NORTH Melbourne hopes to have unearthed a ruck bargain, having convinced a promising rugby union and rowing prospect to switch to Australian football.

North has signed 17-year-old Tom Jeffries, who stands 202cm, as a category B rookie, with the Queenslander knocking back a contract with an Australian Super Rugby team and a rowing scholarship at America's Princeton University to pursue an AFL career.

Jeffries, whose elder brother Sam plays for the Melbourne Rebels, has limited experience with Australian football, but the Kangaroos believe he has the athletic attributes to develop into an AFL ruckman.

"We expect to develop him as a ruckman under the tutelage of (ruck coach) Alex Ishchenko and he'll join in full training upon the players' return next week," North football manager Cameron Joyce said.

"Tom is an outstanding athlete and we are delighted to welcome him to the club."

As father-son recruit Luke McDonald did in 2013 before being drafted, Jeffries will play with North's VFL affiliate Werribee for a season before officially joining the Roos at the end of 2017.

"Tom will have a great opportunity to develop at VFL level and partake in all AFL training," Joyce said.

Jeffries, who recently completed his year 12 studies at Nudgee College in Brisbane, said making the transition to Australian football offered an exciting new challenge.

"All my family plays rugby, so this is a new challenge and a new opportunity for me," Jeffries said.

"As long as I put in the hard work … there are a lot of people down here who can help me with everything, so I'll feed off them and hopefully things will go from there."