Three-time premiership player Liam Shiels says he's impressed with the list North Melbourne has constructed.

Shiels, who played 255 games for the Hawks from 2009 to 2022, joined the Kangaroos under the pre-season Supplemental Selection Period rule on Tuesday, re-uniting with Alastair Clarkson as well as former Hawthorn teammate, Daniel Howe.

After spending 14 seasons battling against those in blue and white, Shiels is now looking forward to mixing it with the Roos' best in 2023.

"That was one of the other reasons why I wanted to come across to the Kangas, because I really rate their list," Shiels affirmed to reporters on Wednesday.

"They've got exciting young talent, they've got high-end players all across the field, so as I said, that was one of the reasons I wanted to come here.

"And their midfield is super, I mean you've got Jy Simpkin, 'LDU' (Luke Davies-Uniacke) and 'Goldy' (Todd Goldstein) who is still producing some epic stats, 'Cunners' (Ben Cunnington) in there as well, I've probably missed a few ... but they've got a great midfield."

Shiels added 13 games (three as medi-sub) to his career tally last season, but as Hawthorn turned their attention towards fast-tracking the development of its youth, the seasoned veteran announced his retirement post-season.

But, despite feeling as though hanging up the boots was the right thing to do, a late offer to continue his playing career and branch off into different roles at another club arose.

"It's probably only happened over the last month that this opportunity has come up to represent the Kangaroos and it's something that I'm really excited about," Shiels said.

"It's a great football club, there's great people here and I'm really excited to get involved in the football club.

"I got a phone call from 'Clarko' (Alastair Clarkson) and Brady Rawlings and it was more based around life after football. I want to get into recruiting and list management and there was an opportunity to do that here at North Melbourne.

"As the talks progressed there was an opportunity to play a little bit of footy and help educate the younger players coming through and I jumped at that opportunity.

"I still felt like I had a couple years left in my body, so maybe the quickest way to educate these guys is to be out on the oval with them."

As someone who has been preparing for a role in recruiting and list management, Shiels is well-versed when it comes to the club's wave of new draftees.

"I was a big fan of all the players that the Kangas got," Shiels said.

"I had my first conversation with Brady before the draft and he asked about a few guys that I liked. Obviously, George (Wardlaw) had a fantastic year, (even though he) missed a little bit with injury, Harry Sheezel was one of the guys that I really liked ... I don't like to compare players too much but he reminded me a little bit of Luke Breust in a sense.

"Blake Drury, (he's) super disciplined and loves his footy ... I just got him in the time trial the other day and Brayden George as well, obviously missed a fair bit (of football) with injury, but he was touted as a top-10 pick so we were super excited to get him."