EXCLUSIVE: IN A significant show of faith, North Melbourne is expected to secure senior coach Brad Scott soon on a contract extension that will take him beyond the 2018 season.

Scott and the North hierarchy have been in advanced talks about extending his contract, with a two-year extension — which would tie him to the Kangaroos until the end of 2020 — the likely outcome.

An announcement that Scott has had his contract extended could be made later this week, with Scott having made a commitment to remain at the club for a longer term, despite speculation about him crossing to the Gold Coast Suns.

JAKE NIALL WILL DISCUSS SCOTT’S LIKELY CONTRACT EXTENSION ON ‘AFL TONIGHT’ — 5PM ON FOX SPORTS NEWS 500 AND 7PM ON FOX FOOTY

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Scott’s contract extension will remove him from the list of potential coaches at the Gold Coast and follows the contentious reappointment of Nathan Buckley by Collingwood. Scott had been heavily favoured in the betting markets to take over at the Suns.

But well-placed sources say Gold Coast chief executive Mark Evans has not approached North and asked for permission to speak with Scott, who would need club permission to speak freely with the Suns given he is contracted already for 2018.

North Melbourne Kangaroos coach Brad Scott. Source: AAP

Scott, who has coached the Roos for eight seasons, had been on record saying that his preference would be stick with North, and the expected contract extension means he will continue to oversee North’s rebuild and regeneration of a team that made preliminary finals in 2014 and 2015 and finals last year before falling sharply in 2017.

North’s view is that Scott has taken a long-term approach in 2016 and 2017 by promoting younger players and jettisoning veterans such as Brent Harvey, Nick Dal Santo and Drew Petrie, taking a path that benefited the club and likely cost him in the win-loss column.

Gold Coast will run a rigorous process to find its next coach and are expected to look closely at the Level 4 coaching group of senior assistant coaches, which was established by Evans when he ran the football operations at the AFL.

While North chairman Ben Buckley had suggested that the club would look at extending Scott at season’s end — and Scott himself had indicated his preference for staying — there was widespread external scepticism that he would stick with the club and vice versa.

The decision to extend Scott, however, indicates that the club’s public commentary on Scott was accurate.

The expected extension would make Scott a 10-year coach at North Melbourne if he sees out the contract.

Scott obviously has been heavily involved in North’s aggressive recruiting strategy, which has seen the Roos make massive long-term offers to both Richmond star Dustin Martin and Greater Western Sydney’s Josh Kelly.

Kelly has not yet indicated his intentions, but the Giants are increasingly confident of retaining the outstanding young midfielder on a two-year extension, while Richmond is still waiting to see if Martin will accept its seven year offer of about $1.1m, which is still well shy of the estimated $1.5m that the Roos are believed to have dangled before the Brownlow Medal favourite.

This is the first season in which Scott has failed to win at least 10 games and the first time he has finished lower than 10th, having coached North to the finals in 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016 and finished ninth in 2010 and 2011.

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