UNTRIED North Melbourne ruckman Todd Goldstein believes there is room for him alongside the Roos' established ruck duo of Hamish McIntosh and David Hale in 2008.

The 19-year-old spent last year as the No.1 ruckman with the Roos' former VFL affiliate, the Tasmanian Devils, just a year after deciding to forego a promising basketball career to take his football more seriously.

But Goldstein says the lessons learnt in his first year of senior football have given him the confidence to believe he can play alongside his more senior ruck colleagues for the Kangaroos in just his second season at the club.

"I'd definitely like to think we can all play together, why not?" Goldstein says.

"I'm not sure what sort of set-up Dean [Laidley] wants but I think Haley has shown he can play up forward so hopefully we can find a way for the three of us to play.

"If I can keep working hard on all the areas I need to improve in and then play OK in the intra-club games, we'll have a better idea about where I'm at, but I don't see why we all can't play in the same side if we're all playing well."

Adding to Goldstein's faith he can mix it in the big time is the knowledge he has done everything asked of him by Paul Turk, the Roos' strength and conditioning coach, over another tough pre-season.

That attitude has seen him consistently post personal best times in the club's regular time trials around Princes Park, slashing his first ever time of 13:30 for the 3.2km course during last year's pre-season, down to 12:12 after this year's New Year break.

"I'm rapt that I keep breaking my personal best times and I'm pretty happy to get down to 12:12," Goldstein says.

"The guys in the main bunch were finishing in the middle 11s so I'm getting closer to them. Once I break 12 minutes, that's my next aim; to get into the main bunch."

But improving his aerobic capacity is just one pre-season aim for the former Australian junior basketball representative.

Despite feeling comfortable with how his ruckwork progressed over last season, Goldstein knows he still has a lot to learn about the intricacies of his craft.

He has spent countless hours with Roos assistant coach John Lamont and ruck coach Matthew Capuano in a bid to improve his understanding of the game he has only taken seriously since midway through his last year at school.

"I felt reasonably confident with my ruckwork – I still have to learn the finer points obviously – but it's the around the ground sort of stuff I've got to work on.

"The things like knowing where to run and where to position myself at different stages of the game; that's all going to come the more I play senior footy and the more I listen to the coaches.

"Matty Capuano and Johnny Lamont have been great in helping me out there and even Leigh Brown was great when he came back and played back with us in Tassie – anyone who is prepared to help I'm going to listen to and take it all from there."

With the Roos' pre-season back in full swing after the Christmas break, Goldstein says he is looking forward to seeing the balls introduced more and more with each session.

He has enjoyed seeing his running times come down and is feeling bigger and stronger after being just as meticulous in the gym as he has been on the running track, but, as with all footballers, it's the prospect of kicking a few balls around that really excites Goldstein.

"Now that we've got that fitness base, we 're starting to get the balls out and working on our skills, which is probably the next big thing I need to work on.

"We're doing the full ground drills, which also gets our match fitness up, and that'll help before we start the intra-clubs.

"If I can show that I'm around about the mark during those, I might sneak a spot in the NAB Cup games, and from there, who knows what might happen?"