's backline in 2012.

Atley told kangaroos.com.au recently he had spent much of this pre-season working with North's defensive group and watching game vision with backline coach Shane Watson. 

Although playing in defence is nothing new to him, Atley says he has had much to learn.

"As a junior, I played mostly in the backline, but it was all attacking, no defence," Atley, 19, says.

"What I've tried to work on this pre-season is my spoiling and defensive positioning. Playing against the bigger bodies in the AFL, your body positioning is vital - you just get chopped up if you don't get that right.

"But the work I've done has helped me here and, hopefully, I can play down back this year."

With his ability to break opposition lines, Atley seems well suited to playing a rebounding role off half-back. But Atley is not sure where he fits into North's defensive plans, saying simply: "That's up to the coach."

However, Atley is more emphatic on another subject - the knee soreness that troubled him in the second half of last season is no longer an issue.

Atley played North's first 13 games last season, but a knock to his right knee, along with fatigue, limited him to just three more senior games for the season.

Atley says he merely suffered bruising to his knee, with all related soreness gone by the time he returned for North's final game of the season, against Richmond.

Better still, Atley's body has coped well with the greatly increased workload he's taken on in his second pre-season.

"In my first pre-season we (first-year players) only did half the stuff so this year we've been really thrown into it," he says.

"I didn't go on the first Utah trip either because the draft was held after that. So training there last year was pretty full on, a lot harder than I expected, but once you got used to (the high altitude) it wasn't too bad.

"And once we got back, you could notice the improvement in your running too."
If Atley needed further proof of his improved fitness it came when he finished fourth in a club 2km time trial shortly after the Christmas break.

But Atley is not one to talk himself up. Asked about his time-trial finish, he feigns ignorance. When I suggest he finished fourth, he offers only: "Something like that".

It's a mindset the rest of the North Melbourne football department is going to adopt this season. One in stark contrast to the approach the club took at the start of 2011. Then, coach Brad Scott and his players spoke openly in the media of how they welcomed the chance to improve North's poor recent record against the competition's top teams.

But after winning just one game against a top-eight team last season - against Essendon in round 13 - Atley says North has decided the time for talk has finished.

"I think the attitude at the minute is stop talking about things and just do it," Atley says.

"A few of the boys have said that before but that's pretty much what we're about this year - actions and not words."