NORTH Melbourne's new administration may have been busily shoring up the club's off-field future in recent months but that doesn't mean they have taken their eyes off boosting the Roos' on-field fortunes.

Fresh from unveiling a raft of initiatives that aim to secure the club's long-term future, chief executive Eugene Arocca today announced contract extensions for five players he considers "make up a pretty important nucleus of the team".

Hamish McIntosh, Brady Rawlings, Michael Firrito, Corey Jones and Daniel Pratt, who all played key roles in North Melbourne's surge to a preliminary final in 2007, have committed to a mix of two and three-year contract extensions.

McIntosh and Firrito signed new three-year deals while the remaining three have been tied to the Roos until the end of 2010.

Arocca was thrilled to make the announcement.

"We see it as an endorsement of what the club has been achieving over the last six months," he said.

"We've got a number of key performance indicators that we have had to achieve since we've come on board as a new board and CEO. This is one of the key ones for us, locking away as many players as we can before the end of the year.

"This is the first stage – there'll be a second stage probably within four to six weeks.

"Players who want to play at North Melbourne stay at North Melbourne and history has generally been that this is a great place to be. It's a unique club."

Two-time Syd Barker medallist Rawlings said it was a relief to lock in his contract ahead of the Roos' push to secure a position in the top eight.

"We've got nine rounds to go, then hopefully finals, so we definitely want to be in there come finals time and it's good for our side to get that (the signings) out the way and solely focused on the footy," he said.

"It's probably up to us older blokes to pass it on down to the younger blokes and make sure they want to stay here in the future as well."

Rawlings, Firrito, Jones and Pratt all play roles within the club's leadership group, and McIntosh is keen to embrace those responsibilities in the coming seasons.

Sidelined for at least another seven weeks with a knee injury, the announcement is some welcome news for the 23-year-old.

"Now that the club has thrown support behind me with my contract, I don't have to worry about it anymore," he said.

"I'm just getting my body right now for hopefully later this year and bigger next year.

"[And] it's definitely a part of my career that I want to expand it to, the leadership part of it."