North Melbourne have backed Brad Scott to be the club's next AFL premiership coach, handing him a two-year contract extension.
Scott, who has been at the Kangaroos since 2010, signed the new deal that ties him to North until the end of the 2018 season while in Utah on the club's pre-season training camp.
"I'm really excited to re-commit to the football club for another few years and just ecstatic that the club sees fit to re-appoint me and they see me as the right person to take this group forward," Scott told the club's website.
"I think if you look at all the strong clubs their strength comes from stability.
"With the likes of (Todd Goldstein) and Jack Ziebell signing long-term contracts (our) stability is a real advantage.
"We've been able to build over the last five years and we've put a lot of things in place.
"We're really looking forward to our future."
Scott, 39, has guided the Roos into the past two preliminary finals only to suffer losses to Sydney in 2014 and West Coast this year.
Scott admitted the past two grand finals had been very hard to watch, with the pain of those finals exits to drive the club in 2016.
"We felt that we gave ourselves every opportunity to win the game and we didn't capitalise on it," Scott said of this year's preliminary final loss to the Eagles in Perth.
"We would have looked forward to having a real red-hot crack at it on grand final day so that'll drive us through the pre-season.
"But it doesn't give us a head start and it certainly doesn't handicap us - it's what we do from this point on that's going to matter."
North Melbourne chief executive Carl Dilena said that Scott was clearly the best person for the job.
"A two year extension gives stability and certainty to our football department and players," Dilena said.
"We feel we are in a very strong position and have the right people and players to achieve sustained on-field success."
