Kayne Turner is seeing the benefits of a full pre-season pay off, both physically and mentally.

With his pre-season goal of a full JLT Series almost complete, Turner’s faith in his body has returned.

“After each session I’m able to get through, it keeps building for me, the confidence levels grow and you get more trust in the body,” Turner explained to NMFC.com.au.

“I’m much stronger through the core, hamstrings and back. That all helps massively.

“I’ve been able to complete every session so far, whereas last year around this time I was missing sessions and trying to get my fitness back up for Round 1 or 2, or whenever I could get back.”

Turner’s 2016 was frequently interrupted by hamstring issues, only able to make two AFL and four VFL appearances.

Several months on the training track has the 21-year-old confident all those problems are behind him.

“Being able to get through all these sessions, it’s always going to build your fitness levels right up,” Turner said.

“It gives me more confidence that I can run out games a lot better than I was able to.

“Towards the end of last year, some of my injuries occurred late on in games.

“Being able to get through these (JLT Series) games with no real warning signs is a real positive for me.”

Turner’s pre-season has reaped a benefit in two key areas of his game.

“(It’s) the high-speed stuff and tackles,” Turner said.

“In particular the high-speed running, it’s more confidence and I feel good when I’m running quick now.

“Where I did a couple of hamstrings last year was trying to tackle, so it’s helped laying tackles as well.

“I don’t have to worry about (hamstrings), it’s not in the back of my head.”

Turner’s work without the ball in his first two JLT Series games has been right up near the top of the North tree amongst his fellow forwards.

It’s been part of a team emphasis on forward pressure, attempting to replicate what was such a key part of North’s early season blitz in 2016.

“We’ve made it a huge focus again this year, as it is probably every year for a lot of teams,” Turner said.

“We’ve got a younger side, there’s a lot of energy around, trying to teach these younger boys while I keep learning myself.

“The defensive side is a part of it as well, I think we’ve been able to do that really well so far in the JLT and hopefully can continue to do so.”