IT'S ONLY November, but already there are major signs of improvement at North Melbourne.

Having returned from a three-week high altitude training camp in Utah on Sunday, the Kangaroos completed a lengthy skills and running session at Aegis Park on Wednesday morning.

Assistant coach Darren Crocker said the players' performance on the gruelling camp had been noticeably better than last year, and would provide a strong foundation as the club strove to better its ninth-place 2011 finish next season.

"The workload (in Utah) was another level up from last year and they seemed to be able to cope with it even better than last year, so that was a really positive sign," Crocker told kangaroos.com.au after Wednesday's training.

"Hopefully that translates into their football.

"But just purely from a conditioning sense we thought that even though we stretched them a bit more and raised the bar a bit more, they coped with the work even better than they did last year."

Close to a full list took part in the first session back on home soil, with only Andrew Swallow and Ryan Bastinac (still in Utah) and Cam Richardson (on a modified program following post-season hip surgery) missing.

"At this time of the year last year we didn't have Hamish (McIntosh) on the track with his Achilles, Nathan Grima with his back, and there were a number of others that weren't able to do any type of training," Crocker said.

"This year, touch wood, the list is pretty healthy, and hopefully it will stay that way."

Crocker put the players through a series of three-quarter and full-ground skill drills, before finishing with five three-minute maximum effort runs.

Trade week recruit Will Sierakowski, a former Hawthorn rookie who is yet to make his AFL debut, was the standout runner.

"His (Sierakowski's) running is elite, and he's really given some of our guys someone to chase, which is fantastic," Crocker said.

"It's good that there's someone there to drag other guys up to his level.

"'Basti' (Bastinac) is obviously a really strong runner, and Nathan Grima and Lachie Hansen, but Will's come in and given those guys someone to try and get after."

Midfielder Daniel Wells, who is taking blood-thinning medication following surgery to remove life-threatening clots in both lungs, joined in most of the session.

The medication, which he'll stay on for five months, means he must avoid contact drills.

"It's hard for the guys around him to be aware of that, it's probably more up to Daniel to not put himself into situations where he might cop a whack," Crocker said.

"But the good thing is, from a conditioning perspective he can still do all the running and all the ball work."

The Kangaroos will train hard for the remainder of this week as they seek to consolidate the work done in the US.

They'll then take a week off, before another high-intensity training block leading into Christmas.

Crocker expected the fitness gains of the Utah camp to be only one of many long-term benefits.

"There's a real mental resilience that gets built up from training at altitude," he said.

"Because it's harder than training at sea level, I'm sure guys would question how much harder they could push themselves, but they've got to continue to ask their bodies and their minds to keep pushing, so that's another great outcome.

"Also the fact that they're living an elite lifestyle without any distractions.

"Basically, it's train really hard, recover really well, eat extremely well, get your sleep and rest so that you can get up for another session, and that's basically it for three weeks.

"If they then translate that back into their normal lifestyle back here, it's going to make them a far better footballer, but also a far better person with the way they go about things."