Former North midfielder Levi Greenwood left Arden Street for Collingwood fearing he’d be ‘squeezed out’ in the coming years according to Brad Scott.

Greenwood walked out on the Roos for a four-year deal with the Magpies despite finishing third in the Syd Barker Medal count.

“His first choice was to stay at North, he was very upfront about that,” Scott told The Herald Sun’s Jay Clark.

“But Levi had a really hard time convincing himself - and I had a hard time convincing him, even though he finished third in our best and fairest - that he was in our best team.

“I think he always had this underlying thought process that he would get squeezed out by the (Kangaroos’ top-line) midfield types we talked about.”

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North could have kept Greenwood, but Scott said it would have compromised the list management strategy and would have been unfair on the rest of the Roos’ players.

“Finishing third in our best and fairest should tell you where the match committee rated him and his season” Scott said.

“But the reality was that he preferred, at his age, a contract that was too good to refuse and a contact that we couldn’t come near matching.

“Not because we didn’t have the capacity, but because it would distort our salary camp model for future years.”

Andrew Swallow commented recently that North’s strength was its evenness in terms of contracts.

“I don’t think we’ve ever sat down as group and said let’s all take a pay cut,” he said.

“A lot of our guys aren’t driven by money.

“Look at Toddy Goldstein, I would’ve thought other clubs would’ve chased him, but he loves North Melbourne. The blokes love the footy club.”

Only Josh Gibson (Hawthorn) and Levi Greenwood (Collingwood) have left for opposition clubs in Swallow’s time at North.

“He (Greenwood) got an offer he couldn’t refuse,” Swallow said.