WHEN Nathan Grima's lower back flared up during North Melbourne's final training session before Christmas, his mind momentarily turned to the previous year's festive period.

Then, he'd been in Tasmania to spend Christmas with his family. But when a back injury he'd been carrying since North's first high-altitude training camp in Utah suddenly deteriorated, he was booked in for surgery to remove part of a bulged disc.

Grima would make a miraculous return to play against Collingwood in round two just three months later, but his disrupted pre-season - and a subsequent broken finger - meant he struggled for fitness and form for much of 2011.

This pre-season, Grima's back had stood up to a rigorous pre-Christmas training block including the Kangaroos' second training camp at Utah. He underlined his return to peak fitness when he won the club's 2km time trial in late November.

However, in North's final session of 2011 Grima, 26, experienced significant stiffness in his lower back. Initially, the key defender feared the worst.

"I got pretty tight in the lower back and like any injury at first you think you might have re-injured it," Grima told AFL.com.au from North's training camp in Tasmania on Friday.

"We had a pretty big campaign from Utah through to Christmas and maybe that build-up of workload caused the back to flare up.

"But the medical staff were all over it and adjusted my program accordingly. I eased off over Christmas but I'm back in full training now.

"Before then I hadn't had any problems at all since the surgery. So I haven't lost any confidence in my back whatsoever. It's 100 per cent - I've got no concerns at all."

As the sole Tasmanian on North's list following Brady Rawling's retirement last year, Grima is looking forward to North's venture into the Apple Isle, which begins with two 'home' games at Hobart's Blundstone Arena this year.

Grima grew up just south of Launceston in Evandale and played his junior footy with South Launceston. His mother and father and much of his extended family still live in Tasmania, so Grima will be able to catch up with them more regularly now.

He also welcomes the chance to be part of North's efforts to gain a significant foothold in Tasmania and is confident it can emulate the example set by Hawthorn in its 11 years playing at Launceston's Aurora Stadium.

"Hopefully the Tassie public can get behind us, which I'm sure they will," Grima says.

"Without a doubt it is a big footy state and there's no reason we can't have the sort of support in Hobart that Hawthorn have built in Launceston.

"Hawthorn have really embraced the community and hopefully we can build the same sort of following, not just in Hobart but across the whole state."

Grima says the Kangaroos' desire to connect with Tasmania as a whole meant they were reluctant to stoke the state's north-south rivalry by positioning themselves as the defenders of the south against the northern-based Hawks.

"We want to try to embrace as many people in the state as we can," Grima says.

"There's always been a healthy north-south rivalry in Tassie but we won't be buying into that much."

Looking ahead to the 2012 season, Grima foresees some changes to the make-up of North's backline. In the key-position ranks, Robbie Tarrant, who played all of his seven senior games last season in defence, has been groomed this pre-season to spend more time in attack, Grima says.

And at half-back, the Kangaroos are likely to trial Shaun Atley, Liam Anthony and former Hawthorn rookie Will Sierakowski in search of some attacking flair.

"We need one guy to come down there who might be a little creative because we do get a little stagnant there at times," Grima says.

Not for the first time, Grima couldn't resist finishing with a joke: "We've tried to get 'Boomer' (captain Brent Harvey) to come down there, but he doesn't like the backline."

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily of the AFL or the clubs