A “brand new” look in amongst the playing group and football department has Jack Ziebell and his teammates ready and revitalised for 2021.
The North skipper said David Noble had been “unbelievable” since joining the club, and was excited to get a new season underway.
13 new players have arrived at Arden Street in the off-season, as well as four new coaches.
“These guys (the coaches) have brought in pretty much a whole new program with them,” Ziebell said on RSN.
“ … the way that we train, the different goals that we train with and the way the day is run.
“Everything around the footy club is brand new and I think that’s exactly what we needed, a bit of a fresh start.
“David Noble has been unbelievable, coming in building his relationships with everyone so quickly, but also bringing in a program … he’s been a GM of Football for the better half of a decade I think; he knows what a football program looks like and he’s built one at our football club that’s really working at the moment.”
Ziebell said despite the huge amount of change at the club, the transition had been “so easy”.
“The path has been clear for us as older players,” he said.
“Even when Dave (Noble) came on board and I think our role was clear, in really fast-tracking the development of all our young guys.”
The skipper confident North will bounce back from a difficult 2020 campaign.
“It’s funny how quickly a lot of people externally write you off as a football club, when you go through a tough time,” Ziebell added.
“I think that we’re going to bounce back a lot quicker than what people think; we’ve got some exciting young talent and we’ve got about 20 or 22 players under 22 years of age and some elite talent in that group.
“You look at Jy Simpkin and the year he had, Luke Davies-Uniacke … we’ve got Jed Anderson, guys like Curtis Taylor, Tarryn Thomas and Jack Mahony.
“We’ve recruited pretty well getting Lachie Young and a guy like Jaidyn Stephenson across from Collingwood.
“There’s talent across all lines and we’re starting to build a bit of depth as well, so it’s very exciting times to be a North Melbourne fan and I can’t wait to get started in 2021.”