Gaining an insight into the day-to-day aspects of the coaching industry has been an eye-opening experience, recently retired North hard nut Leigh Adams says.

The 27-year-old was forced into retirement in August after a series of heavy head knocks over his nine-year career, and was offered a development role by coach Brad Scott for the remainder of the season.

Adams, who played 104 games with the Roos, said he gained a whole new perspective into the requirements and commitment needed to work in the coaching landscape.

"When I finished up, 'Scotty' [Scott] said there's an opportunity there if I wanted to do a bit of development work with the mid-forward blokes that play a similar position to what I did," Adams told NMFC.com.au.

"I've done this for the last part of the season and I've really enjoyed the interaction side of things, but I probably didn't realise how much time there was going through vision.

"I've got a different appreciation now for how much time goes in behind the scenes with the coaches."

As part of his development role, Adams worked closely with young small forwards such as Kayne Turner, Taylor Garner and Kieran Harper.

"I'd like to think that I've helped them, maybe just a little one or two things that they've taken out of their game," Adams said.

A typical Monday would see Adams assist North development managers Gavin Brown and Ben Dyer with individual player reviews for those who took part in the VFL at the weekend.

He would also sit in on forwards coach Shane Watson's one-on-one reviews at the start of the week, and attend the team review meeting later in the day.

While Mondays were predominantly based in the office and analysing match-day vision, Tuesdays and Thursdays involved a more hands-on approach out on the training track.

"I'd get out there (on Tuesday) and try and put a couple of things that had come out of their review from the day before into action," he said.

"I'd come in on a Thursday for the main skills session and just keep a keener eye on those types of blokes for certain things they were doing."

Adams said he often gave the young mid-forwards advice on how they could improve their general field running patterns to give themselves a chance of becoming more involved in games.

"It's one of those roles [mid-forward] where you can be doing everything right and still not touch the footy a lot, so if you can give yourself a couple more opportunities to get the footy, it can only help," he said.

Adams was yet to decide whether he would pursue a long-term coaching position, saying he was "not 100 per cent sure" if a development-type gig was the best fit for him at this point in time.

"I've been at the footy club now for 10 years, it might be time to try something new and get away from footy for a little bit and see how we go from there," he said.

"I've really enjoyed the opportunity that the club's given me and it was good to tick that box off … and maybe in the future it might be something I'll look at.

"I'm not in too much of a hurry to make too many decisions."