The former Cats’ premiership captain was at the the club in a part-time role this year, working closely with Andrew Swallow and his fellow leaders, but is set to take on further commitments with Channel 7 in 2015.
"He came to a bit of a fork in the road at the end of the footy season with some coaching options on the go, but the media stuff particularly will be ramping up," Walsh told The Age.
"I think he's decided he'll give that a good crack for a couple of years and see where he wants to go in a footy sense from there, but it's certainly going to squeeze him out time-wise."
North is keen to replace Ling with another experienced leader, but isn’t set on a recently retired player.
"You're going to get a much better effect if you've got someone who's driving them and pushing them in a certain direction, and in all those areas you want to see in your leaders, so I think you need someone - and generally that's an external person - who can come in and do that.”
