Only Forwards
Just you wait and see
I have been thinking about this.All football staff employed from 2010-2020 created the hot tub of muck Clarkson and Co now find themselves tasked with fixing.
But more in the context of on-field leadership.
2009 -2011 Boomer (Petrie for a stretch when boomer was injured)
2012 - 2016 Spitta
2017 - 2022 Jack
2023 - Jy and Luke
If we include Dish, there are 5 All Australian years in there, which sounds ok, but Boomer has 4 of them.
Now your best player doesn't have to be your captain. However it helps. Because it shifts the conversation from do as I say not as I do to do as I say and as I do. Or rather when I lift you lift with me.
External recognition is not the be all and end all because things like AA or rising star are a popularity contest. For a North Melbourne player to make it they have to be pretty undeniable.
Boomer was ok but flawed in that he was as the team is right now, attack attack attack. The balance was off but the good far outweighed the bad.
Dish was ok but he could and would melt when we needed clutch moments. Don't get me wrong, he hit some absolute beauties. But I would have been far less confident of a Frank the tank moment if those kicks were set shots. He, like many in the Scott teams lacked composure in some big moments, or composure in leadership in really big moments.
Spitta was a watch me and follow. I have little doubt that he would be able to have hard conversations in meetings off field. But he simply was not the kind to bake blokes of field and demand. punched above his weight.
Jack, and this is where we start to slide. Jack played games, too many games, as Captain where if he did not have the C he would have been dropped. I loved Jack he was a warrior for our football club, but 2 broken legs, needing to change his style of game because of his physicality over time these took a toll. His form would be all over the place and yet he'd be played through it because he had leadership.
Jy 2 Syds in years where we were appalling. Jy wanted the captaincy and had worked towards it for years. He'd righted himself from his early get on the piss and run into a motorbike. His form has been all over the shop from ok to a hot mess. Where he could smash an opponent physically, or dance around them but then fail to execute the most basic of kicks.
Luke A syd in an appalling year. Early doors (when he first started) people were calling for him to be captain because his leadership as a kid shone through. But repeated injuries (broken leg, hamstrings etc) have robbed him of being anything more than a part time contributor. This is a huge problem. Or captain can't maintain a consistent even ok level of output. Historically I don't really kick Luke, but he's not influential. At least with Jy there is the potential that he may have a 1 in 20 really decent game. Luke isn't anywhere near that.
Supporting Casts
Goldy, Cunners, Thompson, Higgo, Taz, and a cast of other players who were never in the upper echelon of the AFL for more than one off seasons if that.
Goldy is the closest to a consistent high performer and he was never in the leadership group. Cunners was Cunners and I am not gonna shoot Bambi. Higgo and Taz left, their bodies were cooked and we gave them the option but they left.
All of this above pushes us into the situation we find ourselves in.
We have some good leaders coming through (hopefully) in Sheez and Souva, I am hopeful that Jy can remain in the group and potentially improves with the release of responsibility. However as with every line we have on the ground, there are gaps in the group and there is going to be pain while we fill them.