Brad Scott's appointment as North Melbourne's new senior coach means he has finally stepped out of the shadow of his twin brother Chris.

Throughout their AFL careers it has always been Chris Scott that was the higher profile of the two with Brad having to fight that much harder to achieve what he did in what turned out to an equally illustrious playing career with the Brisbane Lions.

And it is those same qualities which enabled Brad Scott to overcome so many obstacles that makes him the ideal man for the big job of re-building a Kangaroos' list that has been in steady decline over the past two years.

Scott, who at just 33 will the youngest coach in the AFL next season if Richmond's 31-year-old caretaker coach Jade Rawlings is not given the job full-time, comes to the Roos with impeccable credentials.

Not only did he play in two premierships with the Lions under the game's greatest modern-day coach in four-time premiership coach Leigh Matthews but since then he has spent the past three seasons as an assistant under highly-respected Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse, himself a dual premiership coach at West Coast.

But until his announcement as North Melbourne coach on Monday - Scott has always been in the shadow of his identical twin Chris.

While Chris made his debut with Brisbane in 1994 and immediately won the AFL's prestigious AFL Rising Star Award for the game's best young player - Brad, despite of course being the same age, did not make his debut until 1997.

Then after just one season with the Hawks - where he played all 22 matches - Scott was traded to Brisbane where he went onto become a tough, no-nonsense defender in the same mould as his brother.

So intimidating and ruthless were the Scott brothers as players - in an era when the Lions became the first club in nearly 50 years to win three successive premierships - that they were nicknamed 'The Kray Brothers' in honour of the twin brothers who ruled the London underworld in the 1960's.

Both went onto to play in the 2001 and 2002 premiership sides but both missed the 2003 hat-trick of flags due to injury with Brad breaking his leg in Round 22 after having played every game of the home and away season.

Brad would retire a year before his brother at the end of 2006 and immediately joined the Magpies as an assistant coach with Chris - who was the only one of the pair to win a best and fairest award (in 1998) - joining Fremantle as an assistant coach at the end of 2007.

But while it has been Chris that has always been portrayed as the better player of the two, it is Brad who is the first to become a senior coach but who knows given Fremantle's dire form and with embattled coach Mark Harvey in the final year of his contract next season - Chris' chance as a senior coach may also come soon.

Brad Scott says having had to work so hard to get the best out of himself as a player made him an ideal candidate to teach a young Roos' list that has been stripped of some of its greatest players in the past two years such as Adam Simpson, Shannon Grant and Glenn Archer how to become better players.

"I don't think it's necessarily because Chris was regarded as a better player or more talented player than me," Brad Scott said on Monday.

"But I think early on in my career I had to fight for everything I earned in my career so my career has revolved around striving to find a better way and I think that has helped me become a better coach."

"I have an understanding of what players go through and the hardships they face and I think that is an important aspect for any coach to have."

While critics of the appointment will say Scott lacks experience - senior AFL coaches have either got it or they haven't and North chairman James Brayshaw is adamant the lesser-known of the Scott brothers definitely has it.

"It was never about him as a person, it was whether we thought he was ready to take on the challenge of being an AFL coach and within a minute of talking to him we realised he was," Brayshaw said.

Brayshaw said it was the same fanatical hunger for success that Scott had as a player that made him the stand-out choice as North's new coach and rather than seeing his age and lack of experience as a negative, Brayshaw says it is an advantage because Scott will be able to 'grow' with the young team he will inherit.

So now Scott has three years to prove himself but any man that has Matthews and Malthouse as coaching mentors has plenty to offer and one thing is for sure if the Kangaroos play the way Scott and his better-known - at least until now - twin brother did then the Kangas will be no pushovers for any side next year.