NORTH Melbourne will travel to Runaway Bay on Thursday for a seven-day training camp that will reveal its game plan for the season.
The Gold Coast trip will be a departure from North's last two camps, which have featured a 60km hike over 24 hours at Wilsons Promontory and three days at an army training centre outside Wagga.
Captain Brent Harvey said that after two months of time trials and skill work, the players were looking forward to studying new coach Brad Scott's match day strategy.
"Brad's touched on the style of play that he wants but he hasn't touched on game plan as such," he said.
"I would like us to come back from that camp knowing exactly how he wants us to play. We've got a pretty good idea at the minute but when we walk away from there, I reckon we would have done enough hours and enough homework to say, 'Righto, this is exactly what we have to do'."
Harvey welcomed the setting of the camp which, much like North's elite Arden Street facility, will provide the players with resources including heated pools, a gymnasium, medical rooms and training fields.
"In previous years we've gone away and been smashed," he said. "We've had a special operations camp where we had three hours' sleep in two nights.
"This will be a pure high performance football camp. I'm sure we'll be in the classroom for a fair bit of it to learn the style exactly as Brad wants."
Harvey, a veteran of 15 pre-seasons, said that for him this one had gone quicker than any before it.
The change in coaches along with North's move into its new facility at the end of November - after four weeks training out of the old building - had broken up the rigmarole of the summer.
Harvey said he hadn't missed a session, even though he had the blessing of strength and conditioning staff to do so occasionally.
"I'm not too keen to do that," he said. "I love being out on the track with the boys, especially when you've drafted a bunch of young guys. I love setting an example for them.
"Sometimes it's not even about physical stuff. It's about mentally knowing that I've done a bloody hard session."
Second-year player Jack Ziebell, who continues to impress his coaches and teammates with his own professionalism, said he looked to Harvey as one of the club's top trainers.
"I'm sure everyone else on the list does as well because he sets a high standard at the club," he said.
"He's such a hard worker and does all the right things."
Brent Harvey averaged 88.5 points as a forward/midfielder in last year’s Toyota AFL Dream Team.