Whether he is handed the captaincy by coach Graham Arnold or not, North is blessed with experience of the tournament and knows what it is like to taste both triumph and despair at the Olympics.

He was part of the 2004 team that saw medal hopes ended in the quarter-finals by Iraq.

North feels the team in Athens could have gone further and should have gone further, only to lose out to Iraq.

He doesn't want to come away from Beijing with that same sense of what might have been.

The Newcastle Jets skipper toldau.fourfourtwo.com: "We got knocked out in 2004 by Iraq in quarter-finals. They were the surprise packet last time. Hopefully we can be the surprise packet this time.

"These boys are as fit as anything and I think the conditions will suit us to be honest. I can guarantee we’re going to be one of the fittest teams there."

There is plenty of talk of medals flying around but North says such talk is worthless unless those doing it really do believe that they can make it happen. North isn't one for 'hoping' a medal will come Australia's way.

He said: "In the last Olympics we probably didn’t realise we could have been medal contenders. There’s more belief in this team. I don’t think we had that belief last time.

"This is another opportunity and this time we have to carry ourselves over the line."