Scott Thompson, Jack Ziebell, Nick Dal Santo and Drew Petrie were among those to return to the track, joining their younger counterparts for a long, testing skills session.
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The players felt the full brunt of Melbourne’s relentless sun, but most were just delighted to be back into the swing of things.
"As one of the senior blokes, my responsibility is to keep the team up and about and pick up the standard of training," Thompson told NMFC.com.au.
"If everyone improves the team will get better and hopefully we'll make finals this year."
For Thompson it’s going to be a big challenge to reach the lofty heights of 2013, but the All-Australian full-back was one of the stand-outs in the contested drills.
"It's a great honour to get that recognition, but it's a new year, everyone's at the same playing field at the start of the year, so you've got to just keep improving."
Petrie hasn’t lost any of his spring during the break; the veteran flew high over a pack late in the session and almost pulled down a spectacular mark.
In a sight all North Melbourne fans would be pleased to see, Andrew Swallow continued his rehabilitation from an achilles injury, and was full of encouragement for his team-mates.
View the best photos from Friday's training session
