The rigours of AFL football will inevitably take its toll on even the fittest, most physically strong individuals, and with 270 games under his belt, Todd Goldstein is used to it.

North Melbourne’s star ruck is one of many players around the competition currently dealing with soreness, niggles or playing through injuries as the physical nature of our game makes itself known to those who play it.

Part of making it to the elite level is possessing the mental toughness and mental fortitude needed to play through the pain and find that extra drive, that extra one per cent, and that extra desire to compete.

“You feel much better when you’re mentally going well,” Goldstein told RSN.

“I’m really enjoying footy, I’m really enjoying this group and what we’re trying to achieve. For me, that helps my body feel much better,”

“I know how to do all the recovery and do that the best I can, but I think it’s the mental side of things at this time of year that makes your body feel better.

“Obviously we’re 19 games in so everyone’s got soreness and a few niggles, but overall I’m feeling really good.”

When it’s late in the season and finals are off the table, it can be difficult not to look forward to the next season and let training standards drop, but such is the culture at North that those standards are still being raised.

Goldstein says while North does have one eye on 2022, that’s only improving the quality of football at the club.

“I don’t feel like we’re wobbling to the line. The training intensity and the standards we’re setting are still really high. We’re still trying to run through this finish line,” he said.

“We’d love to keep playing and we’d love to play finals [but] we’re more than happy for the season to continue because of how much we’re learning from it.

“The biggest focus now is putting the right processes in place [so] when Round 1, 2022 comes around, we’re much more prepared than Round 1, 2021.”

Those high training standards are driving the improvement of North’s results on the field, and the growth of the players off it, with Round 20’s clash with Geelong the latest in a line of solid performances.

Goldstein says while his side didn’t play the type of football its capable of against the Cats, the learnings taken out of the game are immense.

“We were pretty average with our skills on the day and we were still only 20 points down, and we were only down by a goal or two for a lot of that game,” he said.

“We may necessarily get the results we want, but we’re taking a lot of learnings out, we’re training those things and we’re getting better from that.

“We definitely haven’t lost confidence because of that game. We’ve got a lot out of it, and that’s the attitude we’re taking every week this year.”