When Brady Rawlings next visits his home of Tasmania, he’ll be bringing some special visitors along for the ride.

The North champion has put together a training camp for the club’s first year players in Hobart and can’t wait to put the spotlight on the batch of new Kangaroos.

“It’s just a good opportunity for the young guys, who hopefully will play a lot of footy together over their careers, to spend a bit of time together away from the club, Rawlings told kangaroos.com.au.

It’s the first of many trips to the Apple Isle after a deal was struck for North Melbourne to play two home-games a year from 2012 and beyond.

“We’ll be down there for five days training from Wednesday the 25th of January. The boys will be living together and it’s also good for the coaches to get to know the players a little bit better as they’ve only been here a couple of months.

“We want to familiarise the boys with heading down to Tassie and help them get to know the grounds and the cities in general.”

On a personal level, Rawlings says he can’t hide his excitement about being able to bring more AFL to Tasmania. Born in Devonport, the three-time club best and fairest winner is calling on locals to come out in support of the Roos.

“I’m pumped about it. We’re not doing this camp based on me living and growing up in Tassie but I think the state has been crying out for more AFL for years. It’s been great to see what Hawthorn has done but we can take it to a whole new level and bring it down to the South and hopefully they’ll jump on board.”

Rawlings will bring new draftees Brad McKenzie and Tom Curran along with rookies Max Warren, Brad Mangan, Malcolm Lynch and Sam Gibson to Hobart for the camp.

“Seeing them in a smaller group allows us to run more specific sessions and it gives us all a better opportunity to get to know them better and see how they operate away from training. We’ll be able to test their mental resilience and see who stands up as a leader. Obviously when there are only six of them in a session, you can really focus on them individually and put some serious time into them.”

Senior coach Brad Scott will attend as well as development coaches John Lamont and Jason Lappin.

“Even though the main group is still training in Melbourne on the day, we need to have the support staff and coaches with this group as well,” Rawlings added.

And he says the public is more than welcome to come along.

“Everything we are doing in Tassie is open to the public and the media. The Thursday is Australia Day and we’ll be training at North Hobart oval from 9.30am so we’d love to see the locals come down and have a look and say g’day. We encourage everyone to come along and see the boys that may be playing for North in the near future.”

Rawlings began in his new role as a development coach and recruiter after announcing his retirement at the end of the 2011 season. While the transition has been tough to get his head around, he says he’s hoping to have an immediate impact.

“I think they’ve (first year players) all got a lot of talent; that’s why we got them here. Part of my role is to really develop them in the areas we value as a footy club and that’s defensively, in their hardness and professionalism. I really want to fast-track all of that so they’re ready to go if and when Brad Scott selects them.

“It’s not a rush for them to play. I think Brad McKenzie has the attributes to play this year but we won’t rush him. He’s going to do a long pre-season and that will suit his needs.

“Tom Curran is coming off a foot injury so I don’t expect him to be putting his name up until mid-year. The other guys are mature age so they may get an opportunity sooner rather than later depending on how they go in the next few weeks.”