Who is North Melbourne's next Great Rival?

[3051]

I started listening to Wayne Carey's podcast, which I've thoroughly enjoyed so far - one of the interviews was with his former arch-nemesis, Glen Jakovich

Glen Jakovich

Age

51

Ht

193cm

Wt

102kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

17.2

4star

K

12.0

4star

HB

5.2

4star

M

4.2

4star

T

1.0

3star

No current season stats available

D

17.6

5star

K

11.2

4star

HB

6.4

4star

M

4.2

4star

T

0.6

3star

. Not unsurprisingly, the theme of 'rivalry' often came up in the interview - obviously between the two champs, but also of North vs West Coast, and then the surprise one before my time - between West Coast and Melbourne. This made me think about today's North, and that being so bad for so long has meant that this team has no rivals. Even the Brad Scott-era North didn't really develop any rivalries. As a fan, rivalries make the game even more entertaining, and in the 90s, we were pretty blessed to have multiple: a historic North vs Essendon rivalry, the team of the 90s rivalry between West Coast, North vs Geelong was awesome, a few years of intense North vs St Kilda matches, basically any good team vs North was awesome.

Now, assuming that this North develops into the next premiership-contending side , here's some potentials:

Historic rivalries

• Essendon. In win-now mode, so it's unlikely that their next core group of players peak at the same time as North's.
• Hawthorn. Similar window to North's, so there is a good chance that the two teams peak at the same time.

Clubs in a similar window

• West Coast. Would be cool to see this 90s rivalry resurrect 30 years later.
• Adelaide. Will always have that connection due to 98, but also with Carey.
• Richmond. North should have been Richmond's rival during their 2017-2020 dominance, but North fell off the rails after 2016. Competitive during the 70s, 90s, and 10s, but fell short of a rivalry per-se. Maybe the late 20s?

Miscellaneous that could spark a rivalry

• Port Adelaide. JHF connection, though Port's next rebuild could be several years behind North. Might just have to settle for being North's bunnys for the next decade instead.
• Collingwood. Could see Daicos vs Sheezel as the next Dusty vs Dangerfield type rivalry. That 54-point turnaround could be the spark. I'm sure the boys can't wait to redeem themselves from that, as well as take vengeance on all of those horrible umpiring decisions.
• Sydney. I assume they will always be up there so might inevitably cross North's path in the finals, etc. Phillips vs McDonald. Fierce midfield battles. Umpires screwing us over against them always. Blakey choosing them over us. The 96 grand final.

Which teams do you think will become the biggest rivals in this window?

 

[The Nostradamus]

Tassie

 

[Possession]

Tassie

Tassie and Gold Coast = The Tulpas

 

[Arthur Cloke]

I think Tazzie will be your next really BIG rival. We've stolen thousands of potential Tazzie Devil members from the Apple Isles over the last decade, and now with Colby Mac on board, they'll be steaming.

Speaking of great rivalries, let me tell you a story:

A lot of you guys would know, I'm an avid cyclist. Like I'm talking 100km per week sometimes! That's nothing to be sneezed at in my book. I'm on Strava as Scotchin Cloke, and at one stage, I held 4 King of the Mountains, or KOM's as me and my 26 cycling mates like to call them. But some bozo called Long D Silva has obliterated my KOM records. Now, there's no doubt he is riding an e-bike, and I don't think that's very fair. I contacted Strava via email (via Outlook as I'm using Windows 11), and they basically said there's nothing they can do. Extraordinary. So I took the obvious next step and spoke to my local law enforcement agency. Again, I just copped a series of blank looks. I even had a stat deck signed by my local member for Gods sake.
Now one thought that's crossed my mind is possibly "transitioning". When I spoke to the boss of Strava, he said that the KOM's are actually gender based. That sparked my ears. But the only problem is, the female KOM's are actually referred to as Queen of the Mountains, or QOM's. So yeah, it's a tricky one, I'm damned if I do, and I'm damned if I don't.

I've spoken to the Mods here and they've given me the green light to change my BF username to Martha Cloke if I go ahead with the darn thing, as this could be considered "exceptional circumstances". Watch this space I suppose.

 

[ferball]

Sometimes life just isn't fair and you've got to make the hard calls.

 

[The Dingrel]

Last week I could have sworn it was the umpires!

 

[Gasometer]

The Commission

 

[Engimal v3]

Ticket sales, we've been battling for years

 

[barnrokn]

 

[Mr north man]

Everyone
Clubs,AFL and Umpires they all hate us.

 

[King Corey]

Stephen McBurney.

 

[Chadwiko]

I agree that North should foment a rivalry with Tasmania.

We've obviously got history there. There's a strong possibility they'll look to poach a young gun in Colby McKercher from us when they start-up. We've been sponsored by Spirit of Tasmania but will very likely lose that sponsorship. Etc etc etc.

Sport rivalries generate passion, and passion generates interest and attendance and merchandising opportunities etc.

 

[Petrie4PM]

I think it will remain dons for a while yet, but second would be port.

 

[Tas]

Rivalries are for ordinary clubs that aren't in the premiership window.

 

[Only Forwards]

Putting the teams I hate to the side for a second (* & Hawthorn)

I think the side that we should target the most is Carlton.

Since we shared the GF in 99 we have both been about equally poor at different stages.

We now play them at our marquee game.

We should lobby for return fixtures every year against them especially as we rise and they are going ok.

Good Friday at Marvel and the return game at the G, preferably as a Friday night game. Do this every year for 5 years and build into two standing sort of fixtures. One for Good Friday (our Marquee) one for Friday nights (as we built it). We get more, they get more because they get another Home game at the G.

All this talk about Tassie is kinda a nonsense in terms of a rivalry if we are talking about attendance. Who in Melbourne is gonna give a shit about us vs Tassie we would be lucky to draw more than 18k to a Tassie game in Melbourne.

If we were gonna pick an interstate low drawing side to have a rivalry against we may as well go for one that should be ok during our coming upswing. Gold Coast. But then the same question applies who in Melbourne is gonna care about us vs Gold Coast.

I am not sure that playing in front of maybe 10k people at Carrara or in Hobart will make a rivalry.

 

[Chadwiko]

All this talk about Tassie is kinda a nonsense in terms of a rivalry if we are talking about attendance. Who in Melbourne is gonna give a shit about us vs Tassie we would be lucky to draw more than 18k to a Tassie game in Melbourne.

Look, fair point, but you're not seeing the opportunity.

A lot of Tassie fans will travel to Melbourne for one or two games a year. If we really foment a rivalry, then the game they'll want to come to will be ours.

That's a good thing!

 

[koshari]

I think Tazzie will be your next really BIG rival. We've stolen thousands of potential Tazzie Devil members from the Apple Isles over the last decade, and now with Colby Mac on board, they'll be steaming.

Speaking of great rivalries, let me tell you a story:

A lot of you guys would know, I'm an avid cyclist. Like I'm talking 100km per week sometimes! That's nothing to be sneezed at in my book. I'm on Strava as Scotchin Cloke, and at one stage, I held 4 King of the Mountains, or KOM's as me and my 26 cycling mates like to call them. But some bozo called Long D Silva has obliterated my KOM records. Now, there's no doubt he is riding an e-bike, and I don't think that's very fair. I contacted Strava via email (via Outlook as I'm using Windows 11), and they basically said there's nothing they can do. Extraordinary. So I took the obvious next step and spoke to my local law enforcement agency. Again, I just copped a series of blank looks. I even had a stat deck signed by my local member for Gods sake.
Now one thought that's crossed my mind is possibly "transitioning". When I spoke to the boss of Strava, he said that the KOM's are actually gender based. That sparked my ears. But the only problem is, the female KOM's are actually referred to as Queen of the Mountains, or QOM's. So yeah, it's a tricky one, I'm damned if I do, and I'm damned if I don't.

I've spoken to the Mods here and they've given me the green light to change my BF username to Martha Cloke if I go ahead with the darn thing, as this could be considered "exceptional circumstances". Watch this space I suppose.

with a change of subject like this example i would thing your riding a segway.

 

[justroyal]

Jay Clark.

 

[3051]

Rivalries are for ordinary clubs that aren't in the premiership window.

Can you elaborate on this?

 

[FootySmartSimpson]

I think it will remain dons for a while yet, but second would be port.

Sydney, Port and Dons. HM to West Coast and Collingwood, oh and Carlton and Richmond.

 

[franjon]

Rivalries are for ordinary clubs that aren't in the premiership window.

Yeah I agree. In the 70's we had an on field rivalry with Hawthorn but it was nothing personal. If anything there was a mutual respect between both clubs. In the 90's I never really saw any other club as a rival, it was just another team we had to beat on the weekend. The Essendon rivalry is more fan related. Essendon supporters, about football, can be a bit arrogant, and it's satisfying occasionally when we've had good runs against them but that's all it is from my POV.

 

[Only Forwards]

Look, fair point, but you're not seeing the opportunity.

A lot of Tassie fans will travel to Melbourne for one or two games a year. If we really foment a rivalry, then the game they'll want to come to will be ours.

That's a good thing!

I think I do see the opportunity and that it is limited. It is about as big as the opportunity for us to build something with Gold Coast.

We have circa 20k rusted on fans. Your figure of "a lot" would translate to what? let's for the sake of this say that a lot is around half of what travelled to Brisbane to watch Carlton play their final. I mean it would just be H&A games. So 6500.

We take 20k to 26500.

This is not even factoring that we play at the non premier stadium in our state. or that Tassie supporters are likely to prioritise bigger clubs over ours. It is fanciful to think that would not be the case. Straight up rose coloured glasses.

If we are going to spend our resources building something against anyone why wouldn't we enhance our biggest Home and Away game?
Ask for a return feature game where we play the MCG on a Friday night as the away team.

Making that game a replacement home game, against a side who are a few years a ahead of us and likely to still be up when we get there.

We also already know they will likely be onboard with the return game because they want more Home MCG games. There is also the added benefit to our side because we would have a consistent feature game at the G in front of a loud opposition crowd. Something we will need more exposure to to get better at because we are going to want to play finals there.

I would approach * as well under the same pretence. We want to be the away team to your push in getting more games at the G. You want the G we want Friday nights. 1 to assist with the above rivalry, one as a 90s throw back retro type theme.

 

[Sphynx]

Essendon spluttering into finals under Bon and we meet them chock full of talent and on the rise would be quite epic.

A bit like the North vs Richmond EF in 2015.

 

[Passmore]

Can you manufacture a rivalry that’s fair dinkum or does it have to evolve?

If we do get about and about again, it’ll be against a team who’s in the same window and/or we have genuine beef with.

There should be genuine animosity with Port over the JHFF business.
* are obvious for historical (and former geographical)reasons.
Hawthorn again? They’ve got some promising kids coming through. Could be timing there.
Footscray?

 

[3051]

Essendon spluttering into finals under Bon and we meet them chock full of talent and on the rise would be quite epic.

A bit like the North vs Richmond EF in 2015.

Or North vs Essendon EF in 2014.

Both are in my top 3 games of the past 10 years.