Goalsneak Lindsay Thomas has improved his strength and fitness base and will resume full contact training drills in the coming weeks.
The 26-year-old has been carefully managed this pre-season after sustaining a foot injury in round 17 last season.
Thomas said he is aiming to be fully fit for North’s first pre-season opener against Adelaide in his home town of Port Lincoln.
“I’ve been in rehabilitation since December so I’m probably another three or four weeks away from joining the main group,” Thomas told NMFC.com.au.
“I’ll just keep ticking the boxes and hopefully I can be right for the NAB Challenge because we’re playing in my home town so I definitely want to get up for that.”
Thomas has set himself a target of scoring a minimum of 45 goals for the Roos this year after sitting down with veteran Brent Harvey to discuss his objectives for 2015.
The number 12, who kicked 45 goals last year and 53 in 2013, said he wants to remain “consistent” at the elite level.
“For the last two years, I’ve been able to do that so I’m going to try doing that again this year,” he said.
“Hopefully I can have another year like last year.
“We (Harvey and I) sit down and have a bit of a yarn and we set some goals. I ask him what his goals are then he asks me what my goals are.”
Now in his ninth year at Arden Street, the 180cm forward is just one goal shy of reaching the 250-goal mark – a milestone only 16 other Roos have achieved – but there’s another personal achievement he holds very dear.
“To be able to beat Jimmy Krakouer’s record (of 229 goals) and be the leader of all the Indigenous goalkickers will definitely be up there when my career’s finished,” he said.
“To be able to kick 250 for such a historic club is something I’ll also look back on when I’m done.”
Inspired and motivated by his Aboriginal roots, Thomas said he can’t wait to don the redesigned Kangaroos’ Indigenous guernsey in round nine this season.
“To be able to wear it is something I love doing, let alone wearing the North jumper, but to wear it in Indigenous round is something special,” he said.
“It’s something that I’m pretty passionate about, I’m very proud that I wore it last year.”
Thomas said he is trying to shake off a perception he stages for free kicks, after last year coming under fire for an incident against Geelong’s James Kelly in round 19.
“It’s something I spoke to (senior coach) Brad Scott about at the end of the year and it's a distant memory now,” he said.
“I want to cut it out of my game because I’m coming to the back end of my career and I don’t want to be remembered for that, so it’s something I’m continuing to work on.”
