It will be a new era for North Melbourne in the VFL from 2018 onwards, as the club embarks on its journey with a standalone team.

The Roos have been aligned with Werribee since 2008, but will enter next season with their own coach, staff and playing list.

“With the opportunity to just have total control, your view changes a little bit with the development of your players,” VFL Coach David Loader said.

“We’ll put into place everything we possibly can during the week just to get guys up to speed and hopefully if and when their opportunity comes up to play AFL football, they’re prepared and ready to go.”

Loader has been a development coach at North over the past two seasons, but will now transition into the role as VFL senior coach.

Andrew Carson crosses from the club’s recruiting team to take on the role as VFL Football Manager.

“There’s a lot of work to be done, but very exciting times in front of us,” Loader said.

“We’ve got to add 24 players to the top-up list which is a process we’ll work through over the next few weeks.”

North will also employ several new staff to bolsters its VFL setup.  

“Some of the staff members internally have shown some interest, which is always wonderful if you can employ from within,” Loader said.

“There will be some other staff that are required for specialist positions.”

Loader paid tribute to the clubs North has been aligned with in recent years.

“The alignments with North Ballarat and Werribee in the past have been super strong and we’ve been really lucky to have those,” he added.

“We bid them goodbye and wish both clubs the very best, but for us our focus is a little bit more development-based, and the sooner we can get that part right, the second part, winning, takes cares of itself.

“Our focus is going to be on developing that list of 44 as quick as we possibly can.”