North Melbourne have signed highly-rated rugby union prospect Tom Jefferies as a project player.

Jefferies, 17, was offered a contract with an Australian Super Rugby franchise and a rowing scholarship at Princeton University in the United States, however, decided to choose AFL football.

โ€œTom will have a great opportunity to develop at VFL level and partake in all AFL training,โ€ Kangaroos General Manager of Football Cameron Joyce said.

โ€œTom is an outstanding athlete and we are delighted to welcome him to the club.

โ€œWe expect to develop him as a ruckman under the tutelage of Alex Ishchenko (ruck coach) and heโ€™ll join in full training upon the playersโ€™ return next week.

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He will play for Weribee in the VFL in 2017, before officially joining the Kangaroos the following year.

โ€œAll my family plays rugby, so this is a new challenge and a new opportunity for me,โ€ Jeffries said.

โ€œAs long as I put in the hard work โ€ฆ there are a lot of people down here who can help me with everything, so Iโ€™ll feed off them and hopefully things will go from there.โ€

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