Have you seen their draw?
I really like St.Kilda's list for the future and would've had them as a monty to make the top 8 before the fixtures came out, but receiving the 3rd hardest draw according to Champion Data will make it tough. If they play finals they will damn sure have earned it.
Why? It's where most of the bookies have you.
North have arguably the worst youth stocks in the league (just 10 AFL games combined from your last 2 crops of draftees [yes I know they've had injuries]) and once again drafted project-player flanker types in the 2nd/3rd rounds the other night who will struggle to make an immediate impact. You lost your best midfielder in Wells and lost a heck of a lot of experience through the "retirements" of Harvey, Dal Santo, Petrie and Firrito.
North's list doesn't look very good, certainly not for season 2017 anyway. An easy draw (probably THE easiest) is the only thing that may help you avoid bottom 4.
Alternatively...
True, we lost our best midfielder in Wells, but in the two years prior to this one he barely played and we made two prelims. Recent history proves that we can cope, and indeed, thrive, without him.
Harvey's attacking output and experience is irreplaceable, it will need a collective effort from our young half-forwards in Garner, Turner, Anderson, Hrovat, Wagner and Simpkin, as well as the return of a fully fit Higgins, to make up the difference. If there is a positive in that it is that all of those guys are significantly better defensively than Harvey, but, no doubt, we are a poorer team for his absence.
Dal Santo isn't really a big loss. Sure, he has experience, but he was slow and awful defensively. He also lost a lot of depth and class with his kicking since his hamstring injury. I'm pretty confident we won't feel his loss at all with MacMillan (a much underrated player outside of North) playing more midfield, the continued emergence of Clarke, the addition of Hrovat and McDonald returning to full fitness and moving to the midfield. In fact, an argument could certainly be made that we'll actually be better without him and with a more dynamic mix filling his position/role.
Petrie was lucky to not be dropped this season. He's not a loss at all based on the last 18 months. In fact, his output had diminished so much that I'm of the opinion that we'll be better without him. A tall/medium forward mix of Brown, Waite, Daw and Wood is exciting, dynamic, unpredictable and better without Petrie.
Firrito was solid enough over the last couple of seasons but ultimately he plays the role that is probably the easiest to replace. While decent, he was hardly crucial to our finals run and will be replaced by the returning Wright and a mix of Vickers-Willis (who most believed should have been given a debut this season, particularly after he played really well on Jake Stringer in the VFL) a young guy in Hibberd, the addition of Marley Williams and maybe even Hansen if he can return to his intercepting best. Perhaps not the best group of replacements with most inexperienced, but we don't lose much, if anything, by replacing Firrito with them.
To tally it up, we lose and will definitely miss a mid and a half forward of irreplaceable class and attacking output. But with the exception of experience, that's about it. In fact, by replacing Dal Santo and Petrie with better players or a different mix we may actually improve in those positions.
The positive to consider is the return to full fitness of a lot of players who missed large chunks of this season. Higgins, Wood, Waite, Garner, Jacobs, McDonald and Wright were all absent for significant periods of time and every single one of those guys make us a better side when they're back next season and fully fit. A majority of the replacements for our retirees come from those players, not the inexperienced youth that everyone seems to think we'll play next season. Our core group are all in that 21-26 age group. Turner and Anderson fully fit fit improves our depth as well. Hrovat is borderline best 22 but improves our depth and I'm personally of the opinion that if Marley Williams returns to his 2015 form he's comfortably best 22 by virtue of being better than Atley - although, admittedly, that's a low bar to set.
Anyway, I get that this isn't a North thread but some of the misconceptions from other fans about our retirements and where we're at are hilariously ill-informed and, frankly, absolute nonsense. Personally, I would be gobsmacked if we finish lower than 12th and disappointed if we're not at least challenging for the top 8. Willing to put a full off-season avatar bet on that too if anybody can be bothered remembering it for all of next season.