North Melbourne is pleased to announce the addition of former Box Hill Hawks senior coach Zane Littlejohn to its coaching ranks.
Littlejohn will join the club’s AFL program as assistant coach – strategy.
He has spent the past three seasons at Hawthorn in a dual role as Box Hill’s senior coach and a development coach in the AFL program.
Littlejohn led Hawthorn’s VFL side to a preliminary final in 2023, a finals appearance in 2024 and a preliminary final again in 2025. He has also been the senior coach of the VFL State Team for the past two years.
Prior to his time at the Hawks, Littlejohn spent six years as a development coach with the Brisbane Lions. He was also the head coach of the club’s academy.
“After reviewing the structures of our football department, we identified a need for an additional role within the program,” North Melbourne’s general manager of football Todd Viney said.
“Zane will take a more holistic view of the program with a focus on our gameday strategy and competition trends.
“We’re thrilled to have Zane join us in this newly created role. His coaching experience across multiple clubs has seen him spend many years within the academy and development teams, while more recently coaching his own side at Box Hill.
“We feel his experience across a range of coaching roles will help take our program to the next level and we look forward to having him join us in November.”
In another appointment, Dr Tarah Kavanagh has joined the club as Head of Psychology and will commence her role at the beginning of October.
Kavanagh, a sports and performance psychologist, joins North Melbourne from the Carlton Football Club.
She returns to North Melbourne after six seasons as the AFL team psychologist from 2010-2015. Kavanagh has also spent time at Hawthorn and Cricket Victoria across her career.
In further updates to the club’s football department structure, Michael Barlow will move into an assistant coaching role, after two seasons as head of development.
Barlow will work with the midfield group, replacing former assistant coach Leigh Adams who departed at season's end to explore other opportunities.
Tom Lynch has been appointed to the role of head of development after three seasons as senior coach of the club’s VFL side.
Former development coach Adam Marcon will move into the VFL senior coach role and Najee Imam will move into the club’s recruiting team as a talent and opposition scout after holding various roles within the football program for the past 10 seasons.
The club will continue working to fill the two development coach roles which remain vacant.
