North Melbourne midfielder Andrew Swallow believes his side must make the finals in 2012 or the year will be viewed as a 'major disappointment'.
The Kangaroos haven't featured in September since 2008, with back-to-back ninth placed finishes the best they could muster over the past two seasons.
Swallow, who is coming off a career best season in 2011, says the club must take that extra step in 2012 or the year will be a failure.
"We have been pretty disappointed in the last couple of years to finish ninth and be a game out so we are looking forward to having a good start to the year," Swallow told Sportal.
"We just know internally we need to improve and get to the next level and we are at the point now where we need to play finals."
"Anything less than that would be a big disappointment for the club."
North didn't register a win until Round 6 in 2011 and didn't make an impression on the top eight until a mid-season streak starting at Round 11 that netted four straight victories.
A faster start in 2012 will be expected at North, given they tackle the Suns and the Giants within the first five rounds and have three games at Etihad Stadium during that same period.
Swallow said a fast start is a must for his club and he will emphasise this to his team-mates during the remainder of the pre-season.
"We started 0-5 last year so the key is to get off to a good start," he said.
"When you get behind 0-5 it is always going to be a tough ask to make it from there."
"But we have got a lot of our guys up fit and firing at the moment, compared to last year when we had a few guys injured."
Swallow expects a lot of the improvement at the club to come from the younger brigade, with the 24-year-old nominating Shaun Atley, Levi Greenwood, Ben Cunnington and Jack Ziebell as the players he expects to have big seasons in 2012.
And the two-time Syd Barker medallist is also looking forward to having big man Hamish McIntosh back in a North guernsey and working in tandem with fellow ruckman Todd Goldstein.
"Having Goldy (Goldstein) and H (McIntosh) play together will be good and I think the two of them will work really well together," Swallow said.
"It might take a bit of time for them to gel, but if we can get both of those guys up and firing it will be good for us."
Swallow is expected to be announced as skipper of North Melbourne next month, with veteran midfielder Brent Harvey likely to step aside and let his less experienced team-mate take the reins while he enters the twilight of his career.
But Swallow said the succession plan for the captaincy had not been decided and he would be happy to continue under Harvey if it was deemed best for the club.
"I have spoken to Brad (coach Brad Scott) a little bit, but he hasn't really given us an indication exactly what he wants as yet so we are going to wait until the end of this month," Swallow said.
"We will sit down with him and go through that, but I am just happy to contribute to the team in whatever manner I can."
"Whether that is just in the leadership group, as captain, as vice captain or whatever...I want to see some team success."