North Melbourne has pulled out all stops to prevent Ben Cunnington from becoming a free agent by signing the star midfielder to a new deal until the end of the 2020 season.

Cunnington said he was delighted to receive a three-year extension on his existing contract.

"It's exciting, we were just going about the pre-season as usual knowing that I had a contract for this year and next year, when the club approached me and my manager about a new deal," Cunnington told The Herald Sun's Glenn McFarlane.

"It's worked out really good for me. I never wanted to leave, and now I won't have to deal with all that free agency stuff (next year) and all the media and speculation that goes with it.

"You look at the guys who signed up last year, 'Ziebs' (Jack Ziebell) and 'Goldy' (Todd Goldstein), and now I've done it. Hopefully, we can get a few young guys jumping on board as the club is going in a good direction."

The 24-year-old won a Syd Barker Medal in 2014 and came runner-up to Todd Goldstein last year.

"I've always been brought up to be loyal in whatever you do, and North has been very good to me," Cunnington said.

"This place is a part of home for me.

"It is a great family club. The culture is really good. I want to be here for as long as I can, and this deal means it will probably end up with me being a one-club player, which is what I've always wanted."

Having played in two consecutive preliminary finals, Cunnington believes North is well placed to go one further and secure a fifth flag for the club.

"We definitely feel we are around the mark at the moment. Looking back at our first prelim final (against Sydney in 2014), that was such an adrenalin rush and everything happened so quickly.

"But last year we genuinely felt we had West Coast covered (at stages), even though they were a bit too good in the end. We look back and feel we could have won that game against them.

"That's what we play footy for (to win premierships). And if we can finish in the top four this year, it will help us even more.

"We don't think we are too old," he said.

"Everyone talks about the older guys, but 'Boomer' (Brent Harvey), 'Wellsy' (Daniel Wells) and 'Waitey' (Jarrod Waite) are training the house down and still among our best players.

"But we have also got a lot of young guys coming through. This year I reckon all the young guys have been really impressive, straight from the time we started running and once we brought out the balls, you can see how smart they are as footballers too.

"All of them have shown a bit during the NAB Cup and they are going to get their chance to play."