Footballers can often find the motivation to win in unusual places, and the main personal incentive to strive for victory varies from player to player.

Some want premiership glory, some want to win for the club’s supporters, some want to win for their teammates, some want to win for their families, for most though it’s a combination of those and more.

North Melbourne’s Nick Larkey believes his side has an added catalyst when they take the field, and that’s the desire to experience victory with the side’s veterans.

While North’s side is littered with young, up-and-coming talent - the side fielded against Gold Coast contained seven players who had played less than 30 games - there’s a smattering of more experienced players leading the team.

“Players like Ben Cunnington, ‘Goldy’ (Todd Goldstein), ‘Ziebs’ (Jack Ziebell), Robbie Tarrant, the older boys [being] there gives us younger boys some added motivation to be the best we can be at as young as we can,” Larkey told SEN.

“[We want them] to experience success and reap the rewards of sticking around with the club.

“The quicker we can fast-track that process, the better it’s going to be for players like that, who’ve given their all to the club for so long.”

A key man in fast tracking that process is David Noble, who has been at the helm of massive improvement over the course of his first season as senior coach.

“He (Noble) does heaps of work to make it such a good place to be, but also he gives the players a lot of power and authority to make it the place we want it to be as well. It’s not his way or the highway for ‘Nobes’,” Larkey said.

“He’s created a place where people want to come in and even though we’re last on the ladder, everyone is so motivated to play and they can’t wait to play the next week, especially recently because we’ve been in games.

“We’re growing as a group and a massive part of that is ‘Nobes’ and the way he’s made the environment of the footy club feel so good … we certainly don’t feel like we’re anywhere near the bottom of the ladder as a club.”

As the season progresses to its latter stages, North will start playing some teams for the second time this season in what is a great barometer for the sides improvement.

Last weekend saw a 68-point turnaround from Round 2’s game with Gold Coast, now it’s the turn of the Western Bulldogs to face a rejuvenated North side.

“We’re all really ready to take them on again. They embarrassed us last time and it’s going to be added motivation,” Larkey said.

“At the start of the year we were struggling but we were adjusting to a new game plan, it was a whole new coaching [staff] and a whole new game plan implemented which was tough to adjust to.

“Over the weeks we’ve added layers to it and it all seems like it’s coming to fruition now … it’s been a steady build but we’re finally reaping the rewards now.

“We’ll stick to our plan and the focus of where we’re going which is what we’ve been doing every week and we’ll just build on it. If we turn up to play like we have been it’s going to be a good game.”