North’s new faces have wasted little time in imparting their wisdom on the playing group, according to youngster Taylor Hine.

Gavin Brown has been at the club for only a handful of months but his impact has already been felt.

“Alex McDonald, my manager, played with him back at Collingwood. He said he (Brown) was one of the best leaders he’s ever played with. I can see it already, he’s been great,” Hine told the team on SEN.

PRESS PLAY above to listen to the interview.

It’s not just the coaches making their presence felt - Nick Dal Santo has also led the way. While joking that the left-footer didn’t mind getting around the training track shirtless, Hine had high praise for the former Saint.

“He’s (Dal Santo) been around for a really long time and played a lot of footy so everyone has been looking up to him. He’s brought a lot of leadership and been great out on the track. He’s another big voice and gets the boys going.”

The main storyline around North in 2014 will be its performance late in close games after a string of heartbreaking losses in 2013.

“Obviously we’re hoping for a pretty big improvement from last year. We’ve been working pretty hard. We’re going to push for as much as we can and fix those little problems we had late in the games.

The pre-season period has allowed plenty of time to work on some key areas.  

“The coaches have showed us a lot of footage from the games, with a couple in particular when we thought we had the games sewn up and then let them slip,” Hine added.

“We went through the issues that came out of those games and what we needed to fix and what would help us get better at those things.”

Completing his first full pre-season, Hine will be hoping to secure a regular place in the 22 this season.