Jamie MacMillan Biography

Jamie Macmillan is appointed as North Melbourne's new football operations manager.

"It's exciting and something that in the back-end of my career, I realised I was passionate about and I wanted to get in to," Macmillan said.

"I've always had a keen interest in the operational side of football, particularly over the last three-to-four years.

"As much as I've absolutely loved playing, I thoroughly enjoyed the internship I completed with our football operations team, the internal working groups I have been involved in (including Gender Equality and AFLW), along with my university studies. I am looking forward to putting all my learnings into practice."

Following a disastrous 2020 campaign where the Kangaroos finished second-last on the ladder, North Melbourne begins a savage cull of its list with eleven players delisted.

Leadership group members Jamie Macmillan and Jasper Pittard are among them, while Majak Daw's incredible comeback from serious injuries sustained two years ago looks over.

Ben Jacobs, Paul Ahern, Mason Wood, Sam Durdin, Marley Williams, Joel Crocker, Lachie Hosie, and Tom Murphy round out the Kangaroos' delistings.

Jamie Macmillan is set to leave the Queensland hub as he prepares to return home for the impending birth of his first child.

"I will be going home for the birth, whenever that is. It looks like it will be sometime next week, so I'm trying to get in as many games as I can," Macmillan said.

"It's a situation that we're managing day by day. She's (wife Olivia) been awesome for me, encouraging me to stay as long as I can."

Jack Ziebell will lead North Melbourne as captain again in 2020, with a leadership group that has doubled in size.

Ben Cunnington, Trent Dumont, Jasper Pittard and youngster Jy Simpkin have been promoted to the eight-man contingent ahead of Rhyce Shaw's first full season in charge.

Jamie Macmillan has retained his place, while Shaun Higgins has been elevated to vice-captain alongside 2019 deputy Robbie Tarrant.

"I reckon it's a really really good group in terms of its diversity," Roos coach Rhyce Shaw said.

"We've got guys that have been there for a period of time and a great crop of first-timers in Trent, Jy, Ben and Jasper who have all put in some real work to better themselves as players, teammates and people."

Jamie Macmillan's season could be over after he pulled a finger tendon off the bone in the Kangaroos' loss to Gold Coast.

"Jamie will require surgery to repair the flexor tendon after it was pulled off the bone," North doctor Peter Baquie said.

"A surgeon will reattach the tendon on Thursday and, unfortunately, that means Jamie is looking at around six to eight weeks on the sidelines, but we're very optimistic about it being the former."

North Melbourne has kept one of its best young leaders out of next year's free agency pool, re-signing Jamie Macmillan until the end of 2019.

"I'm really happy with where the club's at and how I've fitted in here and how I enjoy life at North Melbourne, so [free agency] didn't really cross my mind," Macmillan said.

Macmillan's elevation into North's leadership group last season might have surprised some outside Arden Street, but the former Scotch College student has long been lauded internally for his leadership skills, on and off the field.

"I think for me it's just the ability to identify things on field and understanding the game, helping other guys out with their structures," Macmillan said..

"That's probably what, in a sense, got me in the leadership group, but now I'm learning more about the off-field side of things and the ability to identify things we can improve around the club, and building a really strong culture which we're really proud of."

Andrew Swallow will continue as North Melbourne captain in 2016.

Jack Ziebell will become the club's sole vice-captain after sharing the role with veteran spearhead Drew Petrie for the past four seasons.

Shaun Higgins will also come into the Roos' leadership group in 2016, joining existing members Swallow, Ziebell, Jamie Macmillan and Scott Thompson.

Petrie and fellow veteran Nick Dal Santo exit the club's official leadership team but will have mentoring roles this year.

"The players have probably been the loudest voice in this and in the end it was fairly clear, but that doesn't mean it was easy," North Melbourne coach Brad Scott said.

"While we know Jack has got terrific leadership qualities, this process meant that Andrew was a fairly clear standout for us."

Jamie Macmillan is promoted to North Melbourne's leadership group, replacing Daniel Wells who has stepped down.

Andrew Swallow will continue as captain, with Drew Petrie, Jack Ziebell, Nick Dal Santo, Scott Thompson and Sam Gibson set to resume their official leadership roles.

"Primarily what we're trying to build here, like every club, is a really broad range of leaders," Kangaroos coach Brad Scott said.

"We really feel that to give our emerging leaders a chance to come through we need to have succession plan in place."

Kangaroos coach Brad Scott says Jamie Macmillan's leadership skills have long been recognised at Arden Street.

"He's a terrific off-field leader in terms of the way he prepares himself to play footy," Scott said.

"He's really got his life sorted off-field. He sets a great example in off-field engagement.

"He represents a lot of what North Melbourne holds dear, and that's community engagement.

"On-field he missed a lot of footy last year so it's a terrific effort for his teammates to recognise that even on-field – after only playing a handful of games last year - he still provides us with a lot of leadership.

"His inclusion in the leadership group gives us great balance and it provides a bit of a spur for some of our other emerging leaders."

Jamie Macmillan signs a new two-year deal with the Kangaroos.

"I was probably surprised a little bit that they offered me a new contract that early," Macmillan said.

"I thought I'd just get in this year and play some more footy … I'm really looking forward to finally getting back out on the park and having a kick.

"To get it done now means now I can just play footy for this year."

North Melbourne defender Jamie Macmillan will be "fighting for his life" in Saturday night's clash with Melbourne, determined to hold onto his place in the side leading into finals.

The 22-year-old has not played an AFL game in 20 weeks after fracturing his fibula in April but makes a timely return to the side one week out from North's finals campaign.

"If we don't perform we know that this week we've got some guys that have been managed and they'll be coming back in so we've got to fight for our lives this weekend for sure," Macmillan said.

"That's all I've been waiting for is to get that one opportunity to come back in and hopefully I can take it this week and I'll be doing everything to do that."

Jamie Macmillan will miss up to six weeks after fracturing his right fibula against Port Adelaide.

"Probably in that sort of situation it's the best possible result, (it will be) maybe four to six weeks before he's back playing," North football director Geoff Walsh said.

"No one ever likes to suffer an injury and particularly a break, but in terms of that (it's) not a bad result."

North Melbourne coach Brad Scott verbally abuses James McDonald after the Giants veteran crashed heavily into the back of young Roo defender Jamie Macmillan but says he is unrepentant about it.

" I'll never apologise for defending my players. I'll go into bat for them 100 per cent of the time," Scott said.

"I was disappointed in what happened. I was disappointed in the response and my default setting is always to defend my players."

Jamie Macmillan expects to start running next week after breaking his cheekbone during North's clash with Adelaide.

"What's done is done now, I've sort of moved on," Macmillan said.

"The doctors have given me a pretty positive outlook so I'll be back running next week. It's only a face, so I can still run around and kick a footy and light my weights. It's not going to hold me back a great deal."

Jamie MacMillan makes his AFL debut for North Melbourne at Docklands Stadium with 12 disposals (5 kicks and 7 handballs), 3 marks and 3 tackles in a 3-point loss to Essendon.

North Melbourne coach Brad Scott says youngster Jamie Macmillan will make his debut against Essendon this week.

"That's terrific for Jamie, a young Scotch College boy so he's increased the intelligence of our 22 dramatically," Scott said.

"He's had a really good month of VFL footy and he's ready to make his senior debut."