Brad Scott would eventually like to see Andrew Swallow hand over the North Melbourne captaincy in the same way Sam Mitchell passed Hawthorn's leadership reins to Luke Hodge at the end of 2010.

Swallow took over from Brent Harvey as North captain ahead of the 2012 season when he was 24, and this week re-signed with the Roos to the end of 2018.

Scott told AFL.com.au this week he thought Swallow would play the best football of his career over the course of that contract.

When asked if he envisaged Swallow stepping down as captain before he retired, Scott said he agreed with the philosophy of a Mitchell-Hodge-type leadership succession.

"I think it's always good to be planning to hand your leadership group and your captaincy and your vice-captaincy roles over while those existing leaders are still playing," Scott said.

"The club was able to do that before my time with Adam Simpson and I was very keen for Brent Harvey to hand it over while he could still help that new captain.

"And now Andrew's got a great period of time where he can stand on his own two feet and lead the football club.

"But I'd really like to see him hand the captaincy over at some point and help his successor along the way."

Mitchell captained the Hawks from 2008-10 but at the age of 28 stepped down to let Hodge take over.

The move has been an unqualified success, with Hodge leading the Hawks to two flags and Mitchell winning another two best and fairest awards.

Scott did not put a timeframe on when he would like to see Swallow, who turns 28 in June, step aside, or nominate his likely successor.

At this early stage, Jack Ziebell appears the leading candidate. The midfielder became joint vice-captain alongside Drew Petrie when Swallow took over the captaincy and turns 24 later this month.

However, emerging players such as Ben Cunnington, Jamie Macmillan and even Luke McDonald could have similarly strong claims by the time Swallow steps down.

Swallow missed the first seven games of last season as he recovered from the ruptured left Achilles tendon he suffered in round 18, 2013, against Melbourne.

He was understandably rusty on his return, but by the end of the home and away season began to produce his usual influence around stoppages.

Scott is confident Swallow will be even better in 2015, citing the example of Hawks star Jarryd Roughead, who took about 12 months to rediscover his best form after his return from a ruptured Achilles tendon in 2012.

Meanwhile, Scott said he had taken it "personally" when Levi Greenwood requested a trade to Collingwood last October to take up a four-year deal worth about $2 million.

North has been a very stable playing group since Scott took over ahead of the 2010 season, with Josh Gibson the only best-22 player to seek a trade before Greenwood.

Although still disappointed, Scott said he completely understood Greenwood's decision.

"I always take it personally when a player makes the decision to leave," Scott said.

"But in Levi's case, he's been offered a deal that is too good to refuse and one that we couldn't get anywhere near matching.

"He's also been offered a 100 per cent permanent role as an inside midfielder, which I couldn't look him in the eye and say that's definitely going to happen when we have Swallow, Ziebell, Cunnington, Dal Santo, Wells and Bastinac there as well.

"So it was disappointing but Levi's now got a four-year opportunity to set himself up financially, hopefully for the rest of his life."