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Analysis Is the AFL responsible for North Melbourne's poor performance?

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Until the mid 2010s North were always a competitive middle of the road side.. they won their first 9 games in 2016 after making 2 prelims in a row.

I guess they changed strategy after that from being a workman like team to rebuilding and hopefully swing up and get a flag... that upswing just hasn't happened in the last 10 years
 

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Gutting the list circa 2016 has a bit to do with it.

Hard to build a strong side when you diss all the leaders at the same time.
 
NetworkNerd said:
Until the mid 2010s North were always a competitive middle of the road side.. they won their first 9 games in 2016 after making 2 prelims in a row.

I guess they changed strategy after that from being a workman like team to rebuilding and hopefully swing up and get a flag... that upswing just hasn't happened in the last 10 years
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Apparently they were shit scared of bottoming out, it was a concerted tactic to stave off any excuses to have them moved to the Gold Coast.

They were also in a heap of debt too and needed to play finals every year to keep memberships and sponsors ticking.

I think the idea was they knew they’d never win a flag, but they just had to sacrifice any long term success to make the eight every year.
 

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It's hard to point at a single cause for how it's gotten this bad, it's been a lot of things, some that were outside our control and some that weren't. It's easy to point to things in hindsight and ask how anyone could have been so stupid, but there weren't really people making those calls at the time. Appointing a very young, mostly untried coach in Rhyce Shaw could've been a good move but the COVID hub was the worst possible circumstance for a brand new coach who had yet to find his footing and develop a stable system around himself. David Noble was a horrible coach but he was appointed on the recommendation of Paul Roos who the AFL sent in to try to fix the club, trusting that he would actually be committed to that job instead of immediately dusting his hands off and ****ing off to Hawaii. Cutting the leaders we cut when we did was probably a mistake, but then there's random freak occurrences like Ben Cunnington getting testicular cancer, or Jaidyn Stephenson breaking a hip falling off his BMX, or going back further there's shit like Ben Jacobs getting the world's weirdest head knock right at the beginning of a long-term deal and never making it back, or the tragedy with Majak Daw.

Looking at the draft hands we've had it looks amazing, and then you see how every single time we had a top pick there was an academy or father-son, or in several cases multiple, that we probably would've preferred to take had that been possible. Ugle-Hagan, Darcy, Daicos, both Ashcrofts, Jed Walter, absolute guns and players who would've perfectly filled specific list needs and made us more competitive immediately. Meanwhile the only top academy player we've lucked into turned out to be a serial harasser of women who spat the dummy every time we tried to get him to stop. We might've had Ryley Sanders too, but of course a Victorian club asking to select an eligible academy player in the first round was the stupidest, most ridiculous request ever. Until they reversed that decision less than a year later because Essendon had one coming through.

The assistance the AFL has given us over this period has been talked up like a massive advantage, absolute stacks of first round picks that we irresponsibly pissed away like some dole bludger ripped from the pages of the Herald Sun, but in reality what we got was a future 2nd and 3rd we had to trade for players (sent to Freo for perenially injured Griffin Logue and honest trier Darcy Tucker), a second rounder in one of the most compromised drafts not to feature a brand new club, and two future second rounders that the AFL officially stipulated could be taken off us if we didn't trade them and they decided we didn't deserve them anymore once the draft came around (to simplify, we traded these 3 picks for the picks used to take Wil Dawson and Riley Hardeman who are probably years away from moving the needle). Compare that to just a few years earlier when the Suns, who were bad but nowhere near as bad, got a 2000s-style first round priority pick allowing them to take the guy who's now their captain.

So no, I don't think it's an AFL conspiracy, but they probably would've done more had it been a club that certain members of the administration deem more valuable to their business interests. They've been happy to give us the shit end of the stick with the fixture consequences of their stupid Opening Round farce, or call every single kick we make not 15 as part of their rule directive of the week, but I think it has more to do with there not being an Eddie McGuire that can spark a public outrage when we're mistreated than any secret sabotage plot. If they really wanted to kill us, they'd do what they did with Fitzroy: kick us out of our home ground for no reason then refuse to sign off on new sponsorships and game-selling schemes while we slowly go further into debt until there's nothing left, then pretend they did us a favour by slapping our branding on the latest failed franchise.
 
Quivorir said:
****ing insane that people genuinely believe the AFL is out to get them.
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Maybe not get them.

But the AFL support some clubs and want them to succeed more than others.

Hence why reigning premiers and grand finalists conti ue getting priority access to players ahead of other clubs.

The AFL has destroyed the draft and needed to rectify the handicap it was putting on rebuilding clubs.

Hence the two years of assistance packages for North.

Unfortunately those assistance packages have not moved the dial.

Feel the soft cap cuts have adversely affected rebuilding clubs more so with lots of kids needing investment in their development.
 
GenericUsername202 said:
North only exist because of the AFL. Be happy that they're able to keep you afloat, because your club would fold within months without them.
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What a stupid comment.
Without the AFL there's no competition to play in, every club would fold.
 

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Can't believe OP's still stuck in the Anger part of the cycle, unless this is one of many such cycles.

North shafted themselves with their appalling list build strategy. None of that is the AFL's fault.

Their refusal to draft talls at the pointy end of the draft and just focus on mids & HFF/mids completely cooked them to the point they're now bringing in talls who'll be ready by the time their senior minds + Larkey and Xerri are looking at retiring.

Whoever thought going for mids before talls was a complete and utter moron and it appears they were only going for the 'sugar hit' a top of the draft mid can provide early on in their career that a tall generally cannot.

And before anyone tries to claim there weren't any decent talls at the top of any of their drafts, they had multiple drafts they could've split picks to do so, or simply made a slight reach.

Up until the 2023 draft, they hadn't drafted a tall in the first round since McDonald, off the top of my head.
 
The AFL didn’t make you trade a top two pick for a prospective tall defender

Granted he looks like he’ll be pretty good but surely you could’ve got more out of pick two than two second rounders
 
lalorGOAT said:
How are they doing that?
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Well the current reigning premier gets priority access to players every year don't they?

Whilst also recently landing two top class father son mids plus Fletcher cheap.

PLUS access to free agents.

At the same time whilst winning flags and playing in grand finals.

Those are all AFL policies being applied.

AFL policies that are allowing the best teams to keep getting better at the expense of teams not travelling well at all.

The AFL needs to back off assisting the top teams getting better with policies that are creating an unequal playing field.

Why the hell should the premier be getting any assistance at all?
 
cybercrab said:
In my opinion the AFL wont allow North to succeed, what do you think?
Click to expand...
Can you elaborate on why your opinion is that the AFL won’t allow North to succeed?
 
The AFL is giving them everything to sort themselves out & to a degree even the media lays off.

Pick 3 for Ben McKay was a joke, yes it’s secret herbs and spices. But if the AFL was out to get north, they have given them an end of first round & most afl fans would have gone “that seems about right for Ben McKay”

The AFL has continued with them in Good Friday footy, which has the potential to be another one of those must watch days on the calendar, however right now it is being held up by the appeal & marketing.

Yes the first 2 were ok, however since then, it’s just been an absolutely shocking match, unless you want to enjoy watching North get hammered. The AFL had the right idea with the match initially, leave out the other clubs that get blockbusters, so North went through St Kilda & the Dogs, without the game ever cementing itself. So Carlton was put in as the “big club” to carry it. Maybe the AFL was wrong in dropping St Kilda & the Dogs. Should have dropped North. Give the day to St Kilda & WB, who don’t get any marquee games. Carlton has enough, share them around.

The media, rightly so every year when Carlton was incredibly bad raised the Carlton v Richmond opener and removing Carlton. Melbourne also had questions around Queens Birthday at one point & even Essendon with ANZAC day. So it’s irrelevant if it was “North’s idea”

If the AFL is trying to punish or kill off North they are doing a shocking job of it, they could do so much more, they could have blocked the ludicrous deal to sell a home game to WA only 6 months ago. I’d argue they are doing everything they can & North is too incompetent to help themselves
 

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Analysis Is the AFL responsible for North Melbourne's poor performance?

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