Autopsy North lose to Carlton.

[Chadwiko]

I'd add Ben Brown to that group, one of the few having a crack in a North jumper.

BOG today.

 

[Souup]

Lots could be said.

Only two thoughts/things from me:
- That's our biggest fixture of the year - our only marquee game. Players should have come out switched on and raring to make a statement, and they dish up our worst first quarter of the year, and then go on to deliver easily the worst performance of the year while everyone watches.

- Carlton are and have been shit this year - they haven't been able to score. In their last 10 games (going into last year obviously) they've averaged 72.8 points a game - the only game in which they were able to crack 100 in their last 10 was against West Coast last week where they put up 121. They put up 153 against us. Not only that, they did it without McKay and Kemp.

Inexcusable and embarrassing.

 

[Shermanator]

Coaching is a huge issue. I don't think they have bought into the Clarko gameplan. I am sensing a rift. Also this constant handballing backwards actively attracts pressure.

I agree.

Last year we had players looking for the handball receive from key defenders to exploit the standing on the mark rule and move the ball quickly out of defence (northball) we also used the corridor a lot, but we also got caught on the rebound when we turned it over which lead to easy goals going the other way.

We played some unpredictable and exciting footy after the bye in 24 but this year we’ve gone to a very slow movement from the backline gameplay which basically has the opposition standing around and waiting for us to kick it long down the line, which they repel even easier than last year and makes us soooo predictable!

 

[Waynesworld]

I’m going to turn the volume down on the WC v ESS game (and hope ESS get done), put on a record, enjoy a few glasses of red and try and forget that this club exists.

 

[King Corey]

Even the other worst teams in history don't concede goals as easy as some of Carlton's in the second half - walked it out of the centre, kicked it to the square, waited for us to basically give it to them, walked into goal while smirking at how shit we are. Is there any more emphatic evidence than that of just how far off the right track this club is and has been for 5 years now? Well, maybe - the fact we're still trotting out the it-will-turns and the non-linear-developments in interviews this deep into the hole proves the cultural corrosion of the club is complete; it's the opposite of nourishment, it makes me want to throw up.

As long as weak non-efforts are tolerated, the few players who actually try end up feeling they're expected to do everything and can't rely on practical support from their teammates, so they try to do too much and end up giving the ball away anyway. We saw this multiple times today - Daniel's HTB for diving on it in the first happened because he was the only player making stopping the ball being waltzed through a priority; McDonald's "high" against Curnow because he was the only one prepared to not just stand and watch it get kicked through; Wardlaw got caught in a throng of 3 or 4 opponents because everyone else thought their only role was to be an 'outlet'.

Personnel isn't going to change much if we can't get consistency of effort, but I'm angry with enough individuals to go for it anyway:

• Comben is too clueless and limited for us to bend our backline out of shape to accommodate the one aspect of the game he's good at.
• it says everything about how valuable Logue is to us that he seemed to spend much of the game covering Will 'Who?' White. Why he's in favour at all is a mystery to me.
• McKercher played exactly the kind of trepid game he played last week, that basically everyone not paid by the NMFC thought warranted going to the twos; no surprises that changing nothing changes nothing.
• Konstanty, loved his intensity in the first few games but even before the tone-deafness of over-celebrating his goal today he was either invisible or doing the Hollywood stuff (at one contest in the first half his attack on the ball was a cheap toe-poke - a telling option)
• Larkey, he knows he's a great exponent of the standard set shot and we're clawing even in the first quarter if he just goes back, gives us time to steady, and slots a simple one from not far out... so of course he snaps it into the post instead, giving the ball straight back to Carlton for an easy quick transition into their own 50. Just the epitome of what not to do there, and he didn't do enough to earn the occasional error today.
• LDU; I temper my criticisms of him quite a bit because I know I can be too harsh on defensive flimsiness even when a player is giving more than enough back in other ways, but I continue to think we don't get that from him and never have. Boggles the mind that we've committed so heavily to yet another player who needs everything to go right for him before he's worth it.
• Powell and Sheezel in the midfield, same sort of problem there with limited attacking impact and nowhere near the needed ability to pivot to something more accountable. I like what both of them offer at their best, but we're a long way from getting that this year.

I could probably go after plenty more given what we saw today. Not the point, players having bad games isn't why we're in this hole and still digging - when players are dropping heads and resigning themselves to more losing and more failure rather than committing to the hard work required to gradually claw our way out of it, it's palpably cultural. Any club not totally inured to historical levels of failure would see this as basically a coach-killer - players who visibly aren't playing like they're invested in doing the small things to get results, whether while this game is live or just to fight it out honourably in preparation for the next attempt, is a clear sign of a problem. But the pattern is pretty bloody clear after the last 5 years - all part of the journey, nothing to see here, every club has peaks and troughs, no evidence of 'building' or 'developing' anything but we'll keep hiding behind those words and hope the fans are gullible enough to buy into them again. Games like this, seasons like this, decades like this: they happen either through apathy, or because people in positions of power genuinely expect that good things happen through passively waiting out the passage of time. Today was just the latest and most sickeningly emphatic reminder of how pathetic that mindset has always been, and where it was always going to lead.

My gosh you're a good poster.

 

[Limerick]

Let’s get to the point. Tasmania relocation is now a real possibility. My question is this deliberate? Are they white anting us?

Would they take us????????

 

[ArchKing Carey]

I can accept relocation now. I can save money and give up on footy. When does the AFLW season begin?

 

[The Talent Scout]

You reckon JC is interested in coaching?

He was passed over.

 

[Dinkers]

I’m going to turn the volume down on the WC v ESS game (and hope ESS get done), put on a record, enjoy a few glasses of red and try and forget that this club exists.

I've said it a few times , find a new passion. This one is heading for a cliff. And I don't say that lightly as I know what the whole footy season means to folk like us.

I've taken up gold prospecting

 

[justroyal]

A lot of cats out there, that he keeps selecting.

Jy is done, Sheezel has caught the North disease, Stephens and Tucker are the same level of cat meets vanilla that meets turnover.

Larkey too ****ing lazy to split a contest and too cute to think he doesn’t need to go back and kick it.

Daniel trade looking like one of the dumbest things ever. Considering we could be getting games into Hardeman, this is realllly ****ing up our development now.

Powell is really taking a backwards step. What they see million dollar ldu in there and get scared?

Xerri? Match the intensity? And chance? Great opportunity to show some ascendancy.

Darling could mark more.

McKercher might cop it on game day, but he ****ing tries and is the only run we have outside Wardlaw.

O’Sullivan taking beatings he doesn’t deserve to be taking by dumb senior players setting him up. Why didn’t Stephens pass to him when he was around the 50 btw? Why Stephens?

Speaking of dumb senior players, do you know what jy loves doing, other than turnovers? Dishing it off to his teammate and setting him up to be pulverized.

Play O’Sullivan, McKercher, Duursma, George and Sheezel. Put out campaigners around them that will want to play for the jumper.

I dare say this nurturing shit just doesn’t work with this group. Get back to the boundary. Yell at them, hold them accountable. Because the players you keep selecting are not.

 

[Souup]

We conceded 77 points from stoppage today - the most amount of points conceded from stoppage by any team in a game this year.

Next 3 worst:
GWS kicked 67 points from stoppage vs. West Coast in Round 4
Port kicked 64 points vs. Richmond in Round 2
Port kicked 60 points vs. Hawks last week

League average is 35.9.

That's a next level smashing at contest.

 

[scottywiper]

Line in the sand game. Clarko can’t defend this.

More a shit in the sand.

 

[Waynesworld]

I've said it a few times , find a new passion. This one is heading for a cliff. And I don't say that lightly as I know what the whole footy season means to folk like us.

I've taken up gold prospecting

I’ve taken up golf again, trying to play all weekend these days…

 

[Devski]

Get angry you insipid soft ****. Im sick of hearing it

 

[LB2Snake]

The most spineless North Melbourne team I have ever seen.
They stand for nothing.
They are not compromising at the football.
They pick and choose when to go.
I have never been more disappointed in individuals wearing a North Melbourne jumper and basically shitting on it.

WTF is the actual game plan?
WTF is our actual defensive set up?

Some blokes I never want to see play for us again.

 

[Marstermind]

The current and recent custodians of the club, from the very top down, are shitting all over its DNA.

People used to tell me how much they respected what North Melbourne. The toughness, hard work, embracing what we lacked and not using it as an excuse. We had tough people who fronted up even when the odds were stacked against them. Other teams knew they could beat ordinary North teams but they'd have to work hard to make sure of it. If something went wrong, we'd roll up the sleeves and work harder.

Currently the club is none of those things. They are weak willed losers. The moment something goes against them they pack it in and it's all too hard. No one looks angry or upset. No one looks like they're driving standards or working harder. Public utterances are timid weasel words totally out of step with supporters and never reflective of what happens next. We got a tough old North bastard in to coach this pea hearted rabble and somehow we're worse than ever.

Being shit at football is one thing. Being and acting hopeless is another. Lacking pride in yourself, your mates and club is as unforgivable as it is prevalent in this current team. Now I fear that we are irretrievably irrelevant and the North Melbourne that I grew up with will be a completely different entity in the not too distant future.

It was an incredibly sad day at the footy today. I don't know where it goes from here.

 

[kool kangas]

Our back line is shit. Undersized and under skilled

We are playing the 3 stooges....Corr, Logue and Comben..Maybe its time to try a different 3 talls as there is no chemistry between them...K.Dawson, Pink, and W.Dawson...surely they couldnt do worse .or could they...

 

[GoRoos2023]

We conceded 77 points from stoppage today - the most amount of points conceded from stoppage by any team in a game this year.

Next 3 worst:
GWS kicked 67 points from stoppage vs. West Coast in Round 4
Port kicked 64 points vs. Richmond in Round 2
Port kicked 60 points vs. Hawks last week

League average is 35.9.

That's a next level smashing at contest.

It’s not working with Clarko. We need to make a move asap.

 

[Waynesworld]

We are playing the 3 stooges....Corr, Logue and Comben..Maybe its time to try a different 3 talls as there is no chemistry between them...K.Dawson, Pink, and W.Dawson...surely they couldnt do worse .or could they...

We would destroy W Dawson like we do all young players if we put him in the seniors.

He is not ready (not sure he ever will be tbh)

 

[TheKanga]

I for one carn't wait for the inevitable fluff piece email from the President saying that was not excepible, we are all in this together ect

Yeah she can leave as well

 

[danj]

I get what you are saying but here are my problems with this-

*We all have to let 2007 go. The whole fiasco was largely led by our own board, Doc Aylett genuinely thought it was a great idea, that's one of the central reasons it got as far as it did + Demetriou was a Wayne Jackson protege, so inevitably his thinking had one foot in the outmoded Oakley era thinking, even making the same old mistake of failing to anticipate any kind of fightback, and also he was a c*nt and a crook and a business incompetent (have a look at his record post AFL) + we were swimming in debt and not member owned at the time. If they couldnt get us then, they aint getting us now. The league has moved on, so should we

* This largely Caro Wilson led Tas relocation stuff is bloody ludicrous. It started cos JB had a hairbrained scheme of taking of the Hawks Lonnie games as well as our Hobart games, and Gil Mclachlan commented he liked the idea because North could be a single team that "represented" Tasmania. i.e the AFL couldnt care less about having a Tasmanian team, was happy to give them a few crumbs from the table they didnt want, and only became interested when a stadium that someone else paid for was in the mix. There is no relocation back up plans, it's no stadium, no team.

*This is typical of our supporters, we care enough go to war against a fictional relocation effort that might happen in the future but routinely dont care enough to show up to games, even when we were half decent. We could try and organize some kind of supporters union like Collingwood, and go to the club and demand change, but no bastard would show up.

Everyone is panicking because we are now anticipating no one is going to show up for the rest of the season and our crowds will be beyond horrific. So rather than putting this on the outside boogeyman of the league head honchos, or other club bosses, what we really should be saying is that after the dogsnot the team served up today, WE have a huge choice in front of us whether we completely abandon the club wholesale.

I ran for the board in 2007 to keep North south, I’d happily put my hand up to run again if it meant keeping North north

 

[travelli]

Is our midfield too young? It seems our A team now is probably LDU, Powell, Sheez & Wardlaw.

LDU is the oldest but he is not a leader. The rest are so young. IT puts a whole lot of pressure on them.

I feel like we could still set up with Parker, Jy, LDU and then Wardlaw/Sheez/Powell for another season or two.

 

[Dinkers]

I’ve taken up golf again, trying to play all weekend these days…

I'm off early in the morning to hit the gold fields, I'm very excited, and good on you, keep it up.

 

[Waynesworld]

Is our midfield too young? It seems our A team now is probably LDU, Powell, Sheez & Wardlaw.

LDU is the oldest but he is not a leader. The rest are so young. IT puts a whole lot of pressure on them.

I feel like we could still set up with Parker, Jy, LDU and then Wardlaw/Sheez/Powell for another season or two.

Lol, we tried that tonight and were absolutely smashed.

 

[giantroo]

It’s not working with Clarko. We need to make a move asap.

The problem is you hamstring our soft cap with that move. $2m less before you can even sign a new coach and his team.