It is officially a crisis.

[Only Forwards]

In 156 years North has been in crisis more than it’s been out of it (so I’m not sure crisis is even the right word).

Yes but the players and coaches need to own the backs to the wall and fight mentality that made us survive those 156 years.

Right now as a collective they’re not. They’re just continually rolling over.

 

[TheKanga]

I hope the media comes for us hard
As we need pressure to force change.

 

[hcd199]

I hope the media comes for us hard
As we need pressure to force change.

I've always detested wanting North to do badly for any reason, including as a catalyst to ensure change when we're down - the idea that you 'paper over the cracks' by doing a little less poorly is a problem with mindset afterwards, not with the slightly better outcome in the moment. I stand by that completely, but yesterday, as Carlton just kept smugly strolling it straight in from the centre bounce in the second half, might be the first time I've ever felt like I wanted the opposition to keep doing that - to just break us so blatantly that the only choices were to lift in response in the moment, or make our institutional apathy obvious enough to force major change going forward. Not something I'm keen to ever feel again, to be honest, and ultimately the emotion is hollow - if we were going to be provoked by catastrophic failure into meaningful change that leads to improvement, it would've happened well before now.

 

[The Talent Scout]

I wish I wasnt so invested. Wreaks me when something out of my control totally controls me.

From Sonya down this house needs a cull. Bring in really footy people who can develop and get the group wanting to win.

I mean our own ****ing song says we come out to play just for recreation sake to pass the ****ing time away and thats exactly what we are doing week in week out.

We can piss that off as well.

Clarkson isnt our man. Lol 2026 we should be competing is a ducking pipe dream. Our rebuild needs a rebuild.

Trust me LETSGOKANGAS I know what you are saying, and this may not help, but no more culling on a large scale, we have already done this with players in 2020 and we did it to such an extent that its part of the reason we are in this mess even though it had to be done, I feel we should have kept a few older experienced players to help the kids.

Sonya is not the problem, she has done everything to try and help our club but even though supporters don't want to hear about it, it does take time and when we have losses like yesterday, I understand, the knives come out for everyone. We cleaned out our support coaches and got new guys in and that also expands to fitness staff. Many after Good Friday will no doubt firmly disagree with this, but we must and I stress MUST stay the course.

That doesn't mean we can't get angry or ask WTFH, but we need to stay together, at the end of the year take our required 3 selections in the national draft but focus on the trade period with a couple of players to come into our team, good experienced players towards the end of their career, finally use the money to offset the imbalance in our squad that last year was helped by the inclusion of Luke, Caleb and Jack, also the "No first round draft pick" for this year comment has to be kicked out the door, in my eyes we made the correct decision in getting Matty and we can trade 2 years of trade picks for established players which is what I think we will do so that is not even a problem.

Alastair, apart from the racism saga, he is still in his infancy, I know what people are thinking but he too has to be given time, I don't believe for one second he's passed it, that's just a copout, some people out of anger want to see an angry "Clarko", show some disappointment to the fans, he is still the same man, has the desire, the smarts, its just that with our young squad he's going about it a different way, he knows what he is doing. Yes anger is get rid of everyone but since we've done that we must now stabilize our team. As I've already spoken about, the games up to the half way point {round 12} will be a very interesting watch in one way or another as to how we respond and go about it.

 

[Firebat]

I don't believe for one second he's passed it,

What gives you the confidence he still has it…?

He looked cooked for a few years at the Hawks and made numerous questionable recruitment calls & his game style was seemingly outdated.

Analogue player in a digital world.

 

[LETSGOKANGAS]

Trust me LETSGOKANGAS I know what you are saying, and this may not help, but no more culling on a large scale, we have already done this with players in 2020 and we did it to such an extent that its part of the reason we are in this mess even though it had to be done, I feel we should have kept a few older experienced players to help the kids.

Sonya is not the problem, she has done everything to try and help our club but even though supporters don't want to hear about it, it does take time and when we have losses like yesterday, I understand, the knives come out for everyone. We cleaned out our support coaches and got new guys in and that also expands to fitness staff. Many after Good Friday will no doubt firmly disagree with this, but we must and I stress MUST stay the course.

That doesn't mean we can't get angry or ask WTFH, but we need to stay together, at the end of the year take our required 3 selections in the national draft but focus on the trade period with a couple of players to come into our team, good experienced players towards the end of their career, finally use the money to offset the imbalance in our squad that last year was helped by the inclusion of Luke, Caleb and Jack, also the "No first round draft pick" for this year comment has to be kicked out the door, in my eyes we made the correct decision in getting Matty and we can trade 2 years of trade picks for established players which is what I think we will do so that is not even a problem.

Alastair, apart from the racism saga, he is still in his infancy, I know what people are thinking but he too has to be given time, I don't believe for one second he's passed it, that's just a copout, some people out of anger want to see an angry "Clarko", show some disappointment to the fans, he is still the same man, has the desire, the smarts, its just that with our young squad he's going about it a different way, he knows what he is doing. Yes anger is get rid of everyone but since we've done that we must now stabilize our team. As I've already spoken about, the games up to the half way point {round 12} will be a very interesting watch in one way or another as to how we respond and go about it.

Not wrong. Lynch mob anger just want heads to roll. Probably one of the worst courses of action.

Definitely looking forward to senior player replacement, especially with players who have a heart. George W intent.

Just cant see it though. The team is so behind I dont think time will fix it.

Staying on course is equally as bad as culling because the course is misguided and misdirected. Its the wrong course.

Man I hope Im totally wrong.

 

[archereleven]

Last month he was BOG ahead of every other talented indigenous player in the country.

Pulls on a North jumper and it all turns to shit. There is clearly something wrong with our environment.

It's dead set half the problem. The skills are there imo, but nobody has confidence in anybody else or themselves atm. It is a culture of frailty, timidness and losing.

There isn't a single ruthless person in the establishment except Brady with his ridiculous contract terms

 

[Rod Stroker]

It's dead set half the problem. The skills are there imo, but nobody has confidence in anybody else or themselves atm. It is a culture of frailty, timidness and losing.

There isn't a single ruthless person in the establishment except Brady with his ridiculous contract terms

It looks to be a culture of tolerance and acceptance. Of poor standards. The performances and results are evidence of this.

And Brady isn't ruthless. He's submissive. A Pushover.

 

[Disco Dew]

I wish I wasnt so invested. Wreaks me when something out of my control totally controls me.

I’ve reached the point where my investment starts and ends on game day. A few more performances like the last couple of weeks and I won’t even bother with game day.
I’m not letting this bullshit rule my life anymore

 

[archereleven]

It looks to be a culture of tolerance and acceptance. Of poor standards. The performances and results are evidence of this.

And Brady isn't ruthless. He's submissive. A Pushover.

I know Snoz is a pushover, I was just taking the piss.

We have seen all of our top players have several games where they put it all together and play fantastically, even tear games apart, but this culture of loss acceptance and "we'll get 'em next time" is holding them back in a big way.

Why can't a 4x premiership coach arrest this mindset and instill a hardness through the group. Is he being held back by club policy after Noble tore the group a new arse?

Whatever is going on is deeply rooted and the players and coaches seem helpless.

 

[Rod Stroker]

I think some questions need to be asked of Viney. He is responsible for the football program at the club, and we've gone backwards in the years he's been there in all areas... recruitment, development, coaching..

 

[ferball]

I know Snoz is a pushover, I was just taking the piss.

We have seen all of our top players have several games where they put it all together and play fantastically, even tear games apart, but this culture of loss acceptance and "we'll get 'em next time" is holding them back in a big way.

Why can't a 4x premiership coach arrest this mindset and instill a hardness through the group. Is he being held back by club policy after Noble tore the group a new arse?

Whatever is going on is deeply rooted and the players and coaches seem helpless.

Just yelling at people isn't gonna make them magically mentally tough.

Frankly if tearing them a new arseh*le worked then Noble might still be coaching.

Have you seen that footage of Barassi in the 3q time huddle in the 1975 GF?

 

[koshari]

Just yelling at people isn't gonna make them magically mentally tough.

Frankly if tearing them a new arseh*le worked then Noble might still be coaching.

Have you seen that footage of Barassi in the 3q time huddle in the 1975 GF?

"And daryl, you probably dont even know what iam talking about......"

The punishment we would get would be 10 sets of 220s after training.

 

[archereleven]

Just yelling at people isn't gonna make them magically mentally tough.

Frankly if tearing them a new arseh*le worked then Noble might still be coaching.

Have you seen that footage of Barassi in the 3q time huddle in the 1975 GF?

I haven't seen him give a single spray to the playing group so I'm assuming it's either off the table or he isnt really invested, but I don't get to any games either to see the huddles

Shirley a spray from a 4x flag coach holds more weight than a 1st time coach...

Yep, enjoy it every time I watch it lol

 

[ferball]

"And daryl, you probably dont even know what iam talking about......"

The punishment we would get would be 10 sets of 220s after training.

He didn't say that then. That's from a different spray. LOL.

It wasn't even a spray in that GF huddle. It was a rev up. He didn't yell at them, he yelled .... with them. For lack of a better term.

He fired them up for the last quarter.

We haven't started a game properly fired up for a long time We might have done it once or twice last year and we haven't done it regularly since 2019.

 

[ferball]

I haven't seen him give a single spray to the playing group so I'm assuming it's either off the table or he isnt really invested, but I don't get to any games either to see the huddles

Shirley a spray from a 4x flag coach holds more weight than a 1st time coach...

Yep, enjoy it every time I watch it lol

Its not a spray.

He's telling them they'll make the proudest coach in league history if they out and make one more immense effort.

Its the opposite of a spray. He's just yelling about it cos he's off his head and doesn't really know how else to express what he's feeling. There probably isn't any other way that's gonna energise players either.

The shit they tell you about leadership these days. Stuff like "eight positives before you can say a negative" and stuff.

I get it to a point but **** me dead... If you want or need to people to move and act with intensity when they aren't you have to fire them up.

 

[ferball]

And just abusing people doesn't work. You have to have built a thing in your relationship where you know and they know what happened wasn't good enough.

The dynamic you're relying on is:

"I know you're better than this. Don't let us both down."

It might be alot harder if the situation is like ours seems now. One where the players don't believe that first line about themselves.

 

[archereleven]

Its not a spray.

He's telling them they'll make the proudest coach in league history if they out and make one more immense effort.

Its the opposite of a spray. He's just yelling about it cos he's off his head and doesn't really know how else to express what he's feeling. There probably isn't any other way that's gonna energise players either.

The shit they tell you about leadership these days. Stuff like "eight positives before you can say a negative" and stuff.

I get it to a point but **** me dead... If you want or need to people to move and act with intensity when they aren't you have to fire them up.

That's the 3/4 time huddle in the GF?

Another G up he gives is before a practice match against Richmond I think. He wanted the playing group to go to war no matter the occasion.

 

[ferball]

That's the 3/4 time huddle in the GF?

Another G up he gives is before a practice match against Richmond I think. He wanted the playing group to go to war no matter the occasion.

Yeah. Its brilliant.

 

[Cyber_punk]

Yes but the players and coaches need to own the backs to the wall and fight mentality that made us survive those 156 years.

Right now as a collective they’re not. They’re just continually rolling over.

And nothing other than colours of the jumpers indicates to me that it's a North team out there.

I've seen some dark times onfield - 2001, 2006, 2009 but even in those years we showed heart at times and pride in the jumper on the odd occasion. You can still see the shinboner there.

 

[archereleven]

And nothing other than colours of the jumpers indicates to me that it's a North team out there.

I've seen some dark times onfield - 2001, 2006, 2009 but even in those years we showed heart at times and pride in the jumper on the odd occasion. You can still see the shinboner there.

I thought the 80's were bad, but I'd love to go back and watch a side that left it all in the park...

 

[LETSGOKANGAS]

I’ve reached the point where my investment starts and ends on game day. A few more performances like the last couple of weeks and I won’t even bother with game day.
I’m not letting this bullshit rule my life anymore

Like your post Im referring to being too emotionally invested. I’ll always front up memberships for the family every year as would (and must) the majority of our supporter base.

But man the energy required to go to a game and sit through thrashing after thrashing, year after year with no end in sight? I question whether we are legit about staying alive let alone winning a game of football.

 

[Limerick]

I've been a game attending supporter for 70 years, and a continuous member for 38. I got my grandson (born 2001) to follow North. I now regret doing so. He has been a game attending member member since around 2006. In 2023 he attended every North game in Australia. I joined him for some.

We both left the game last night at full time wondering why we bothered. The playing group has lost all confidence and appears not to buy into the game plan. Is this because they aren't skilled, talented, or fit enough to carry out the plan OR they just don't believe in it or the coach.

I looked at our history going back to 1956.
Over 2000 to 2025 (to-date) our win-loss- draw is 237 (43%) 312 (56%) 4 (0.3%).
Over 1956 to 2025 (to-date) our win-loss- draw is 626 (48%) 667 (51%) 12 (1%).

There is no quick fix to this, but action has to start NOW and the Club has to keep the members informed otherwise the Club won't last. I don't want excuses but demand a realistic accountable plan of action.

While Tasmania won't accept us being relocated, they will gladly take over our AFL License. If that happens "F**k the AFL".

WA would probably accept us as a relocated Club on the basis of significant help from the AFL. I'm unsure how I would react to this, probably follow the Club by watching on TV and go to Vic games as a pay at the gate follower.

 

[Cyber_punk]

It looks to be a culture of tolerance and acceptance. Of poor standards. The performances and results are evidence of this.

And Brady isn't ruthless. He's submissive. A Pushover.

It is.

Can you imagine players like Carey, King, Archer, Pickett, Pike, Harvey, Mick, etc smiling for tiktok videos during the week when they have lost games by 10 goals every second week for 5 years?

Do we have a single tough SOB with a grudge on the current list?

 

[Rod Stroker]

It is.

Can you imagine players like Carey, King, Archer, Pickett, Pike, Harvey, Mick, etc smiling for tiktok videos during the week when they have lost games by 10 goals every second week for 5 years?

Do we have a single tough SOB with a grudge on the current list?

They wouldn't do it because we had a coach and club leadership who wouldn't allow it.