Play Nice North Melbourne - 2018 and beyond

[STFU Donnie]

so what would you say to the Hawthorn supporters circa 1925?

Did they switch VFL teams?

Nothing. They're all dead.

 

[Kangaroos4eva]

I'm not sinking in the boots, I'm stating the obvious. Keep being in denial all you want but North continue to be the least stable Victorian club. 40k members but how many Tasmanians in that figure? Should give them a clue where the support is.

Least stable according to whom. Stability means a strong financial base, which is a lot stronger than sides like St kilda or the bulldogs. How is an almost debt-free club and able to attract 32k in vic members in a poor year, unstable, moronic comment.

 

[Bulldog1954]

Will be down for a couple more years but relocation talks are bullshit and not needed.

 

[radiojake]

Nothing. They're all dead.

ah nice way of avoiding the point

 

[Mixed Results]

We've had nine profitable years in the last decade and have made the finals six times over that period.

We had 25 fit players to choose from in the final weeks of the season and still managed to finished above three sides with a percentage of 87.59. We have 12 under-22 players on our list that were selected in the first two rounds of the draft and have two more to come in the next month. We also have the youngest list overall with what's about to become six players on our list that are older than 26.

We'll have a few years where we evaluate our young unproven talent while picking up a few more high draft picks and then we'll shoot up the ladder just like every other club that's done a rebuild. When we're ready to shoot back up, we'll have a much easier time recruiting players to our club just like we did over our last competitive stretch.

We'll turn a profit in each of those rebuilding years, wipe away the little that's left of our debt and then likely get back to the finals before a few other clubs that are down with us at the moment.

Brad Scott may be the coach for it, he may not be, at the very least he has proven to not be the culture destroying club-killer that guys like Mark Neeld, Mick Malthouse, James Hird and Michael Voss were.

 

[Ron The Bear]

Expecting them to bottom out in 2018 and start improving from then on. It'd be almost a waste to land a 'big fish' now. If they show they've got their drafting and development right, they'll snag a few players on the upswing.

 

[STFU Donnie]

ah nice way of avoiding the point

Your point seems rather, well, pointless. In 1925 the club joined the VFL. It already had an established set of (several) supporters. It was not a newly confected entity, conceived in spite and dedicated to the proposition that 'Port Adelaide shall not profit from their actions'.

 

[Ron The Bear]

The AFL just need to script them a fairytale flag like Richmond and the Bulldogs.

Problem solved.

Scripted.

 

[the big lebowski]

I was a North supporter before the Crows were created so they are my second team.

North loaded up with mature players for a flag tilt that fell short. I'm now worried that they have fallen so far and to me appear in free fall with no likely move up the ladder in the foreseeable future.

Had big offers knocked back by Heeney, Martin & Kelly, did nothing in the trade period, should get a good player at pick 4, pick 23 is starting to get into the wobbly zone and just standard picks next year with more retirements likely. Got a high academy prospect next year in Thomas plus a few F/S although unlikely the highly rated KPF Blakey would nominate North in front of staying home at the Swans.

North do not look an attractive place for FA and that's unlikely to change with bottom of the ladder looking likely in the next few years.

I think North rather than the hapless Gold Coast may be the AFL's biggest worry going forward.

The basket case that beat you by 10 goals?

 

[Engimal v3]

Anyone talking of Tasmanian relocation is simply thinking wishfully. As I've said many times before, if we couldn't be relocated in 2007 when we were actually a financial basket case, there's zero chance of it happening now that we're doing well off-field.

Most people forgot how bad our facilities, our debt, etc. were just a decade ago. To be where we are now, and the surprising growth that the club is showing, is nothing short of incredible.

 

[madmug]

Small fish in a big pond. Best thing they can do is cement themselves in Tasmania. Imagine having an extra 20-30K members by just relocating to Tasmania, would be a powerhouse with a massive home ground advantage.

Stop wishing busted arse suburban sides on us. What have we done to deserve it?. I & my footy mates would have nothing to do with it.
Sink or swim, leave them in their own community.
FIFO clubs have been of no value to our football. Just piss them off please.

 

[Freshwater]

Nothing. They're all dead.

They're not all dead. We had a supporter attend last years GF who followed the 'scray' from when they were in the VFA! He was #105!

 

[kranky al]

Small fish in a big pond. Best thing they can do is cement themselves in Tasmania. Imagine having an extra 20-30K members by just relocating to Tasmania, would be a powerhouse with a massive home ground advantage.

Play half their home games against interstate teams at a boutique stadium in melbs + a few vics at the g to keep your hand in

Play the other 1/2 in tassie. You would be forever off the extinction list.

 

[Stefan_Carey]

I don't understand the pre-occupation with relocation. Why does everyone think it's the answer to a struggling club? Did it help Fitzroy?

Fitzroy is dead because they never relocated. So who's to say if it could have helped them? My guess is it would have in the long run. The Brisbane Bears merged with the decaying corpse of a football club pulled out of its shallow grave.

Maybe that's why there is a pre-occupation with relocation. No one wants to see another club die.

 

[Big_Luch]

[QUOTE="Mcarcherey, post: 53174198, member:
FYI Carlton went for Kelly and so did saints as well as martin AND fyfe. These two clubs were 'ahead' of North to land them according to the media, so why does North get the criticism?[/QUOTE]
I don't disagree with the north list strategy. They had a go and fell a game short of the grand final.
However the criticism is you guys allegedly offered ridiculous money but came up short. I was bewildered why you guys were doing it considering your list.

 

[STFU Donnie]

They're not all dead. We had a supporter attend last years GF who followed the 'scray' from when they were in the VFA! He was #105!

Did he survive the day?

 

[SCRAY72]

Did he survive the day?

Put his/her teeth back in and sang the club song several times.

 

[Macca18]

I get why relocation talk annoys North fans everytime they are discussed. Unnecessary and isn't going to happen.

Will still win 4-6 games next year... but their list, Ben Brown aside, is in a diabolical state.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

I think north should progressively move to tassie. Play tassie games in green and white stripes (or even green and maroon/yellow...entice them to move their base there with control of over and priority access to the Tasmanian academy with a maintained presence at Arden street

I suspect they'll have less support in Tasmania than a start up team but this will be the best outcome in the long term.

The AFL have been trying to do it for years but Hawthorn keep fudging it up

 

[Drewie11]

I get why relocation talk annoys North fans everytime they are discussed. Unnecessary and isn't going to happen.

Will still win 4-6 games next year... but their list, Ben Brown aside, is in a diabolical state.

Mason Wood goes alright too when he is on the park

 

[scarecrow2k1]

Interesting. Not sure of the actual statistics but does North actually have more supporters than those 3 clubs? I am also sceptical about the Tasmania claims. Will they lose Melbourne supporters if they relocate? Will they gain that 20-30k extra supporter base as well as keeping their Melbourne supporters?

In terms of playing finals this is their record over the last decade;

2007 - 4th
2008 - 7th
2009 - 13th
2010 - 9th
2011 - 9th
2012 - 8th
2013 - 10th
2014 - 6th
2015 - 8th
2016 - 8th
2017 - 15th

So finals in 6 of those years, 2 finishes of 9th, preliminary finals in 07, 14, 15. That's not a bad record. It's definitely a better record than some other Victorian based clubs - Melbourne, Carlton and Essendon namely.

Whilst I think they went really hard at a flag chance with a senior list, they can still use 2018 to push experience into their youth and also clear out the dead wood. They've got some pretty decent core players in Brown, Tarrant, Wood, Preuss, Dumont, Atley, Higgins, Ziebell, Cunnington and McDonald.

They'll get a top 5 pick this year, probably another top 5 pick next year, and with some decent trading next year I can't see why they can't be back in the mid for pushing towards the 8 in 2019. The major issue will be continuing to extract the best from their ageing players, but with any sort of decent development in place their kids will start to mature next year.

Per Roy Morgan they have more than Gold Coast, GWS, Melbourne and Bulldogs. It's not a perfect study as Sydney have the most supporters, by virtue of Sydney having a high population so many saying Swans support when it's not that passionate.

I don't see why numbers in Melbourne wouldn't be relatively accurate though.

 

[Thats Wright]

I get why relocation talk annoys North fans everytime they are discussed. Unnecessary and isn't going to happen.

Will still win 4-6 games next year... but their list, Ben Brown aside, is in a diabolical state.

The list isn't too bad.

The style of leadership from the top is the real problem now most of the cloggers have gone.

Most of the negativity is due to the feeble signing of a failed coach who rode the dwindling wave of a good culture but remains out of his depth in development/reinvigoration and creativity.

You don't want a time-poor senior coach with toddlers and one that separates himself from basically all forms of feedback.

They really missed the boat with this latest contract and it may take a while to recover.

 

[Bomber_Dan]

Play half their home games against interstate teams at a boutique stadium in melbs + a few vics at the g to keep your hand in

Play the other 1/2 in tassie. You would be forever off the extinction list.

What about training base? Relocated in Tasmania? I reckon they could get state government funding down there and bigger land compared to Arden st. Arden st has no room for expansion.

 

[Mcarcherey]

Brisbane are an interstate club where the market is still being worked out, Carlton have a large backing and I imagine Melbourne have a lot of wealthy backers being the upper class club. As soon as North are not doing so well on the field, they're in trouble as they're not as stable off field.

not stable off-field? north made a bigger profit than essendon and have hardly any debt.

 

[Damon_3388]

Mason Wood goes alright too when he is on the park

Already 24 years old, and hasn't really done anything, despite the hype.

I know they love their late bloomers at North Melbourne, but I think Wood is more Aaron Black than Robbie Tarrant in that regard.