NORTH Melbourne’s re-signing of Brad Scott is either belief the Roos coach can extend the club’s premiership window beyond next season or confidence he’s the right man to rebuild its list.
After back-to-back preliminary final appearances, Scott was rewarded with
a two-year contract extension on Monday that will keep him at the Kangaroos until 2018.
Scott said he was “ecstatic” that North had faith in him “taking this group forward” and declared his team was eager for another crack at a Grand Final berth next year.
But how much more forward can this current squad go?
When Round 1 kicks off on March 24, the Kangaroos will have the second oldest team in the competition — as was the case in 2015 — and six players aged 30-plus, the second most behind Fremantle.
If North Melbourne don’t win the premiership next year, who of Brent Harvery, 37, Jarrad Waite, 33, Drew Petrie, 33, Nick Dal Santo, 32, Michael Firrito and Daniel Wells, 31, will be there in 2017 and 2018?
In an exclusive column for the
Herald Sun, recruiting guru Gary Buckenara recently said
North needed to win the premiership either next season or in 2017 given its key players will be 30-plus.
Harvey, Petrie, Waite, Dal Santo, Firrito, Wells and Thompson, who turns 30 in 2016, are all critical in Brad Scott’s flag push, Buckenara wrote.
“If North Melbourne is going to win a premiership it’s going to be in the next year or two but the problem with that is living for today is a problem for tomorrow. And tomorrow can come very quickly sometimes and really bite you,” he said.
“A decision needs to be made in list management as to whether they head to the trade table or free agency in the next year or so to replace these guys or do they go to the draft?
“If it’s the latter then that puts a lot of pressure on in terms of ladder position and whether they stay competitive.”
Another concern is Petrie and Waite are key forwards and Thompson a key defender who they will soon need to replace.
If last month’s national draft is anything to go by, the Roos have one eye on the future after they picked up 199cm defensive prospect Ben McKay.
But they must look to recruit another tall forward after next season to inevitably lead the attack with Ben Brown.
North was not as active in this year’s trade period as last year but managed to snare 21-year-old midfield jet Jed Anderson from Hawthorn.
Scott admitted there was no guarantee the Roos would go one step better than last season’s “bitterly disappointing” preliminary final loss to West Coast.
Despite playing off in successive preliminary finals, making the finals hasn’t been an easy task for North Melbourne.
They weren’t in the top eight until Round 17 last season and hung onto eighth spot after the home-and-away rounds before riding their luck to reach the penultimate weekend with wins over Richmond, which suffers elimination final stage fright, and an injury-depleted Sydney.
And their inconsistency in 2014 denied them a top-four finish.
If North fails to make the finals next year then the rebuild could begin as soon as 2017.
Scott, who will start his seventh year in charge of the Roos next season, no doubt deserved his contract extension but the challenge will be keeping the team competitive while building for the future.