North Melbourne's Round 24 match against Hawthorn on Saturday at UTAS Stadium in Launceston has been rescheduled to 12.30pm AEST, the AFL has advised.

The AFL announced the change on Friday afternoon due to circumstances beyond the League's control.

AFL statement

The AFL advises that the Round 24 Toyota Premiership match on Saturday 24 August between Hawthorn and North Melbourne at UTAS Stadium in Launceston has a rescheduled start time of 12.30pm AEST, from 4.40pm.

Subsequently, the Richmond v Gold Coast Suns match scheduled for 2.10pm at the MCG has been moved to a later start time of 3.20pm to avoid three games being played at the one time.

The Geelong v West Coast match at GMHBA will proceed as scheduled at 1.45pm.

AFL CEO Andrew Dillon thanked the clubs, broadcast partner Foxtel, UTAS Stadium, the MCG, and umpires and officials for collaboratively working together on a solution.

"Due to circumstances out of our control we have made the decision to move to an earlier start time of 12.30pm for the Hawthorn v North Melbourne match and thank everyone involved in working through this," said Dillon.

"The later start time for the Richmond and Gold Coast Suns match means we do not have three games being played at once and fans tuning into the broadcast will also be able to celebrate Dustin Martin’s lap of honour at the MCG."

Ticket holders will be contacted directly by the ticketing agents regarding changes to the match arrangements.

North Melbourne team news

The Kangaroos made three changes at the selection table for the game, recalling midfielder Will Phillips, utility Toby Pink and forward Blake Drury.

Liam Shiels will play his final game against his former team, after announcing his retirement on Tuesday. 

Phillips, Pink, Drury, Robert Hansen jnr and Kallan Dawson have been named on the interchange bench, with one of the five to be locked in as the tactical substitute at 11.30am, an hour before Saturday's rescheduled opening bounce.