NORTH Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson believes the "indications" are that Luke Davies-Uniacke will stay at the club beyond this season, but has conceded he won't be totally confident "until they sign on the dotted line".

Davies-Uniacke enters the 2025 campaign as one of the competition's hottest free agents, with AFL.com.au revealing that the Kangaroos have already put their flag in the ground to keep him at Arden Street with a mega seven-year offer.

But the gun midfielder is expected to be seriously courted by a number of rivals, notably St Kilda as it chases lucrative free agency deals, and is yet to agree to an extension that potentially could keep him in North Melbourne colours until 2032.

Clarkson was at Hawthorn when superstar forward Lance Franklin became the League's first statement free agency departure, lured by a nine-year deal to move to Sydney, ensuring the Kangas coach will take nothing for granted this time around.

Speaking to AFL.com.au in an exclusive interview at Arden Street earlier this week, Clarkson said North Melbourne had to take the view that "it's not the end of the world" if its reigning best and fairest departed at year's end, but stressed he was determined for Davies-Uniacke to sign on.

"It's a difficult one because if I was really confident that he was going to stay, he'd have signed by now. You can't be really confident until they sign on the dotted line," Clarkson laughed.

"He's a free agent. That's come into the competition longer than 10 years now because 'Bud' left at the end of 2013. He's probably the example, for me. At that point in time, there's no bigger player in the game. Both in an on-field presence and an off-field.

"We wanted to keep 'Bud', but we also didn't want to subject ourselves to market forces to the point where the relativity of our salary cap would be that distorted that there would be an imbalance between the payment structure of those that are so important to the structure and fabric of your side, as opposed to just this one star player.

"With 'LDU', we want him to stay. We've got an offer in front of him and we hope he accepts it at some point soon. But if he doesn't, it's not the end of the world. We're not going to get caught up in this.

"We feel like we've given an offer to him that is tremendous reward for what we think he can bring to the footy club over the next six or seven years.

"I think, for instance, last year was the first time – and this is another example of developing resiliency in your body, because he is a great example of someone who had a lot of trouble early in his career in getting his body right with soft tissue and groin injuries – and last year was the first time he played every home and away game for the season.

"What would he be? His eighth year now? Wow. I'd like to think that there's some sort of recognition, which I think there is, from his point of view that he's got really, really great connections."

Clarkson is yet to reach out to Davies-Uniacke around his impending contract call, but opened up on how Franklin's free agency decision with Hawthorn in 2013 has shaped his clinical and pragmatic approach to the midfielder's decision.

"I've been in regular dialogue with 'LDU' over the course of the last 12 months, but none of that has been around his contract or pleading with him to stay," Clarkson said.

"He's a big boy. He's got good people around him, he's got good management, he's got really good family and friends that will support him in the decision that he'll come to.

"All I've done along the way, as his coach, is just provide any assistance where I can with his footy or his life outside of footy. I've just given him some guidance and some advice along the journey. But that's mainly been when he's sought it out, rather than me imposing myself on it.

"His relationship with the footy club, with the coaches, with the hierarchy of the club and also his fellow teammates, is really, really strong. That's why all of the indications are that he'll want to stay at our footy club.

"But I was pretty confident that 'Bud' was going to stay, too. He went to Sydney, had a great career there, but it didn't mean that Hawthorn couldn't be successful once he left. They won two more flags in 2014 and 2015.

"We want to do everything we can to retain Luke's services, but if he takes up the option of moving to another club then we'll just take whatever compensation we can get and move on."

Davies-Uniacke will spearhead a young and talented North Melbourne midfield group in 2025, with a number of the club's former first-round picks hoping to break into the onball brigade.

Colby McKercher and Finn O'Sullivan will be searching for midfield minutes alongside Davies-Uniacke, Harry Sheezel, Jy Simpkin, George Wardlaw, Tom Powell and Will Phillips this year, with Clarkson searching for ways to turn an abundance of young ball winners into a competitive advantage for his side.

"It's a little bit like it was at the Hawks," Clarkson said.

"We had Josh Kennedy and he just couldn't get a look-in. Great family, Hawthorn history more than anyone with his dad and his grandfather, ripper kid and he could play the game. But he was coming through at 19 or 20 years of age and competing with Jordan Lewis, Brad Sewell, Sam Mitchell, Luke Hodge, Shaun Burgoyne.

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"I can remember sitting down with him at home one day and saying, 'Listen we want you to stay and we've got a contract in front of you'. He was telling me he had interest from another club, which was Sydney, and it was a three-year deal under Paul Roos with a fair chance he was going to get senior opportunities that we couldn't promise him at Hawthorn at that point in time. I turned to him and said, 'We want you to stay, mate, but I know what I'd be doing if I was your father … I'd be telling you to go'.

"We didn't want him to go, but I just wished we could sit there and forecast the same opportunities he was going to get at Hawthorn. Josh went to Sydney and became a premiership player. He became a two or three-time best and fairest and I think nearly a 300-game player.

"He had a great career. But Hawthorn was what we expected, too. Those guys carried us to premiership success, too. What we ended up doing was – if you recall – after 2012 we injected Cyril Rioli, Luke Breust and Paul Puopolo into the midfield as well. Learn to play multiple positions. That's what we've got to do with our group.

"If we've got six, seven or eight – through 'LDU', Simpkin, O'Sullivan, Sheezel, Wardlaw, Phillips, Powell and McKercher – they're all first-round picks and all of them in their own right would be saying to themselves that they want that spot in the middle of the ground. Three or four of them are going to be happy. The other four are going to be pissed off that they don't get any exposure.

"How can we use that, once again, as a competitive advantage? If we've got that depth through the middle of the ground, let's make it that. That makes it sound like we're there right now. We need to evolve with that depth and work out what it looks like and get the players to buy into the flexibility and versatility that's going to be a really strong part of our game. That's what we'll be trying to do."

AFL.com.au's full interview with North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson will soon be uploaded to the Your Coach podcast feed. Subscribe now to hear from your club's coach ahead of the 2025 AFL season