Opinion So who is our next Wayne Carey? The guy that is a dominant force in the competition that leads us to our next Flag?

[Shagga is all Class]

Sheezel.

We are talking about a guy who has shown he is capable of getting 35+ possession, 4 goal, multi goal assist games.

As the weight of possession and ball control builds around him, he will get more and more dangerous possession forward of centre.

He will be impossible to effectively tag.

The opposition will not even be able to plan for him.

Whatever position he was playing last week, or last quarter could change in a blink of an eye, and a McKercher or Powell could slot in and cause their own problems.

From his draft profile, I thought we might just be getting another Keiran Harper. If his draft profile could now be rewritten, it would read "Just think if Neo from the Matrix became a footballer."

 

[Frank Thring]

I'm going to go with Will Dawson, I think he'll be a superstar. He will be well supported by Goad, Sheezel, Powell, McKercher, Duursma, Wardlaw. Seriously we have a ridiculous amount of young talent.

 

[3051]

The crazy thing about Carey was that he came to North as the 'steak knives' as part of the Longmire deal. Huge element of luck involved there too.

If our next Wayne Carey follows the same pattern, then the next won't come from our crop of top 5 picks, but rather like a 2nd rounder or something. If that happens, and our top picks all fulfil their potential, then we may have our next dynasty on our hands.

 

[Krakouer Bonar]

Lachie Hosie.

Number 6 draft pick, won the SANFL goalkicking and plays like Malcolm Blight.

Lachie is a star and will make Carey look like Jamie Stevenson.

 

[HongKongRoo]

I asked this question in the Rawling Thread. Specifically I asked "Who is that out and out gun you need to win you a premiership? A Martin. A Carey? A McKernan on our list?" And surprise, surprise the Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows Brigade failed to answer. But in addition to that gun you need a solid list of very good players assisting that match winner. Look at our team in the 90's. Carey and even McKernan had Schwass and Pickett and Abraham etc etc. Guys who on their day could also win yah a game. :stern look

Currently Sheezel looks the goods. Yah couldn't have asked for a better first 2 years from the guy. I think McKercher has that skill set to be something special. He can break the lines and has skill. But from that point on "The Polish" on our list just aint there IMO. This is concerning. Sure LDU and Wardlaw look good but I'm not a big fan of either's kicking. In the Big Man Stakes, Larkey has proven that he can kick goals and Xerri had a very good 2024 but apart from those 2 the rest of the big guys do have question marks over them. :stern look

Now if we had kept JHF, Finished last in 2023 and snared Reid plus somehow retained Thomas I'd be a lot more bullish about our midfield at a minimum. For the pain that we have suffered have we maximised our return with the draft hands we have been afforded? :stern look

Anyway over to the NMFC BigFooty Faithful. What is your take? So who currently on our list will be the next Wayne Carey? Who will take the competition by storm and lead us to the promised land? And do we currently have the talent (Like Schwass etc) to aid that gun? Interested in your "Opinions". :stern look

I think this is a valid question but when you look at Hawthorne, Geelong and to a lesser degree Sydney and Brisbane, it hasn't been the stars who have won them the big games, it's been because they have had better systems and played as teams. Who were Hawthorne's superstars? Buddy left and they still won premierships. Roughy was good but he was no Carey. Lewis was a role-player, Hodgey was good but no better than a Stevens or King or Archer in their prime. GAblett left Geelong and they still had success without him. Good team systems make players better. We need a coherent gameplan drilled into our team and able to be executed under the highest pressure. Don't expect a single superstar to come and "save" the club. AFL is a team game.

 

[Rampaging roos]

Lachie Hosie.

Number 6 draft pick, won the SANFL goalkicking and plays like Malcolm Blight.

Lachie is a star and will make Carey look like Jamie Stevenson.

Lol put Lachie on Wayne and you have a new AFL goal kicking record....in all seriousness north Melbourne have been going over 150 years and whilst we've had many champions.wayne is the best by a country mile...were just lucky he landed at North.. single handedly influenced the outcome of so many games.Was just rediculous.. Corey came close for awhile but couldn't maintain it...

 

[travelli]

I think Xerri could be close to no.1 ruck in the comp. this year. He is still on 25 and has a few years at peak as a big man. If he can maintain 2024 form with some incremental improvement, he could become a Roos legend.

 

[LB2Snake]

If we had Schwatta now....

Incredibly under rated. In our top three players while he was with us. Not necessarily in third place either.

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I personally think young Finn has a touch of the schwatta’s……..looks hard edged, can seriously compete in the air, rangy wiry strong type who covers the ground with ease.
I was wrapt we gave him number 2.

 

[ferball]

The crazy thing about Carey was that he came to North as the 'steak knives' as part of the Longmire deal. Huge element of luck involved there too.

If our next Wayne Carey follows the same pattern, then the next won't come from our crop of top 5 picks, but rather like a 2nd rounder or something. If that happens, and our top picks all fulfil their potential, then we may have our next dynasty on our hands.

Goad in the JHF trade.

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[Gasometer]

I just rewatched that Essendon game he kicked 10 in, in 99. Coincidentally, Mighty Mick was out for that game, and took our balance out a bit, forcing Archer on Lloyd to start the game (which Lloyd kicked 6 in the first half).

In the context of this thread, I thought that the Essendon and North sides in that particular game are great examples of the different ways you can build a dominant side.

North, of course, had the GOAT, who played one of his more iconic games, kicking 10. He was by far, the best player on the ground that day. Still, North lost the game by 26 points.

Watching that game, it was a credit to how good Carey was - and to an extent how good North was, that they only lost by 26, and at stages the margin was far closer. Essendon played a scintillating game, and carved up North the entire game.

Essendon didn't have a player of Carey's ilk - their best was probably Lloyd (or maybe Mercuri that year), but the point I'm trying to make, is that none of Essendon's players got close to the tier Carey was - and potentially even McKernan at his best did. Their list however, had more quality players that ran deeper than North's.

To illustrate, it was actually interesting ranking all the players in this game based off some arbitrary 'Rank' score - though I think it matches my eye test well. (Source: https://www.finalsiren.com/MatchDetails.asp?GameID=659&Code=669757b47bf42d364fefe8a41f1a4ee9&Sort=Rating Desc)

A total of 44 players were ranked.

Top 10

North Melbourne had 4/10 players in the top 10, totalling 424 points. Essendon's 6 in the top 10 totalled 563. However, Carey was such an outlier that he had a ranking of 161 points - 45 points more than the second player in Lloyd. 45 points is the margin between Lloyd and the 18th highest ranked player in that game, Matthew Prior. Carey skewed that top ten a bit - the other three North players averaged 87.7 points, whereas the six Essendon players average 93.8. So Essendon were better in quality and depth.

Bottom 10

The bottom 10 shows the inverse of the top 10 - with 6/10 players belonging to North with an average of 12 points per player. Essendon's four in the bottom ten averaged 21.3 points. North had more players that were of worse quality than the Bombers. It's actually even worse if I extend it to the bottom 15 players as North own 10/15 of those places.

Conclusion

Why I highlight this game is that this is a great game to highlight a bit about our 90s team - though potentially the 99 team, whilst winning the premiership, was not peak 90s North. Really top-heavy, with an even heavier pointy end in Carey. The bottom four weren't very good, and in this Essendon game, they got really exposed (hello Dhurrkay, Anderson, and Lange with a combined 2 possessions between them).

But also that I think current North is more of the mould of the 99 Essendon team, more of an even spread of quality players, great system, coach, etc. So we don't necessarily need to have a player of Carey's calibre, but we probably need a couple of our players to reach Hird, Lloyd, and Fletcher-level of greatness, and then to bat deeper than the rest of the competition. This is probably more inline with how the modern game is going too.

It was an absolute privilege to be at that game. One of the GOAT

Pity for the behaviour of the * filth in the last few minutes behaving disgracefully

We had the last laugh a few weeks later

But that game commenced my hatred for that Club

 

[travelli]

Xerri on top: The decision that set big Roo up to thrive

Tristan Xerri has had a career-best season since moving into the No.1 ruck role at North Melbourne after Todd Goldstein's departure

www.afl.com.au

 

[travelli]

Very few expected him to be as good as he was in 24. He'll be better this year

 

[RightWingRoo]

I personally think young Finn has a touch of the schwatta’s……..looks hard edged, can seriously compete in the air, rangy wiry strong type who covers the ground with ease.
I was wrapt we gave him number 2.

From towns 10km apart as well.

 

[northbergs]

Duursma.


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[Mogroos]

Duursma.


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Wayne Duursma is the closest to having the Carey attributes of anyone. The movement, one grab pack marks, getting close to similar height, can move to midfield. Plus looks to have healthy bit of arrogance about him. Suspect he will be in the middle of few dust ups.

 

[JGreezy]

Sheezel will be the gun of all guns. And he'll have a fleet of AA level mids around him (McKercher, FOS, LDU, Wardlaw, Powell, Duursma) and elite ruckman (Xerri and Goad).

But the smokey, in my opinion, is Brayden George. If he hasn't lost his power and we actually play him at his true position, out of the goal square, then he will be a true match winner who can kick you 5+ goals in a final.

He's a similar height as Dunstall, Modra and Ablett. He's explosive on the lead and one of the best kicks that you'll ever see ... But we are trying to teach him to be a half back.

 

[travelli]

I've already got Sheezel and Xerri in there, but I'm adding McKercher. Got a feeling he'll take a few step this year and will be elite by 2026.

 

[Horizons_00]

Sheezal. End of story. Close thread

 

[DocSholl]

Sheezel will be the gun of all guns. And he'll have a fleet of AA level mids around him (McKercher, FOS, LDU, Wardlaw, Powell, Duursma) and elite ruckman (Xerri and Goad).

But the smokey, in my opinion, is Brayden George. If he hasn't lost his power and we actually play him at his true position, out of the goal square, then he will be a true match winner who can kick you 5+ goals in a final.

He's a similar height as Dunstall, Modra and Ablett. He's explosive on the lead and one of the best kicks that you'll ever see ... But we are trying to teach him to be a half back.

Be interesting to see if the AFL allows us to play them all in the one team

 

[zoomba23]

Sheezel is the only answer to this question. Some of these suggestions are silly. Duursma, not a leader, and is way too lackadaisical anyway. X, while I love him, is too flawed in the way he plays (ruck grabbing blind kicking crap. His Fantasy scores make his games look better than they are, ala Tim English). Wardlaw, is Sheezel's second-in-command. You don't put the second-in-command at the front of the group, do you. LDU, doesn't put himself out there enough to earn the 'leader' moniker. And could potentially leave. George, is coming off 2 ACLs and it would imo be a miracle if he fulfils his draft potential to the degree that we'd all like. Don't care how far medical science has come, the body doesn't usually come away from something like that undamaged. Luis Diaz in the EPL came back after a six month knee injury, in which he didn't even do his ACL, a totally stunted player. The only possible other answer would be McKercher, but he:

Could yet go to Tassie on a Godfather contract
Is not the face of the club
Has not yet done as much damage as Sheezel
Doesn't seem to possess the same goal sense
Won't be the VC by his third year at the club

All arrows point to Sheezel. Close the thread

 

[King Hansen]

Toby Pink

 

[Devil Fish]

I've already got Sheezel and Xerri in there, but I'm adding McKercher. Got a feeling he'll take a few step this year and will be elite by 2026.

And don’t forget Whitlock. He was HUGE today.
Brady, you nailed it!!!!

 

[Themanbun]

LMac, just needs other blokes to finally pull their weight

 

[archereleven]

I asked this question in the Rawling Thread. Specifically I asked "Who is that out and out gun you need to win you a premiership? A Martin. A Carey? A McKernan on our list?" And surprise, surprise the Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows Brigade failed to answer. But in addition to that gun you need a solid list of very good players assisting that match winner. Look at our team in the 90's. Carey and even McKernan had Schwass and Pickett and Abraham etc etc. Guys who on their day could also win yah a game. :stern look

Currently Sheezel looks the goods. Yah couldn't have asked for a better first 2 years from the guy. I think McKercher has that skill set to be something special. He can break the lines and has skill. But from that point on "The Polish" on our list just aint there IMO. This is concerning. Sure LDU and Wardlaw look good but I'm not a big fan of either's kicking. In the Big Man Stakes, Larkey has proven that he can kick goals and Xerri had a very good 2024 but apart from those 2 the rest of the big guys do have question marks over them. :stern look

Now if we had kept JHF, Finished last in 2023 and snared Reid plus somehow retained Thomas I'd be a lot more bullish about our midfield at a minimum. For the pain that we have suffered have we maximised our return with the draft hands we have been afforded? :stern look

Anyway over to the NMFC BigFooty Faithful. What is your take? So who currently on our list will be the next Wayne Carey? Who will take the competition by storm and lead us to the promised land? And do we currently have the talent (Like Schwass etc) to aid that gun? Interested in your "Opinions". :stern look

If we haven't got him on the list now, rest assured Zondor, Rawling will draft him sometime between now and 2040 OR will offer a washed up 30yr old 2m x 10yrs...

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[Cyber_punk]

Finny

No pressure