North Melbourne captain Jack Ziebell will play his 200th game against Gold Coast on Saturday night, a milestone that has been somewhat overlooked in an eventful couple of weeks for the club.
"It's been a bit of a whirlwind few weeks leading into tomorrow night's game, and I haven't thought too much about it at all," Ziebell told the media on Friday.
"I think maybe after the game, if we get the result and all things go to plan, it might be something to reflect on a little bit more.
"It'll be awesome, I've got a few family members and friends going up to the game this weekend, so it'll be nice to spend a bit of time with them and celebrate something that's a pretty hard to do in AFL – play 200 games. I'm very proud of that."
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North Melbourne came out firing against Richmond last weekend, thumping the Tigers around the ball (winning contested possessions 153-130) and dominating the tackle count (68-55).
While the message at the Roos this week has been about consistency of performance, Ziebell was pleased the 37-point win came on the back of strong performances by some of the side's younger members.
"Cam [Zurhaar] is a great young fella and he's got the attributes to become a really consistent AFL footballer, we saw that on the weekend," Ziebell said.
"I don't think he would have had his best game by any stretch of the imagination on the stats sheet in terms of kicks, marks and handballs, but it's important to know when a young player's not finding much of the football, he can impact the game in other ways (11 tackles), and Cam did that massively on the weekend.
"His presence on the ground was felt by everyone."
Another young Roo to shine was Luke Davies-Uniacke, who found plenty of ball and recorded his second-highest career disposal tally of 21.
"Brad (Scott) was great with 'LDU', he didn't rush him in any facet," Ziebell said.
"Lukey's been building really, really nicely this year, and I think he's going to be a quality player for us for a very long time.
"Confidence is a big thing for Luke, and I think he's done what's expected of him so far. From here on out, you'll see the confidence grow and his ability to play at the top level will increase, and we'll see what he's capable of."
Ziebell also said former coach Brad Scott has not completely severed ties with the club after agreeing to mutually part ways two weeks ago.
The Kangaroos are now being led by acting senior coach Rhyce Shaw, but skipper Jack Ziebell said Scott will still have a connection to the team.
"I've been in touch a little bit with Brad, not too much, but we caught up with him after everything all happened and chatted with him.
"He's pretty content with how it all went. It's onwards and upwards from here for our footy club.
"He's going to be a support for a number of players at our footy club – and coaches to be honest – because he's been a part of the fabric of this footy club for so long."
