norff are a dud team

[Razza]

Please don't think I was putting North down. I have heard it from mates "oh North they buy their success" but when have facts got in the way of a good whinge. like I said I didn't know who came from where and don't begrudge North their success. I think all clubs shouls aspire to it. I stand corrected. All others please note.

 

[Thought.]

I think you might need to rephrase the term 'home grown talent' Carey after all came from the 'Gong and played in the SANFL before being drafted.

 

[Rooboy 96]

Thought, how old was Mr Carey when North Melbourne recruited him, 16 that is as close to home grown as you can get... sorry, Mr Martyn would be closer 15 and his father played for the club, now that is home grown.

Thought I think the term fits with a national competition, there are no zones anymore.

 

[Gonzo]

Just a random thought on why the Kangas seem to get small crowd. I get the feeling that our supporters have become blasé about our success. “Well we missed Carey dominate this week, ho hum, we’ll wait until they play a good side and then go along" – (Essendon last year, Carlton last week) – just a theory!

 

[Rooboy 96]

Why don't we have a look at the draw.

In Victoria

Home (MCG):
West coast
Hawthorn
Fremantle

Home (Colonial):
Geelong over 35000 turned up
Brisbane
Melbourne
Collingwood

one of the big three and three interstate teams, Thank you Ian Collins, only Geelong and Collingwood games would appeal to non-members.

Home (SCG):
Sydney
Port Adelaide
Richmond
St Kilda

Richmond and StKilda should have been swapped with Freo and WCE, the only time anyone goes to see them in Victoria is when they play Essendon or Collingwood (if the pies are winning)

Away (MCG):
Melbourne
Richmond
Collingwood

Away (Colonial):
St Kilda
Essendon
Bulldogs
Geelong

Other
Adelaide (FP)
Carlton (OO) The biggest hole in Australia.
West Coast (SUB)
Sydney (SCG)

The big three all on there turf bet you 65000-75000 turn up to rnd 13. When do we get Essendon as a home game, it has not happened since 1998.

Now that is a good way of keeping a club's home gate down, play them against opposition that have no support in Victoria.



[This message has been edited by Rooboy 96 (edited 23 May 2000).]

 

[Shinboners]

Razza

I don't think any of the North fans think you're having a go at us. I sometimes hear the same thing myself in that the odd person thinks that we "buy" our success, an idea that doesn't stack up in this world of footy where the salary cap and draft reign.

Maybe it's a throwback from the 70s where we did buy players like Barry Davis, John Rantall, and Doug Wade, but that ignores the efforts of other homegrown heroes like Keith Greig, David Dench, Wayne Schimmelbusch, and Sam Kekovich and other not-so-expensive imports like Malcolm Blight and Barry Cable.

 

[king kong]

No-one answered my question about how many new supporters they have signed up in Sydney--actual memberships, please. Where are the figures?

The perception that north melbourne BUY their success has been mentioned elsewhere on this message board. And perhaps, as shinboners points out, this was true from the 70's--but obviously, the club must not have done sufficient to disprove this.

Do the club do enough to make themselves attractive to supporters? I have heard it said that north melbourne 'plays for itself' and not for its fans. A team is NOTHING without fans.

North Melbourne supporters should be pretty annoyed with their club administration because they are the ones ultimately responsible for making the club appealing. its called marketing. someone with a cruel streak could be tempted to say that the product is in someway essentially 'flawed'. I am not into disparaging any team or its supporters, but it seems that you have a very nice cut of meat, or a beautiful crystal vase sitting in a shop--and very few people want to buy it. there have to be reasons why! in this day and age there can be no excuses for poor marketing if the product is a good one.

 

[Groucho]

KK I can only reiterate that Melbourne clubs are victims of their history in respect to their capacity to attract new supporters. In Melbourne nobody,or very few people, will change clubs because of "good marketing", that just isn't going to happen. I personally believe that North market themselves quite well but to what end? A Carlton supporter isn't going to say"gee that North marketing campaign is so good I think I'll start to follow them." It's estimated that the big clubs in Melbourne have a supporter base of between 200,000 to 400,000 and clubs like North, Bulldogs and Hawthorn have around the 80000 to 100000 mark, maybe less and I can't see that differentiation changing. I've had 3 kids so I've done my bit but unless every North supporter does the same we'll never catch up! By the way I've heard that there are approx 3000 members in Sydney but these figures aren't verified.

 

[Bernie]

Remember

..in the 80's Hawthorn had some pretty miserable crowds ( esp. at Princes Park ) and it amazed us 'cause of their success. We just put it down to the Eastern Suburbs - gone skiing.

Also,

North pioneered the Friday Night thing and generated a lot of interest there - good crowds, TV exposure. Didn't the ALF hand that to Richmond ? I'm amazed North went along with that - maybe the 'glittering' prize ( mirage ! ) of Sydney was offered in return.

Point being - maybe North should do a 'Save Our Club' thing like Hawthorn / Richmond etc and REALLY put it on their fringe ( i.e. attend the finals ) supporters to front up.
Hey - float a merge with Melbourne. Remember they are STILL the only club to vote FOR their own destruction - oh! the shame !

 

[king kong]

groucho, no need to get so grouchy!

Are those 3000 odd bods that you quote specifically NEW members gained in Sydney since the move up? Or are they generic 'interstate' supporters. It is a very important distinction to make. I want to know what the AFL is spending its money on. Are north melbourne laughing all the way to the bank without doing any real development in sydney.

 

[Shinboners]

KK

The whole North in Sydney topic has been discussed thoroughly by Bloodstained Angel and myself.....just search through the archives.

As for the North administration, they pretty much have the full support of the fans. I do know of a few people who refused to renew their memberships over the home games in Sydney, but generally, we seems to retain most of our members. From the '96 attempted takeover of Fitzroy to the home games in Sydney and even the Leigh Colbert transfer saga, the club sends letters to all the members to let us know what's going on. And it also seems that most North fans were very happy that Greg Miller did not get offerred the AFL job.

Look, I'd love to walk into the MCG in a fortnight and see 40,000 North fans matching their support against 40,000 Essendon, but that's never going to happen. Due to our history, geography, and lack of success for most of the time we've been in the VFL/AFL, we probably will be one of those clubs with lower support. But that doesn't mean that the fans aren't as passionate as Essendon's or Carlton's or Collingwood's, but it also means that we have to put in more to try and make sure our club survives.

 

[Rooboy 96]

To groucho and shinboners, sometimes when you point out the obvious (as we have) some fools (king kong) still can't get it. We can continue or just let him carry on by himself, what you wanna do?

 

[Bloodstained Angel]

King Kong

I've heard a figure of around 3000 new Sydney memberships for the Kangaroos - but nothing verified.

If this is true then thats a pretty good effort considering the Melbourne based Swans memebership is also 3000.

Look guys, I think the reason why Norff don't attract a larger supporter base is a cruel combination of history and geography.

The club wasn't allowed into the original VFL because Essendon feared it would dominate the Northern Suburbs supporter base. When Essendon went into the VFL and Norff stayed in the VFA guess what happened ? All the footy suppporters in the northern suburbs went and followed the Same Olds and in 1924 when Norff was finally let in then not alot of those people came back into the fold.

North Melbourne has also suffered as geographical region in that it was heavily industrialised in the first half of the century, causing most residents to move out to the outer suburbs, then we had a wave of post war migration from Southern Europe and not alot of those guys followed footy, now we see the area is being gentrified with lots of yuppies and retired baby-boomer types moving into the area, again these people are not the greatest footy fans in the world...

And all the time Norff soldiered on with what was untill 1975 the worst record in the VFL, with such a poor record on the field and such a small and changable part of Melbourne from which it has traditonally drawn support, is it any wonder that Norff still don't have a large supporter base ?

Look Norff are a champion team that deserves much more support than they receive, I'm not having a go at Norff here but am just trying to add my 2 cents worth.

 

[Groucho]

Well said BA I couldn't have put it better myself!

KK my understanding is that there are approx 3000 new members in Sydney. North were the first side to realise that the AFL were willing to outlay considerable money to teams willing to play home games in Sydney and it was this attraction plus the chance to expand their supporter base that led to the whole Sydney thing. North have an office in Sydney with a permanent Marketing manager working there ,their tactics haven't always been appreciated but it's obvious there has been some success. As Shinboners said this whole topic has been covered in great detail in another thread with Bloodstained Angel providing interesting local insights. Sorry to sound grouchy! It's more a case of "here we go again" as I seem to have written this stuff numerous times in various guises, but still can't resist defending the Roos!!