North Melbourne has been forced to re-shape its football department under the AFL’s revised soft cap limit and head-count.
The club’s GM football, Brady Rawlings, confirming to 3AW’s Sportsday program that backline coach, Jared Rivers, and forward-line coach, Brendan Whitecross, would remain on stand-down.
"There was some reshuffling required in the footy department and the coaching department wasn't the only area that was hit," Rawlings said on Monday night.
"There were some really hard decisions that were made. We needed to look into what our players needed around them from a coaching perspective, but also from a high performance perspective.
"We couldn't not provide them with their physios and doctors and conditioning staff, so we really prioritised that area and unfortunately we didn't get all our staff back.”
It’s likely to result in beefed-up roles for AFL legend Gavin Brown, experienced coach Jade Rawlings, and development coaches Leigh Adams, Heath Scotland and Brent Harvey.
"We still think we have a good area there in the coaching department. We have some staff we think are enough to provide for our players,” Rawlings said.
"Availability is going to be really key throughout this period. Now we've got them back, having our physios, massage, docs and our conditioning staff readily available is going put us in the best position for [a] successful season."
