North Melbourne should merge

[Grand Uncle Horace]

Why? Tassie wanted their own team, they've made it quite clear that they are not interested in a hybrid team, and definitely not a relocated team. Time will tell if footy in Tasmania is sustainable. Personally I suspect that it isn't considering that there are now only 20 teams left in the Southern part of the State and the competition in the north of the state is struggling. Conversely, the fact is that Tassie has recently built 20 new basketball arenas. It seems that the kids down there want to play basketball in preference to Aussie Rules. Mostly on the back of the success and profile of their state basketball team which consumes a lot of air time during sports reports. Time will tell.

On the funnier side, I have never understood why everybody is so keen to pack North Melbourne's bags to get them the hell outa Melbourne? 15 years ago everybody it seemed wanted them in the Gold Coast, and now in Hobart? Yet when Carlton was bottoming and Richmond couldn't win a raffle ten years ago, not a murmur in the media about relocating them? Why??? Is it a survival strategy of other clubs and supporters that if they can direct or force all of the speculation and talk onto North Melbourne that it takes the heat off their clubs and their sub-par performances? I suspect so.

It's a well known fact that Carro Wilson and Craig Hutchinson have never forgiven North Melbourne for paying off their debts, rebuilding Arden Street and committing themselves to Melbourne. Every chance that they get, they still like to stick the boots in.

It's not a bad thing because it creates a siege mentality among North fans and unites them in much the same way as Collingwood supporters have developed over the decades of being the most universally disliked club in Victoria. One might argue that North Melbourne have had 8 GF appearances and won 4, a 50% success rate. Collingwood have had 45 GF appearances with only 16 wins representing a 33% success rate. I can emphatically state that over the last half a century that North Melbourne have actually won more GF's than Collingwood 4 against 3. So why not relocate Collingwood? Of course I jest.

Anyway enough beating up on the poor old Pies, I had my fingers crossed for them to win the GF this year and was pleased when they did. We might consider that the Saints haven't done anything but deliver empty promises season after season since 1966. Should they be slated for relocation somewhere? Perhaps the Northern Territory or Far North Queensland? Of course they won't. No team is going to be forced against their will to relocate anywhere. The last team forcibly relocated was Fitzroy at a time when they had all but collapsed in Melbourne. Their membership had evaporated, their facilities at the Junction Oval dilapidated, they lost every game and had basically given up. Thankfully I don't know of any team in the AFL that is in that position today.

Norf has been a disaster in Tasmania and are despised by the locals for having ripped off the joint.

Even their members don’t like Norf, some having to be bribed with free pies to go to the footy.

 

[LETSGOKANGAS]

North Melbourne’s HQ is still in North Melbourne.

Essendon? Hawthorn?

 

[Cyclops]

North Melbourne’s HQ is still in North Melbourne.

Essendon? Hawthorn?

Well if this gets up it'll be in North Melbourne too!

I love the stubborn tenacity of North, they stick it up everyone. Fitzroy and South died from a lack of interest and some incompetent presidents, North keep refusing that. Shinboner spirit, not always on the ground but always in the stands.

Melbourne was ready to merge with Hawthorn, from their end the deal was done. In business terms it was a corporate raid but in footy terms they took a shit on their own history. If the day ever comes that a Vic side has to die they should be the first team tossed out of the comp for sheer spinelessness. Carlton proposed something similar with Sydney, they are next cab off the rank.

 

[Roogal]

Norf has been a disaster in Tasmania and are despised by the locals for having ripped off the joint.

Even their members don’t like Norf, some having to be bribed with free pies to go to the footy.

I'm not going to completely dispute that. North's recent lack of on-field successful games over the last few years has definitely taken its toll on attendances both in Hobart and even in Melbourne. Average attendances over four games at Bellerive Oval in 2023 was 5937 (no denying that is pitiful and a far cry from the averages of 12,000 pre-COVID) and overall attendances for Home Games 20765, which is the worst in the league with exception of GCFC and GWSFC.

However, the fact remains that 7,000 of the club's 51,081 members are in fact Tasmanians. Consider that 51,081 members is a far cry from the 16,000 members it had in 2008 when everybody in Melbourne was packing North's bags for the Gold Coast.

North do need to desperately get back on the winner's list and need to win a flag as much as any team in the competition (perhaps save for Saint Kilda). I don't believe the arm-chair "EXPERTS" who declare that North's situation is dire. I cannot see how. The club's finances are completely in order, they have a terrific training and administration facility, they have a great coach who's now fully back on deck after the alleged racism claims have all but been dropped, they are about to receive a wave of favourable draft picks (from last year's negotiations and this year), and they have no debt. They are probably sitting about where Richmond and Carlton were in the late 2000s at the present time. There is enormous potential for them to emerge as a giant of the game again over the next few years.

They are not going to turn around their on-field performances overnight, as we know that takes time, but 2023 was a better year for them. As I stated in an earlier post, they were unlucky on at least four games this year to be pipped at the post in the dying seconds of those games. The losing margins were much narrower across most games as the players were actually playing four quarters of footy as opposed to 2022 when they were literally dying off in the second half of the games. In 2023 we were mostly being beaten by three or four goals as opposed to an average of 10-12 goals in 2022. They are a young team that may well emerge as one of the toughest teams to beat by 2025/26 if they can hold their younger playing group together while capitalising on their new draft picks.

 

[Roogal]

North Melbourne’s HQ is still in North Melbourne.

Essendon? Hawthorn?

... and Saint Kilda (Moorabbin), Collingwood (Richmondish/Olympic Park)

 

[catscratchfever]

Can they merge with themselves and then implode like a black hole? Seems the most likely outcome.

 

[Saveloy Rockstar]

lolnorf merging would be like getting a penis transplant - the hard part is finding a donor