'My turn in the puzzle': Smith ready to step up as North Launceston's coach

Since leading the development league side to a premiership in 2012, Smith has been a senior assistant, coaching director and mentor and was this week announced as the Bombers' next head coach.

The 41-year-old, who is assistant principal at Riverside High School, was elevated following Brad Cox-Goodyer's appointment as AFL Tasmania's talent pathways skill acquisition coach.

"At the end of the day, it's something that I've been doing for a long time - certainly helping out with footy - so it's just my turn in that puzzle to help out the footy club going forward," Smith said.

"We've got a really exciting group of kids, so it's one of those jobs where hopefully we all do our little bits and the players can take care of the rest."

Given Smith's long affiliation to the club, he said the transition has been "very seamless", with North Launceston's Facebook post describing his selection as a "collective, unanimous decision".

"We always had our contingency plans in place that wasn't going to disrupt and cause that friction amongst our playing group," Smith said.

"It was one of those natural progressions to keep our systems and the way we go about things in place, given my experiences in that coaching space over the last bit of time.

"Brad's still there, which is awesome for the playing group going forward in terms of his playing and experience.

"The coaching group is all still the same so not a lot has changed, different voice as such but ultimately most of our systems are staying in place."

Last year's development league coach Hadyn Goss is taking on a senior role alongside the likes of Brenton Gale, Phil Lethborg, Mark Simpson and player welfare mentor Richard Bennett.

In a slight change for the Bombers, several members of the playing group will take on assistant coaching roles to "have more influence over the group" and progress through the next phase of their career.

Alex Lee, Fletcher Bennett, Harry Bayles, Declen Chugg, Blade Sulzberger and Jacob Kerr will all assume more responsibility this season.

"At the end of the day, my job is to support them to be the best leader they can be and they've all expressed interest in coaching," Smith said.

"Let's hope that these guys are our next coaches of our footy club in the next two or three years when that opportunity for them arises - and that's my job.

"I've been through all those iterations over time when it started with Zane [Littlejohn] and then Tom [Couch], Taylor [Whitford] and Brad - they've all been there and had exposure to that.

"That's part of my role this year to help those guys fast track and be the next coach of our footy club."