First North guernsey - who’s number did you have on your back?

Apr 24, 2013
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Arden Street Hill
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North Melbourne
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Essendon Lawn Bowls Club
Was it hot and itchy in the early part of Autumn/Spring?

Welcome back fwiw. Who did u pi$$ off this time?

1) Don't remember.
2) Thanks.
3) Some snowflake. There's so many I forget.
 
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# 15 dalsanto.. l never worn any guernseys prior to that 1. l didn't have a specific player till then..As great a player that he was l wouldn't even buy 1 and get #18 on it. l own a few but never worn any...
 
Number 8 for Phil Krakouer.
Followed by 9 for Marty Larkin.

My son sported the number 12 for LT for a while.
I had the 8 for Phil too. It was an iron on which I did myself and it cocked up a bit and wasn’t completely flat, kind of stuck to itself.

After a while I tried to rip it off to do it again but parts were stuck and never going to budge so there were just odd black bits left. I never bothered with numbers on subsequent jumpers, don’t know why.
 
My understanding of it is that Peter Bell went into the 2000 season without a contract. He was simply asking that the club give him a contract on the same very modest money but just with some employment security. He wanted to take out a home loan so he and his Perth-born girlfriend (who would become his wife) could set down some roots and establish themselves. No bank would give him a mortgage without an employment contract. The club told him to wait until the end of the season. Remember that he starred in the 1999 grand final, he was 24 years old, and he actually won the Syd Barker that season (2000). The club refused to negotiate and meanwhile, his girlfriend's father became very ill and she rushed home to be at his bedside. West Coast and Fremantle both became aware of his situation and they waved massive contracts in his face. He refused them and went back to North and pleaded with them to simply give him a contract so he could get a mortgage. He felt he owed North for saving his career as you mentioned. The offers from West Coast and Freo kept escalating, and then at the end of the season, he and his family decided that enough was enough and he accepted the Freo deal. Only at that point did the club decide to start negotiating. They offered to match the Freo deal. They could have secured Bell for less than half that amount if they'd only agreed to be fair. I'm not sure, but I think Bell's girlfriend's father may have died. By that stage, the go-home factor was well in play for both of them, and Bell was well and truly over the feeling that he needed to be loyal to an organisation that had disrespected him all year. He signed the Freo deal and Greg Miller sent out a letter to all members suggesting that Bell was a mercenary.
I remember when this unfolded and how shattered I was.
Belly was a favourite and to leave so soon after 99 heroics hurt.
I honestly can’t remember which club champions left on a high other than Longmire and Fairley.
No wonder our ex players want nothing to do with us.
 
Another Blight disciple here.

Then next jumper I moved on to #6 for Crazy Arnie.

Still have my duffel coat from when I was a kid - 'Jim 3 Krakouer' on the back. And among the dozen or so player names sewn on the sleeves is some bloke by the name of Andrew Demetriou. Man, did I pick the wrong pack of embroidered names that day.
 

Passmore

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May 22, 2001
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Gary Dempsey’s 24. Granddad was devastated that I’d ditched his beloved Carlton, but still entered me in the competition to win a jumper in Inside Footy every week. Got home from school one day to find a parcel addressed to me, and the glorious vertical stripes inside with a note of Congratulations from Inside Football. Absolute legend that man.

Mum ironed numbers on to a pillowcase and sewed it on the back. I fricken loved that jumper.
That's how my mum did it too.

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk
 
Blakey, Rock, most of the squad that were there in 2001-02 and the Carey saga.
We havnt mended nor brought past players back into the fold who were disgruntled or annoyed at how they left the club.
Not to mention the send off thrashings we gave some champions over the years.
 

Colbys Boots

Premium Gold
Oct 3, 2017
2,936
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AFL Club
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Blakey, Rock, most of the squad that were there in 2001-02 and the Carey saga.
We havnt mended nor brought past players back into the fold who were disgruntled or annoyed at how they left the club.
Not to mention the send off thrashings we gave some champions over the years.

Yes, yes, let's have another official mend the bridges and welcome back Duck function. Because that hasn't been milked a million times.
 

roo blitz

All Australian
Mar 4, 2007
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melbourne
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The first was Malcolm Blight no15 on my jumper and then on my duffel coat as well. Then Phil Krakouer no 8 on my next duffel coat. Also had Bruce Abernethy 12 on a Nth Melb windcheater. Then I got a another jumper with Darren Steele no 7 which became Dean Laidley's number. Still got that jumper.
 
Apr 24, 2013
81,024
153,170
Arden Street Hill
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Other Teams
Essendon Lawn Bowls Club
Got my first guernsey in 1962. Wore number 6--John Dugdale. Wore it until it didn't fit any more. Was laughed at and ridiculed at school where the majority of students followed Collingwood, Essendon and Melbourne.

K7 earned the right of passage.
 

Duck king Carey

Debutant
Sep 10, 2015
143
372
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3. Jimmy (sleeveless)
8. Phil (long sleeve)
16. John Mc Carthy, at the time when I got the number, 1990, my mate who was a pies supporter said you should get Carey or Longmires number they will be better. I remember at games in the 90s other north supporters asking me, why Matthew Capuano, and I'd say he's a great ruck man.
 
Apr 24, 2013
81,024
153,170
Arden Street Hill
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Other Teams
Essendon Lawn Bowls Club
Actually the famous number 7 worn by the great Haydn Bunton.


...and "The Baron"

They used to have great nicknames back in those days.
 
Got my first guernsey in 1962. Wore number 6--John Dugdale. Wore it until it didn't fit any more. Was laughed at and ridiculed at school where the majority of students followed Collingwood, Essendon and Melbourne.

I was also given no 6, John Dugdale, but by the time it fit (and I understood footy), it was a very young Arnold Briedis getting around in the 6.
 
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