It’s an area he’s always needed to work on and Jack Ziebell has never shied away from admitting his fitness is a weakness. According to Champion Data, he averaged the fourth-fewest minutes per stint on the ground for any midfielder, going to the bench 11.6 times per game - the most of any player in the competition.

But this year should be different according to the 23-year-old.

"I have been working really hard on it over the last few years and it has improved again,'' Ziebell told the Herald Sun’s Rebecca Williams.

"I'm really looking forward to getting out there in games and seeing where you're at because that's where you really find out where you're at. It's not around a 2km time trial, it's when you're stuck in the heat of the battle.”

Improving his aerobic base the main focus of his summer training regime.

"Ever since I started playing in the AFL it has probably been an area of mine that needs work and I think I have got it to a level now which is acceptable, and last year as well, and now it's just about improving that consistently.

"That's going to only help my footy and in turn the team as well.''

He reiterated those comments to The Age’s Matt Murnane while on North’s Australia Post Community Camp in Ballarat, citing the interchange cap of 120 as another reason to improve his engine.

With captain Andrew Swallow out for at least the NAB Challenge series, Ziebell said the club had plenty of leadership options.

"It's a good position to be in and we are going to be a better side when Andrew Swallow is back and hopefully that's sooner rather than later,'' Ziebell told Murnane.

"He is going really well with his rehab at the minute. I saw him the other day running across the ground really nicely.”

His own leadership style evolving and set to go to a new level under former Geelong champion Cameron Ling.

"Probably at the start when I was put in the leadership group I was fairly young, still am fairly young, but I found it a little bit difficult to talk to the older guys and tell them off and put a bit of pressure on guys that are more senior than you to perform,'' Ziebell said.

"I think that's something I am still working on but I am a lot more comfortable doing it now. It's an area I have improved.''