On 11 October 2017, Shane Millard was announced as new head coach by the club. On 20 May 2018, it was revealed that North Sydney were in advanced negotiations to sign former NRL player Todd Carney. South Sydney who have a partnership with Norths were not happy with this decision and declared that there would be no NRL pathway for Carney and declared that they might withdraw their relationship with Norths as a result. North Sydney chairman Perry Lopez said of the deal "We are the North Sydney Bears, we’re not South Sydney," The decision is based on what’s best for our club. At the end of the day, if they don’t like the decision the Bears make, they can take it up with us. "If Souths don’t agree with what we’re doing and decide it’s not in our interest, we will look at the other avenues we have to ensure we have a competitive ISP side. At the end of the day, we are the North Sydney Bears and we’ll look to not just have a competitive side but a winning side. This decision comes on the back of that. Our club is a 1908 foundation club,". "We are here to win games and show our fans a product they can be proud of. We are super excited to have a player of Todd Carney’s calibre join the mighty North Sydney Bears".