North Melbourne coach David Noble has backed his midfield group to impact the scoreboard in 2021. 

In recent years, North have been reliant on its tall marking targets inside 50, but Noble is keen to implement a change in philosophy throughout the group.

“We need to be able to be efficient when we go forward,” he told SEN.

“It’s going to be a combination of some of our talls being able to mark it, and some on the run goals with our speedy guys through on ground work.

“Whether it’s a Jack Mahony or a Tarryn Thomas or a Jaidyn Stephenson … even Ben Cunnington going forward out of the midfield … midfield goals will be important for us.”

There will be a focus on the team playing an instinctive style of football this season, and Noble believes speed is key to success. 

“We want our guys to feel like they they’ve got the capacity to move the ball with urgency to try to score,” he said.

“We’ll make some errors along the way and we’ve got to learn from them … we’re encouraging our guys to take risks.

“Sometimes, you do have to take your medicine and just put the hail mary in there and hope [the forwards] can compete enough to bring it to ground … but we’re not in a capacity to play shootout footy.”

Noble also believes there were some positives against St Kilda last week, despite the defeat. 

“We liked a lot of areas of our game, albeit in small doses,” he said.

“We thought our competitiveness around the ball from a contested ball perspective was good.

“Some of our younger guys … they’re just invaluable experiences to give those guys a look at what AFL football looks like”.