Tas
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North Melbourne - 2022 Kaitlyn Ashmore and Aileen Gilroy Player Sponsor
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TheBrownDog
- Dec 23, 2002
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The extreme bitter reaction of North fans over JHF is no surprise. That said the bullying of a kid is unacceptable.
Their behaviour over the Nick Blakey saga was similarly chilling. Some wished career ending injuries when Blakey announced his decision. Truth was Brisbane was his second choice. There was no way he would go to North. By contrast with toxic North fans, Brisbane fans while disappointed, shrugged and moved on.
Few of the talented kids they have drafted improve. You have to feel for the kids they draft next week. Truth is none want to go there.
I remember the halcyon days when Plugger caved in one of your player's face in as a St Kilda player and I think your president at the time wanted Plugger deregistered for being an animal, this was the same year he signed over to the Swans from memory. When reminded of this after he became a Swans player all he could do was hide a sheepish smile. People say dumb things, especially anonymously on forums.
Yes, a lot of North supporters act like bitter stooges, if Blakey didn't want to have a legacy at North then that is fine. He is entitled to play wherever he wants to play, as is JHF and anyone else.
That being said, you probably need to let go of your baggage, it is not like Swans supporters don't also say stupid things. If everyone gets hung up on the things opposition supporters say it is just going to turn any conversation into a toxic mess.
I honestly think JHF wanted it to work, it was just a perfect storm of being here when we were at our worst on and off the field. If I had kids, I wouldn't have wanted them to be drafted by North, that is how bad we were going, not even a die hard supporter would want their kid's talent to be flushed down the toilet at the club they supported all their life. I am more optimistic now, but that is subject to the Hawthorn investigation.
I don't care if JHF does well or if he doesn't (pretty much like any other opposition player) and I have no intention of stalking his career, he just wasn't around long enough for me to care much either way. tbh I was more upset when we lost Pickett to PA, largely because he played with a lot of heart and played a significant role in our 99 premiership. I still feel that loss more than 20 years later. JHF played one year, came into a wooden spoon team and it ended up last again, he obviously didn't make much of a difference, we were worse this year than last year, defensively we were less accountable and he refused to run both ways so I am not sure if it is much of a loss in the long run. He might have changed for the better given time, but he might not have.
We just can't afford to have people around who do not want to be around, they are cancerous at a football club but clubs who have issues like this are often partly to blame, it has been a cascade of failure all through the tail end of Scott's era up until this year. We have made more changes this year, lets hope we start to rebuild what it means to be a football player at this club and the standards we uphold. Clarkson was right about one thing, you need the right people in the right roles from the top down otherwise it wont matter who you draft or who you trade for.