A staple of North Melbourne's outfit throughout the mid to late 2000s and early 2010s, Hamish McIntosh bleeds royal and blue white.

After being taken by the club with the ninth overall selection of the 2002 AFL National Draft, the 203cm ruckman went on to play 107 games and kick 59 goals as a Roo, giving his all despite injury setbacks across his 10 seasons on the list.

Currently in the property sector while also running a football coaching business, McIntosh made time for NMFC Media to chat about his time as a young ruck prospect at Arden Street in the 2000s, his debut, an 'amazing' 2007 season and his transition to the Cattery.

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To say I was nervous (on my first day of the 2003 pre-season) is an understatement.

I was obviously slightly apprehensive about my fitness base to see how that was going to hold up - I got quickly shown up in regard to that.

My first time trial and my first weight session were not at the level where they needed to be, considering I didn't finish the time trial, but I was quite nervous.

I didn't really know what to expect coming into a club that had some premiership players on its list.

Coming in, trying to find your way, fitting in and getting the respect of the playing group was the key. It took me a while to get that, to be honest with you, because of where I'd come from physically and probably mentally as well, in regards to getting ready to play AFL football.

The journey to get to know those senior guys, play with them, see how they went about it, who they are off-field and on-field was a tremendous privilege.

I still talk to a few of those guys to this today. They're superstar players. Boomer (Brent Harvey), Simmo (Adam Simpson), Shagger (Shannon Grant) to name a few, and there's a lot of young players that I played with like big Drewy (Drew Petrie) - the list goes on.

Being pick No.9, I felt that expectation to perform. But within six months, I quickly realised I had a lot of work to do on a fitness level, so my goal was just to get better and improve through the VFL and hopefully fast-track my fitness.

You definitely feel pressure. It's an AFL environment, it's your job and your only security is a contract, so there's the element of that.

I think there's more pressure these days then there was back then, though. The world has changed a little bit compared to when I started in regard to social media and more media outlets, so I think players now would feel more pressure and expectation than when we did.

I wasn't the best pupil at school, I was more worried about hanging out with my mates.

Football came to me at a young age, and I loved it.

I always had a passion for it. I grew up on a farm so if I didn't have a footy in my hand it wouldn't be long before I did.

I started from a very young age all the way through to the junior levels and I started playing a bit of rep footy a bit later in life. I didn't start really playing the high-level stuff until I was 16 or 17 years old.

I went through the Murray Bushrangers and developed a bit later. I was lucky enough to have a good quality year before my draft year and got picked by North Melbourne.

I remember that year (in 2005) I was playing okay in the first five or six weeks.

I actually started playing some decent football and then I think Drew Petrie might have rolled his ankle, but I got an opportunity to play (my first AFL game) over in Adelaide.

That was my first game and Adelaide had Rhett Biglands and Ben Hudson - they weren't small operators. They were decent sized units and I was still pretty raw at 21 so I wouldn’t say I was the strongest man in the world, and we had David Hale rucking as well.

It was a learning experience and again, it quickly showed that although I'd improved, I still had a long way to go. Those boys were physical and genuine men to play against.

I only played about 30 minutes of the game and my first kick was smothered but I had a bit of fun, I enjoyed the experience.

I didn't play again that year, went back to the VFL and continued to bide my time.

We started the preseason in 2006 on October 6, I'm pretty sure that was when we had our first fitness test and then if we passed that then our full pre-season started October 16.

So, you think of today's game, they're all starting training in late November-December. Our pre-season started in the middle of October, so we had a really good build-in to that season.

We were all incredibly fit, we went on one of the toughest camps I've ever been on. But what I appreciated is that was what I needed. I needed to have that long lead-in. I didn't miss a session … it really set myself up for a great year.

It showed in the form. I felt fitter, I felt different, and it correlated into some good on-field performances throughout that year. I felt like I started to belong as a player.

I enjoyed the experience that year in terms of success we had. We lost the first three games and then we won six in a row. Then we just went on a run all year and made finals, made the prelim and it was an amazing run.

We didn't get to the pinnacle which we wanted, but to come from where we did in 2006 to where we finished in 2007, it was still an amazing year.

To this day it's the closest year I've had in terms of how the group was connected. We were really tight on and off the field.

I had an Achilles injury which I got back from and felt really good, but the PCL was the main one. I did it in 2008 against (Aaron) Sandilands and I kept knocking it in the ruck. It became so unstable that in 2012 we went in and operated on it.

They made it so tight because it had been so unstable for so long and it just took so long to get it back to normal. It took two years before I could play a game of football. Through that period, I really thought a lot of times whether I'd actually ever get back to playing football because I kept breaking down with other parts of my body, because I was so out of whack.

That was a long 24 months before I got to play again, but I definitely had doubts in that time.

It was exciting and nerve-racking again (moving to Geelong). At a new club it's almost like you've got to prove yourself again.

There was a sadness to it, wanting to be a one-club player. I love North Melbourne. If you speak to anyone out there - my mates, friends, anyone that's involved - they all know that my passion lies with that football club.

I moved to Geelong and played with some genuine stars as well: (Joel) Selwood, Paul (Chapman), Stevie Johnson and Jimmy Bartel to name a few. They're some all-time AFL greats so there was an element of nervousness.

I had no direction what I wanted to do when I finished high school.

North Melbourne gave me a journey into AFL, and as I matured and grew up over time I started to grow as a person and find some interest outside of football.

I'm very fortunate that the club helped me through the early days and worked me hard and got me to where I needed, to be an AFL footballer and get a career out of it.

I've made some lifelong friends, from players and coaches to board members. I still see a lot of those people to this day and they're some of my best friends for life.

And it's given me a life after football as well, which, again, I had no idea what I was doing at 18 and now I'm very comfortable where my life is headed from this point.

• As told to Luke Macquire