With Brent Harvey stepping down to work with the club’s emerging leaders, North has elevated Nick Dal Santo and Sam Gibson into senior positions.
"We have brought Nick into the leadership group. It has surprised me a little bit. We knew what we were getting as a player, and we knew a fair bit about him as a person, but I have been pleasantly surprised,'' Brad Scott told the Herald Sun's Jon Ralph.
"He has exceeded my expectations as a leader. He is a really resilient player with 260 games, but his direction and work with the younger guys and senior guys has just been really impressive.
"So with the fact that he's also desperate to be involved as a leader and really wants that responsibility and wants to help drive the group forward, to me it's a really simple. And importantly the players have rated him that way as well.
"All I have seen in my time so far is an extremely diligent, hardworking, driven, player.''
Gibson’s tireless work-rate has impressed since he was plucked from the VFL.
“He’s proof that hard work, trumps talent…and that’s certainly not to say Sam doesn’t have an enormous amount of capability, because he does, but the way he’s worked to get to where he is, is a great example to everyone,” Scott told AFL.com.au.
Cameron Ling has worked closely with the Kangaroos in the pre-season to formulate the new-look line-up which still includes captain Andrew Swallow, Jack Ziebell, Drew Petrie, Daniel Wells and Scott Thompson.
