HE'S NOT Brad Scott, he'll make some tweaks, he's "quirky" and he wants to be a senior coach one day.

Rhyce Shaw, North Melbourne's caretaker coach in the wake of Scott's rapid exit, re-introduced himself to the wider football public at Arden St on Tuesday.

The questions came thick and fast, many of them centred on what will change at the Roos now he's in charge, and another popular one was whether he wants to be Scott's long-term successor.



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All only seven months after the ex-Magpie and Swan joined North following a successful stint at Sydney, where he was twice honoured as the AFL Coaches' Association Assistant of the Year.

"I'm really excited – I really am," Shaw told reporters in his first public appearance as senior coach.

"I've been given a great opportunity and it's a great honour to be sitting in this role right now, and I'm really looking forward to it and I can't wait for Friday night (against Richmond).

"I don't think there's too much to do, to be honest. I think we've been playing some really good footy.

"I'm certainly going to tweak a few things, in terms of what I do and what I say and how I go about it, but all in all, the gameplan and the way we play and the way we train isn't going to change."

Shaw, 37, touched on the "emotional" toll of recent days since Scott's situation emerged last Friday through to his official resignation on Sunday.



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It's why, he said, his top priority was the players' wellbeing and he will encourage them to express themselves, perhaps more than they have previously.

Players, coaches and officials went off-site on Monday for a "kick around" designed to chew the fat and find out how everyone was feeling before turning their attention to this week's contest.

For Shaw, his senior coaching opportunity has come much sooner than he expected, but all the advice he has received – from Scott to John Longmire and others – is to be himself.



"I'm not Brad Scott and the boys know that. I'm a little bit different and I'm a little bit quirky at times, but that's just the way it is," he said.

"I've had so much time over the last two days to think about it and I've been getting a lot of messages from everyone around the league with their support.

"All the messages have just been about me being me, and that's all I can do and that's probably the tweak to what I was talking about."



Rhyce Shaw looks to have something interesting to say to Aaron Hall on Tuesday. Picture: AFL Photos



As for the speculation that will undoubtedly be rife about the Kangaroos' coaching position, Shaw proved he had already smoothly moved into his role.

"I can't control any of that stuff. That's outside my area, outside my pay grade," he said, without a moment's hesitation.

"I'm here to coach a band of players who are playing some pretty good footy at the moment and we're looking forward to playing against Richmond on Friday."

However, the "jovial" Shaw briefly turned serious when asked about whether there were any directives from above to blood more youth in his caretaker tenure.

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"I think we've been playing the youth. That's been a really confusing part (of the external criticism), from my point of view," he said.

"We've been playing Curtis Taylor, Bailey Scott, Tarryn Thomas. We've been playing the kids and we'll continue along that vein.

"I don't think that changes, and I haven't been given any instruction otherwise.

The other date circled on Shaw's calendar beyond Friday night is North's round 11 game in Hobart against Greater Western Sydney, where his brother Heath is a star defender.

"My brother's reminding me of that," Shaw said with a grin. "I think the family's going down, anyway, so that's extra special now."

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