NORTH MELBOURNE is on the verge of a historic restructure with the club having unofficially completed a successful deal with its rebel shareholders to relinquish their hold on the Kangaroos.

The Age understands that North chairman James Brayshaw and chief executive Eugene Arocca will meet AFL boss Andrew Demetriou at league headquarters on Thursday, where the two parties will discuss a new direction for the club and the legal manoeuvres required to return North to its members.

The AFL is expecting all Kangaroos members and shareholders to receive notification in the coming weeks of an extraordinary general meeting where the restructure will be put to a vote guaranteeing the ongoing financial assistance from the league's special distribution fund beyond 2009.

The move will also close the final chapter on any lingering doubt regarding a potential relocation to the Gold Coast. It comes after six months of delicate negotiations between the new Brayshaw-Arocca administration and a small group of shareholders led by Kerry Good, Peter Johnstone, Andrew Carter and Mark Dawson who between them controlled an estimated 20% of North Melbourne shares.

The EGM, which is expected to take place immediately after the 2008 season, will put an end to the AFL's only privately controlled club, which changed from its traditional structure 22 years ago when former chairman Bob Ansett floated the debt-ridden Kangaroos on the stock exchange.

Ansett, who agreed at the start of this season to relinquish his shareholding, denied to The Age last night that he had been the "middle-man" who has been privately negotiating between the club and Good, Johnstone, Carter and Dawson. A club stalwart has been handling the talks following an emotional meeting in April between the AFL's Demetriou and the quartet which saw Demetriou communicate not for the first time that the Gold Coast relocation offer had been removed from the negotiating table.

At the meeting in April, Demetriou vowed not to hold any further talks with the rebel group, none of whom attended the club's unveiling of Arden Street's multicultural centre at the MCG last month and for which plans have now been forwarded to local government.

"I certainly a few weeks ago was involved in trying to bring the thing to a head," Ansett said last night.

"I sort of explained the history of the share issue and that it had never been our intention to own the club but simply to resolve our debt situation.

"I certainly wouldn't want to say anything now which might inflame the situation, but if the restructure does go ahead I would wish this administration well with this second attempt to start again and resolve the club's issues."

Arocca is understood to have communicated his optimism to a supporters' group shortly before the Port Adelaide clash on Saturday night, but he was reluctant to elaborate yesterday.

"I really have no comment to make except that we're hopeful of moving closer to a resolution," said Arocca.

The change of heart by Good and company is unclear although the new administration appears to have rebuilt its relationship with the AFL and won not only an enlarged commitment from the Victorian Government now worth $6.85 million — $2.5 million has already been handed to the Kangaroos for the Arden Street redevelopment — but also won $1 million from influential supporter Peter Scanlan towards the multicultural centre.

With key sponsorship negotiations progressing well Brayshaw had also made it clear his election promise of million-dollar lifelines from a group of wealthy supporters had failed to materialise not only because of the international financial collapse but also because of the shareholders' divisive stand-off.

With North already looking for new revenue streams, Demetriou had declared the AFL's current annual $1.4 million subsidy would be removed should the shareholders refuse to change their position. The shareholders themselves reportedly claimed they had other revenue streams in mind for the club.

Now they are understood to have agreed in principle to vote to revert the club from a shareholder-member controlled entity to member-controlled club making their shares redundant.

No financial motive has been placed on their previous refusal to restructure the club which will require a majority vote of 75%, something Brayshaw had not been prepared to risk without an agreement from former player Good, his partner Johnstone, former chairman Carter and former match committee chairman Dawson.