More off-field change at Pies as high-performance boss heads to North

The winds of change continue to sweep through Collingwood with high-performance chief Kevin White poised to join North Melbourne.

Irishman White has been at the Magpies for more than a decade, including four seasons in the club’s senior high-performance role, having replaced Bill Davoren at the end of 2017.

The Magpies in their huddle.Credit:Getty

But according to industry sources, Sunday’s game against Essendon will be his final one at the Pies, with White to take up the corresponding role at Arden Street.

White will replace Matt Turnbull, who resigned from his post at the Kangaroos mid-season. His move to the Roos was given the Magpies’ blessing.

During White’s time in his role the Pies made a grand final in 2018, a preliminary final in 2019 and a semi-final last year before plummeting down the ladder this year.

White is the latest of a host of senior Magpie football department figures to leave the club since the end of last season.

Veteran football department chief Geoff Walsh departed, replaced by Graham Wright, before list manager Ned Guy finished up mid-season following a tumultuous 2020 trade period. Guy’s position was in-part filled by Troy Selwood, but the former Brisbane Lions player stood down for health reasons just six weeks into his tenure.

Most prominently the Pies parted ways with club great Nathan Buckley who had been senior coach for the best part of a decade. Key Buckley lieutenants Robert Harvey - the Pies’ current interim coach - and Brenton Sanderson face uncertain futures at the club.

North are also going through an off-field restructure. The Roos are on the hunt for a general manager of football performance having split football department chief Brady Rawlings’ role in two earlier this year. Rawlings remains at the club, taking on the more specific role of general manager of football talent.

“As some clubs have already identified, the role of a football GM in today’s environment has become an immense job and is too large a portfolio for just one person,” North chief executive Ben Amarfio said last month when the announcement was made.

“This new dual structure allows us to not only bring another senior person into our football program but importantly, place the necessary focus on the most important aspect of our current rebuild which is talent acquisition.

“It gives us the chance to completely re-imagine and develop this vital part of our football program.”

Daniel Cherny is an Age sports reporter.

Share this post