Introducing more ‘elite talent’ like Paul Ahern to North Melbourne was an opportunity that couldn’t be passed up according to General Manager of Football, Cam Joyce.

On Monday, North secured the 20-year-old from the Giants for pick 69.

“He can play a number of roles for us, through the midfield or up forward,” Joyce told NMFC.com.au.

“He’s a really good kick of the footy and he’s got some lateral movement.

“For us, one of the big riders was we wanted to try and get some elite talent into the place.”

Although Ahern is likely to miss 2017 while recovering from a knee injury, he’ll still be handy acquisition for the club in 2018 and beyond.

“Paul’s definitely an elite talent,” Joyce added.

“Obviously he’s probably going to be in rehab for the majority of next year, but we understand that at 21 years of age coming into 2018, he’ll definitely be ready to play.

“We’re excited about being able to add him to the squad even though we’ll have to wait our turn.

“Pick 69 in the draft, in terms of that later pick; we thought in terms of the risk v reward that was extremely good value for him, providing we can get him up and going.”

With this year’s trade period drawing to a close, Joyce and the club’s list management team is keeping its options open.

“We’re seeing if there’s any other young talent around to add to the group. We’re certainly looking at how we can potentially get some better picks in if that’s a possibility and getting our picks a little higher.

“We’ll endeavour to do that over the next few days and see what we can uncover and see if we can better our position.”

North currently has three list vacancies, with picks 11, 32 and 33 to take to the National Draft.