Opinion Assorted Ramblings

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The acurate one said:
Oh we is sh*t of that you can sure. Very sh*t and I once fell for the hype. Aherns guts hanging over his shorts were just to make garner less embarrassed about his guts hanging over his shorts. They'd all come good and the early comparisons I stuck to.
Mahony is being compared to Bell, LDU = Dusty Xerri= Mumford, Turner= some back pocket lockdown genius. Mason Wood= Royce Hart.

I now have my own theory that you're sh*t until you show us you're not. A brave intercept mark or brutal tackle aren't much chop if they're isolated and you finish with 4 disposals.

these guys have something above the ordinary

JHF
LDU
TT
Bonar ( he can actually play an attacking lockdown role)
Larkey
Comben- ( comes down to injuries)
Perez ( see above)
Phillips
Powell
Zurhaar


Then

Stephenson
CCJ
Mahony
McKay
From there you get a bit more speculative so the jury is out. ie Edwards, Spicer and the rest of last years draft crop

I could comfortably run a line through the following with confidence they wouldn't get on another AFL list.

Turner
Walker
Polec
Scott
Young
Atu


So I've listed 15 names of players that could be very good, in saying that I believe it is two more seasons of pain. But we're on the right track.
Have faith.
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LDU is also compared to Petracca. Who was a bit of a waste of space until a couple of seasons ago.

You didn't mention Simpkin in all of that. Was just an oversight or is there some other reason? (Or McDonald.)

Re the six guys who wouldn't get on another list. The thing is all of those guys could play in a GF as well (tho not in the same side.) Every GF winner has some players who wouldn't make another AFL list. The key is that the players you have at that level play their guts out and do something worthwhile in every game, especially finals.
 
Le Grille said:
I would argue the eras are a bit different

2002-2009 - we need to stay afloat and stay competitive, this is why I give Laidley a huge tick (and Scott not so much, I will go into that later) . Yes he topped up with some average players and we certainly were an ugly side at times but the bloke got us to top 4 with a truly awful list.

2010-2012The rebuild
Scott came on board recruited a fair bit of promising types arguably more resources and leeway than laidley but debt reduction still prevalent

2013-2016 didn’t quite get there, Scott developed a side that could beat teams they weren’t favoured to but just as easily could lose to teams they should beat. Many talented players showed flashes but rarely solid week in week out consistency, inability to learn from mistakes hence in reality the ladder positions were a fair indication just middling. Few drafted players of this time have been meaningful contributors.

2017-2020 The rebuild 2 what’s the strategy
After extending Brad to show a bit of stability but getting rejected by Kelly and Martin the “aggressive reset” was a hodgepodge of strategies which led to aggressive contracts offered to players like Polec (which hasn’t worked), by this time it was right for Scott to move on as he did all he could with the club and the message seemed to be lost, enter rhyce Shaw,Covid and a shitstorm of injuries and events that led to shaws exit. Many players recruited are the core of this side now. Hopefully we salvage that from this era

2021- must capitalise
We are here now. It is imperative that Jy, LDU, TT and Larkey become the nucleus of elite talent for the club. Unfair to put it on them but they have been in the system for long enough. If they are going to be top 20 players they need to be it now or in my opinion they will end up not being there. Skills for the club overall need massive improvement for that to occur.
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I guess those are reasonable breakdowns of playing list transitions, but I don't think the club's mindset changed that quickly. The "rebuild" in 2010-2012 really wasn't. The remnants of the '90s list really petered out by '07/08/09 and we got a couple of ok picks. We didn't do anything special other than take the picks that fell to us, didn't ever really embark on a youth policy, though our list was probably younger than average for a handful of years. It was Ziebell at 9 and Cunnington at 5, then compromised drafts and we headed up the ladder anyway. After Cunnington our next picks were Atley at 17, Bread at 18, Garner 15 then LMac with pick 8. That's not a rebuild, it's not stockpiling talent, it's just taking draft picks. 2007-2016 was really just one long era of "be as competitive as we can with what we have and consolidate at Arden St" before we transitioned into the post-2016 "reset" that soon became a bottom-out.
 
Le Grille said:
So the 2022 season is almost upon us and that means 18 sets of fans start dreaming of the possibilities and (generally, well apart from one team) delusions of grandeur.

I wanted to get something off my chest as this is a spot where one can voice an opinion.

A creeping thought has entered my mind over the past few weeks that is NMFC are perennially going to be just making up the numbers. I do understand we are less than halfway through a list build but I’m having difficulty seeing us reaching the heights of a bulldogs or demons type renaissance.

What concerns me is that JHF, maybe TT and Powell aside I honestly can’t see a true potential a list league top 10 type, now it could be that we haven’t yet recruited drafted our elite guys but whilst we have many potentially good players there is still flaws in our next best group.

This season is a pretty big year for that next best group including Jy and LDU, these guys have been in the system for long enough and while they have elite games at times it’s hardly a week in week out thing that all the contenders have, if they are going to reach the elite level they probably have to do it soon or they mightn’t reach that level.

I mean we have been pretty nondescript for 22 years one top 4 finish in that time and even when there were the 2014 and 2015 finals runs happened personally I kind of deep down felt we weren’t winning a flag. Yeah we got hosed by the umps in Perth but I don’t think the hawks were losing that game.

I was quite bullish prior to the preseason matches but there seems to be some massive alarm bells.

Happy to be persuaded otherwise or agreed with. Genuinely interested to see others thoughts on this
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Analysis - Random NORTH thoughts not worthy of a thread

Wasn't sure where to post this so created a thread instead. Surely this is a joke. Fox Sports top 10 key defenders with no R Tarrant in sight...... Laughable...
www.bigfooty.com www.bigfooty.com
 

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the flying ham said:
I think walker young and atu under the pump for another contract.
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The only one of them who really has a future (potentially) is Atu imo. Its both Walkers that are under the pump too. JWalker ... depends on our KPD moves over the off season.

What Rob said is the real truth tho. Its where our 10 -33rd ranked players sit that will determine our success.

Also...

Someone on this board described Richmond at the end of 2019 (we flogged them that year too. Beat them up,) as committed fit and disciplined, I think.

But basically they understood the game plan and were 100% committed to it, and it involved manic attack on the ball and contests and pushing the ball forward (or generating momentum) in any way possible. They were a great team. Not that many elite players. One who was right up there tho. But alot of very good players and a few spuds. Go have a look at that side ... Caddy, Ellis, Soldo, Nankervis, Castagna, Rioli, Lambert. Two and a half years earlier the idea they'd be playing in the club's second flag in three years and building a dynasty would be laughable but there they were doing it.

They were well coached, fully committed and they believed in their processes. Ie their game plan, - they trusted it, trusted their team mates to implement it and knew exactly what they had to do themselves to fulfill their role, then dedicated themselves to achieving that.
 
Le Grille said:
Why, thought it was a reasonable talking point.
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I take a few issues with it. One is that that AFL is a team game and that you don't really need more than one really exceptional player to win a flag, or in Richmond's case, a series of flags. You list multiple players that could end up that sort of superstar for us. Even if just JHF fulfils his potential we could be a very good side, assuming we're well coached and equipped with well-drilled footballers that play their role in a winning game plan.

My other big issue is that it just seems to be a pessimistic musing based on a lacklustre pre-season with no statistics or strong reasoning to back it up.

I think the real questions about our side going forward is whether Noble can keep growing and turn from a "teacher" (as he likes to call himself) to a ruthless AFL coach that wins many more games than he loses and if we can get some tall timber in our back six to be peaking at the same time our midfield does. Our potential to have gun mids and "top 10 players" is pretty far down my list of concerns considering how we've drafted the last few years.
 
Le Grille said:
So the 2022 season is almost upon us and that means 18 sets of fans start dreaming of the possibilities and (generally, well apart from one team) delusions of grandeur.

I wanted to get something off my chest as this is a spot where one can voice an opinion.

A creeping thought has entered my mind over the past few weeks that is NMFC are perennially going to be just making up the numbers. I do understand we are less than halfway through a list build but I’m having difficulty seeing us reaching the heights of a bulldogs or demons type renaissance.

What concerns me is that JHF, maybe TT and Powell aside I honestly can’t see a true potential a list league top 10 type, now it could be that we haven’t yet recruited drafted our elite guys but whilst we have many potentially good players there is still flaws in our next best group.

This season is a pretty big year for that next best group including Jy and LDU, these guys have been in the system for long enough and while they have elite games at times it’s hardly a week in week out thing that all the contenders have, if they are going to reach the elite level they probably have to do it soon or they mightn’t reach that level.

I mean we have been pretty nondescript for 22 years one top 4 finish in that time and even when there were the 2014 and 2015 finals runs happened personally I kind of deep down felt we weren’t winning a flag. Yeah we got hosed by the umps in Perth but I don’t think the hawks were losing that game.

I was quite bullish prior to the preseason matches but there seems to be some massive alarm bells.

Happy to be persuaded otherwise or agreed with. Genuinely interested to see others thoughts on this
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Had a similar epiphany towards the end of last season tbh, shortly after the game against Richmond iirc and sealing the spoon the week after v Sydney just confirmed it for me. It was like being woken up by having a bucket of ice dunked on my head because I realised I'd been deluding myself with "we'll surprise people this season" "our list is actually better than people realise" "we are only one or two years away" etc. year after year, which is why I've been avoiding this place like the plague this preseason to try and remain objective as to where we are at.

At the end of 2016 the general consensus was that we would drop down the ladder for 2-3 years to rebuild and then look to push for finals again, well now we are on the precipice of the 2022 season and barring a surprising turn of events it looks like will be finishing between 14-18th once again with a list that after all this time still has more holes than the bathroom cubicles at the Tender Touch.
We always talked about being in no mans land with Brad Scott but is this really any better? These last 2 seasons have been absolutely awful to sit through save for a few moments.

Yeah we can make a million justifications and arguments about how exciting our young players are and how they are high draft picks but the reality is every single team has exciting young players with potential. We keep mentally locking in draftees for 200 game careers based on very little while saying "just wait 2-3 years time until x player and x player reach their peak" and expecting it all to click only for it to never happen and the cycle to just begin again with the current batch of shiny new draftees. Suddenly 20 years have passed and we are still running in place on the proverbial hamster wheel exactly where we started thinking this time it will happen for us.

I know people will say we are doing things differently this time because we have access to 'elite talent' (unless we are planning on tanking for the foreseeable future and fielding a side comprised entirely of pick 1's though the difference really is negligible after the first round), but apart from dropping down a couple of draft positions is there really any evidence yet that things have actually changed?

I'm sure plenty will disagree but I'm just not as convinced as some yet, and until I see that we are starting to build a winning culture I probably won't be.
 
Heaps of fun said:
I take a few issues with it. One is that that AFL is a team game and that you don't really need more than one really exceptional player to win a flag, or in Richmond's case, a series of flags. You list multiple players that could end up that sort of superstar for us. Even if just JHF fulfils his potential we could be a very good side, assuming we're well coached and equipped with well-drilled footballers that play their role in a winning game plan.

My other big issue is that it just seems to be a pessimistic musing based on a lacklustre pre-season with no statistics or strong reasoning to back it up.

I think the real questions about our side going forward is whether Noble can keep growing and turn from a "teacher" (as he likes to call himself) to a ruthless AFL coach that wins many more games than he loses and if we can get some tall timber in our back six to be peaking at the same time our midfield does. Our potential to have gun mids and "top 10 players" is pretty far down my list of concerns considering how we've drafted the last few years.
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Well generally there is the need for at least a couple of a graders even the tigers had range, Riewoldt and Martin.

But generally it’s a bit of thinking out loud but I guess it was the extremely long way to say although it was pre season there’s some large alarm bells which got
Me thinking about the future key players of the club.

Sure it’s pessimistic hence I put it out there to discuss whether the pessimism had any basis.

Would you rather talk about teams having fights with other teams singing songs 😜
 

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Le Grille said:
Well generally there is the need for at least a couple of a graders even the tigers had range, Riewoldt and Martin.

But generally it’s a bit of thinking out loud but I guess it was the extremely long way to say although it was pre season there’s some large alarm bells which got
Me thinking about the future key players of the club.

Sure it’s pessimistic hence I put it out there to discuss whether the pessimism had any basis.

Would you rather talk about teams having fights with other teams singing songs 😜
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I think it's a bit pre-mature and I hope you are wrong but you will look like a very miserable genius if this rebuild does completely peter out. I will admit my mistake but I hope I never have to.

I guess what we're still talking about here is player development. How we turn great picks into great players. Average picks into good players etc. Sydney showed us that our football department is far behind theirs but theirs is very settled and ours has just been remoulded.

I think we will learn a lot about the side this year. We're going to want to see big years from guys like LDU, Simpkin, TT and Zurhaar and very good sophomore/debut years from guys like Powell, Phillips, Goater and JHF to get an idea if we're dealing with future champs or also-rans.
 
DrZaius said:
Had a similar epiphany towards the end of last season tbh, shortly after the game against Richmond iirc and sealing the spoon the week after v Sydney just confirmed it for me. It was like being woken up by having a bucket of ice dunked on my head because I realised I'd been deluding myself with "we'll surprise people this season" "our list is actually better than people realise" "we are only one or two years away" etc. year after year, which is why I've been avoiding this place like the plague this preseason to try and remain objective as to where we are at.

At the end of 2016 the general consensus was that we would drop down the ladder for 2-3 years to rebuild and then look to push for finals again, well now we are on the precipice of the 2022 season and barring a surprising turn of events it looks like will be finishing between 14-18th once again with a list that after all this time still has more holes than the bathroom cubicles at the Tender Touch.
We always talked about being in no mans land with Brad Scott but is this really any better? These last 2 seasons have been absolutely awful to sit through save for a few moments.

Yeah we can make a million justifications and arguments about how exciting our young players are and how they are high draft picks but the reality is every single team has exciting young players with potential. We keep mentally locking in draftees for 200 game careers based on very little while saying "just wait 2-3 years time until x player and x player reach their peak" and expecting it all to click only for it to never happen and the cycle to just begin again with the current batch of shiny new draftees. Suddenly 20 years have passed and we are still running in place on the proverbial hamster wheel exactly where we started thinking this time it will happen for us.

I know people will say we are doing things differently this time because we have access to 'elite talent' (unless we are planning on tanking for the foreseeable future and fielding a side comprised entirely of pick 1's though the difference really is negligible after the first round), but apart from dropping down a couple of draft positions is there really any evidence yet that things have actually changed?

I'm sure plenty will disagree but I'm just not as convinced as some yet, and until I see that we are starting to build a winning culture I probably won't be.
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Ummm bestie u left my Snapchat left on read🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲
 
It is actually ok to be concerned and you have every right to question where we are at. However...

It will take a long time, a very long time, to get this club into a position where it can walk out on the ground, in a finals-like atmosphere, look directly at their opponents and think, 'we are going to absolutely belt yas'. It has been more than 20 years since we've had that thought as supporters, and our players had that thought on the regular. It wasn't a matter of 'if', it was a matter of 'how much'.

The glaring issue (probably) is the club has not experienced the ultimate success for so long, it probably has forgotten what it feels like. It never felt like we had the mindset, the ability or the drive to get back there under Scott or Laidley. It felt, 'we will come back fitter and better' but what does that mean? Are we not trying our hardest already?

Widespread talent is one thing we haven't had at our disposal pre-Noble. We had a weak backline, a weak forward line, too many slow mids and it took a long time to get some form of talent spread when Scott took over. I think a lot of people forget that we had very little to look forward to when it came to Laidley --> Scott era. How often, did we as supporters, go into a match thinking 'yep we got this'? Besides the guys (you know their names) that were there for us when we needed them, did we have the same confidence in the blokes that we developed around them? How often, did we think, '* we need Boomer to get us going again' or 's**t we need Petrie to go back and help'. It was always the same blokes that weren't even built by the coaches that had them, that would save our arses. Time and time again. We didn't have our other players carrying that load, they followed but couldn't lead.

In 2016, when Wells got injured, how badly did we fall from that? We played him injured against the Saints to get us over the line because we fell apart when he wasn't on the ground...

I feel like under Laidley and Scott, we never had the right mix, the right players, the right mindset, the right everything. There was always 'something'. I get the off-field stuff but 20 years of 'well, I'm proud of the boys...' * that!

The list, right now, looks ten times better than what we had back then. If we fail this time, we can absolutely be furious at our club and get our pitchforks out. For now, I would be perhaps a little concerned, but not to the point of being doubtful. There's still so much room for improvement and I am waiting for them to reach that ceiling, or disappoint me otherwise and show we are full of crap. I hope it is not the latter.

Go North.
 
Le Grille said:
So the 2022 season is almost upon us and that means 18 sets of fans start dreaming of the possibilities and (generally, well apart from one team) delusions of grandeur.

I wanted to get something off my chest as this is a spot where one can voice an opinion.

A creeping thought has entered my mind over the past few weeks that is NMFC are perennially going to be just making up the numbers. I do understand we are less than halfway through a list build but I’m having difficulty seeing us reaching the heights of a bulldogs or demons type renaissance.

What concerns me is that JHF, maybe TT and Powell aside I honestly can’t see a true potential a list league top 10 type, now it could be that we haven’t yet recruited drafted our elite guys but whilst we have many potentially good players there is still flaws in our next best group.

This season is a pretty big year for that next best group including Jy and LDU, these guys have been in the system for long enough and while they have elite games at times it’s hardly a week in week out thing that all the contenders have, if they are going to reach the elite level they probably have to do it soon or they mightn’t reach that level.

I mean we have been pretty nondescript for 22 years one top 4 finish in that time and even when there were the 2014 and 2015 finals runs happened personally I kind of deep down felt we weren’t winning a flag. Yeah we got hosed by the umps in Perth but I don’t think the hawks were losing that game.

I was quite bullish prior to the preseason matches but there seems to be some massive alarm bells.

Happy to be persuaded otherwise or agreed with. Genuinely interested to see others thoughts on this
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Good post and you have every reason to be concerned given the absence of Cunners, Taz and the inevitable decline of Goldie which looks like it might come quickly now.

We were the worst team in it by a long way last year and given the above 3 players mentioned we have gotten worse - not better.

Where will the improvement come from? We know it won't come from that back 6 we continue to put out on the park so it will have to come from the mids and/or the forwards.

Mids - JHF will be a gun - big tick. Very confident in Powell - Jy and TT should continue to improve - tick, tick, tick. LDU, Phillips and Sleevo - jury remains out. On this basis with the significant Cunners out and Goldie regressing we might break even in the overall mids compared to last year. Not horrible - but no real net improvement.

In the forwards the big hope is Comben - however he seems to be taking a bit longer to get himself right compared to 4 weeks ago when he was playing all the intra clubs. CCJ looks ok but plenty of work needed before he becomes a week in/week out reliable kph so no real overall improvement expected this year in the forwards.

Net net result is that we will probably be around the same level as we were last year - and of course any serious injuries to a BMac or Larkey could see us really struggle (last year Good Friday sort of struggle).

We have a long ways to go to get out of the bottom bracket - let alone even think about contending ...but hey we are a chance to win this week!
 
Le Grille said:
Well generally there is the need for at least a couple of a graders even the tigers had range, Riewoldt and Martin.

But generally it’s a bit of thinking out loud but I guess it was the extremely long way to say although it was pre season there’s some large alarm bells which got
Me thinking about the future key players of the club.

Sure it’s pessimistic hence I put it out there to discuss whether the pessimism had any basis.

Would you rather talk about teams having fights with other teams singing songs 😜
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Why do you think we won’t have “at least a couple of A graders”? Those flag winning teams have multiple A graders but not often multiple top-10 types. Oliver and Petracca might both be top 10. Bont is but I’m not sure about McRae. Dusty was for the tiggers but I don’t think the rest of their big 4 were. Buddy yes for Hawks but i don’t think the next group were in terms of individual brilliance. Voss & Aker maybe. Judd & cousins maybe. Carey the only one in our 90s side.

We’ve got the talent. It’s a matter of getting them continuity together.
 
Every year you turn over at least 4 to 6 players. If we're five years off a premiership, then that's another 20 to 30 players who will come off our list before our next flag. I think most of us are expecting that number to be closer to 30 than 20 as well. Now obviously there'll be some players who we add before then that'll make up part of that number, but once you start doing the math you realize that a lot of our current list won't be around for our next premiership.

On the other side of that equation is the 20 to 30 players that we bring in. That's potentially another top-five draft pick this year, that's the marquee free agents once the club is successful enough to attract good players, that's four additional first-round and second-round picks, and that's also potentially 10-15 of our 22 on the day of our next Grand Final win.

It's not about who doesn't make it, but who does if that makes sense. LDU, Larkey, Stephenson, Phillips, Goater etc could all be out of the league in a few years, but if Thomas, Horne-Francis, Powell, and somebody else can stamp themselves as elite players then that'll go a long way towards getting us our fifth flag. Rawlings and us fans shouldn't be getting too emotionally attached to this current crop. You can look at the round one team for Melbourne in 2016 and they were the second-youngest team in the AFL that week, yet only six of those players were also playing against the Bulldogs in the Grand Final last year. That could easily be our same reality.

I can't quite work out if I'm agreeing with Le Grille or disagreeing, but it seems like a relevant enough thought for a thread focused on ramblings.
 
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shintemaster said:
Wouldn't argue with much of your assessment above (ignoring players that haven't had the opportunity to show their ability). Personally I would be surprised if we do much damage this year unless we have close to a dream run with our mid aged senior core - ie. basically zero injuries to LDU, TT, Larkey, Zurhaar, Stephenson, Mckay, Hall etc. I do agree with other posters that I see this as a 3-5 year journey, difference is that I see 20 & 21 as years 1 & 2 - I expect that this year we start to see some consolidation and ideally a few runs of back to back wins and end up well out of the bottom 4 (injuries permitting). If not this year then 23 we must see genuine results and a dangerous team, even if not in finals. It would be Noble's 3rd season with a lot of list management done prior to his start and first season.
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As of now we potentially have 3 players from 2016, 6 from 2017 (!), 4 from 2018, 4 from 2019, 5 from 2020 and 5 from last year.

That's 27 players! Not counting McKay.

The rebuild has heaps of work done already. Its a matter of getting the game plans right. That's maybe two more seasons to perfect it. This one and next year. That should enable us to fill list holes and what have you as well, chase free agents etc.

The key to this is really is how we go with the 2019 draft - Mahony looks good so if Perez and Comben can get on the park and have the careers we want them too then ... wow. Add McGuiness becoming a half decent intercepting back/swingman and we've more than nailed it. If the first three get the next two seasons under their belt then whatever happens with McGuiness we will be in a very good position.

We may end up with (at least) 7 regular senior players from 2016 and 17. Add Thomas from 2018 and maybe one of Taylor, Scott and Atu makes it.

So Perez and Comben coming good change the whole way those four drafts pan out. Comben (or someone else) as a mobile talented CHF is vital and if Perez can play like he started out after all his injuries he will be a match winner off half back. We could end up with three KPDs, X rucking and McKay and MacGuiness (plus Corr for another 3 or 4 years.) That is our spine sorted and an attacking backline (depending on how Bonar, Hayden, Perez, Atu and McGuiness work out.) If it doesn't work out we have to fill those holes with imported players. We could end up with Thomas and Mahony as the only regular senior players from the 2018 and 2019 drafts in a worst case scenario.
 
I think you'll see improvements from individuals but it's more or less gonna be the same as last year.

Bottom four'ish.

Team needs good players from top to bottom with a few superstars that stick to the coaches game plan/style of footy diligently from the start to the end of a game. That kind of maturity takes time.

We're not gonna be like Lions of the early 2000's or the Cats in which they had stupid amounts of talent in the respective teams.
 
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Le Grille said:
Well generally there is the need for at least a couple of a graders even the tigers had range, Riewoldt and Martin.

But generally it’s a bit of thinking out loud but I guess it was the extremely long way to say although it was pre season there’s some large alarm bells which got
Me thinking about the future key players of the club.

Sure it’s pessimistic hence I put it out there to discuss whether the pessimism had any basis.

Would you rather talk about teams having fights with other teams singing songs 😜
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Rance only played in one of their three flags 2017. He missed the rest of 2019 after an early season knee injury then retired.
 
They had Cotchin, Lynch and a very good backline without Rance as well as all those average players.
 
RobZombie said:
Why do you think we won’t have “at least a couple of A graders”? Those flag winning teams have multiple A graders but not often multiple top-10 types. Oliver and Petracca might both be top 10. Bont is but I’m not sure about McRae. Dusty was for the tiggers but I don’t think the rest of their big 4 were. Buddy yes for Hawks but i don’t think the next group were in terms of individual brilliance. Voss & Aker maybe. Judd & cousins maybe. Carey the only one in our 90s side.

We’ve got the talent. It’s a matter of getting them continuity together.
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Simon Black as well. They were a very talented side. Maybe not Brown and Lappin in the actual top 10. But the other three probably were.

What about Geelong?
 
It seems to me that, without even the first bounce of anyone's season, this thread might just be a tad premature.

Judging this years list, on last years performances, especially after the heaviest of culls at the end of 2020, in my view is not a very reliable basis to judge this years list and how good it might become.

Much has changed, not least the coach now has 22 games experience, knows a lot more about the strengths and weaknesses of the players and likewise each of the players knows a lot more about each other and what they may or may not expect from one another. Every year, at every club, one or more players emerges from the shadows and elevates their performance/s to a new level.

Who that or they will be at North, is anyone's guess, but it will happen and unless we have recruiters, who have no idea whatsoever, like all teams that go through a thorough from the ground up re-build, the core is coming together for a very good football side.

Whether that side will ever be good enough to win a flag, is an entirely different matter, because winning flags is bloody hard to do.

Everyone is falling over themselves at how good Melbourne is, having won last years flag in a canter against the Dogs. They all conveniently forget, that if not for one of the stupidest acts ever on a football field by Brad Close in the dying seconds of Round 23 at Kardinia Park last year, Melbourne might not have even got to the GF, let alone won it.
 
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