If by a few years prior, you mean '15 years prior, at a time Wayne Carey was still playing for North' then yes.
Of which we were already punished with being fined a million bucks (equal to several million in todays money, with operating revenue and TPP far and away outstripping inflation) and having picks 1, 2, 2, 18, 31 and 41 stripped off us, plus all picks in the 2003 Pre season draft.
Try losing picks 1, 2, 2, 18, 31 and 41 (spread over 2 years) right at the time all your older players are done (SOS, Sticks, Ratten, Christou, Bradley, Madden etc), and you're sitting on a white elephant that was Princes parks redevelopment, while at the same time having no money left to pay the players you do have.
Crippled us for most of the next decade, and I doubt North would survive it (to be harsh but fair to North).
The AFL would not have hit you so hard had they known the full extent of that eventual impact.
Anyway, back to North. We lost top end pick to expansion teams right when we needed them. For that and the persistent shitness reason we’ll take what the GC received, thanks*.
*If Brad Scott is anywhere inside that decision-making hierarchy, we are ****ed. Expect some dribble to come out about how unfair it would be on everyone else and how North needs to stand on its own two feet.
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