McIntosh, who had surgery on an achilles tendon injury a month ago, says his recovery has gone to plan so far.
"It's been four weeks now and we always planned to run after about five weeks," McIntosh told afl.com.au during the Roos' Telstra AFL community camp in Ballarat.
"It looks like that's going to happen, so it's all going well.
"When I start running we'll monitor my progress on a week-to-week basis and see how I pull up. That will determine when I can step my training and then come back and play my first game."
North Melbourne coach Brad Scott is similarly buoyant about the big man's recovery.
"We've always been really confident that once he had the minor surgery he'd be on a very steep curve to get back playing," Scott said.
"We're hopeful that he'll be available for round one of the regular season. He's on track for that and hopefully he continues that way."
McIntosh's housemate, key defender Nathan Grima, is also progressing nicely.
The 25-year-old had surgery on his back in early January, but will soon step up his training load.
"He doesn’t cope with injuries too well because he's such a competitor and loves to get out and train and he loves playing the game," Scott said.
"He's tracking really well and we expect him to be available in the early rounds of the year too.
"His absence gives opportunities to other young key position players, and I'm looking forward seeing Luke Delaney and Robbie Tarrant get an opportunity to play in key defensive roles for us."
It's been a much better build-up to the season for star forward Drew Petrie, whose 2010 campaign was derailed by a host of problems with his feet.
Petrie is on track to play in North Melbourne's first NAB Cup hit out against the Western Bulldogs and Geelong, although the coach isn't getting carried away.
"He was training the house down this time last year and we didn't get to see him much in the regular season," Scott said.
"But Drew's been terrific, one of a group of our senior players who have trained really well this pre-season.
"We don't like to get too far ahead of ourselves, but it is exciting to think about what he might be able to do in our forward line this year."
