North to go winless in 2024?

[BF Tiger]

From the 2017 draft onwards picks inside the top 20 they have had include

2017
Pick 4

2018
Pick 8

2019
None

2020
Pick 3
Pick 13

2021
Pick 1

2022
Pick 3
Pick 4

2023
Pick 2
Pick 4
Pick 20

So since 2017 they have had 10 players inside the top 20, 8 of those players being inside the top 10.

8 top 10 selections in 7 drafts (7 top 5 selections) should be enough for a solid foundation.

2017 - pick 4 - LD-U - pass
2018 - pick 8 - Tarryn Thomas, good player but a shite human
2020 - pick 3 - Will Phillips - 34 games, can't cement a spot, fail. Could have had Logan McDonald.
2020 - pick 13 - Tom Powell - 53 games, seems to be regular enough, not sure how good he is though. Could have had Max Holmes.
2021 - pick 1 - JH-F - the right player, but was always a flight risk.
2022 - pick 3 - Harry Sheezel - pass
2022 - pick 4 - George Wardlaw - only played 15 games
2023 - pick 2 - Colby McKercher - debuted, has played all games
2023 - pick 4 - Zane Duursma - debuted, has played all games
2023 - pick 20 - Taylor Goad

I don't think their drafting has been that bad. They've lost two in Thomas and JH-F, which hurts. The last five are all young. You could point to Phillips and Powell as being misses compared to who they could have had but that is all whataboutism. Also 2016 draft they got Simpkin (pick 12), so that's another pass, and found a late draft gem in Larkey (pick 73).

More interested to know who they have attracted to the club. Or not, as the case may be.

 

[Great8]

Whilst I don’t think they win this week I can absolutely see the perfect storm of Essington appearing. Good win yesterday, media dry humping us, North coming back from Darwin. Should be a 10 goal win minimum but strap yourself in for a last minute Goldy goal to win it

 

[Cleavy]

hard to win if you keep conceding 100+ points per game

 

[emuboy]

They might be half a chance against University at the East Melbourne Cricket Ground next month.

 

[Irish BlueBagger]

Five years worth of this crap for the Roos with no end seemingly in sight as well. This situation might require AFL intervention soon enough.

As a Carlton fan i know a fair bit about wooden spoons over the past twenty or so years, but at least we're competitive now.

It must be soul destroying for Roos fans. They need some hope to cling to, and something to believe in going forwards.

At the moment though it seems they have nothing. It's sad supporters of all the clubs, should have hope and a reason to enjoy going to the footy imo.

 

[TheKanga]

Five years worth of this crap for the Roos with no end seemingly in sight as well. This situation might require AFL intervention soon enough.

As a Carlton fan i know a fair bit about wooden spoons over the past twenty or so years, but at least we're competitive now.

It must be soul destroying for Roos fans. They need some hope to cling to, and something to believe in going forwards.

At the moment though it seems they have nothing. It's sad supporters of all the clubs, should have hope and a reason to enjoy going to the footy imo.

I'd even take not conceding 100pts in a game a small win.
Absolutely depressing being a North supporter right now.
Essendon will probably score over 130pts and Langford will kick 6+ goals.

 

[RUNVS]

Five years worth of this crap for the Roos with no end seemingly in sight as well. This situation might require AFL intervention soon enough.

As a Carlton fan i know a fair bit about wooden spoons over the past twenty or so years, but at least we're competitive now.

It must be soul destroying for Roos fans. They need some hope to cling to, and something to believe in going forwards.

At the moment though it seems they have nothing. It's sad supporters of all the clubs, should have hope and a reason to enjoy going to the footy imo.

I wonder if Carlton, even in your depths of crapness were still better than North is now, still with more hope.

Even when Carlton were bad they still had fewer holes in their list. They had Fevola for instance, they had young mids, they had Betts, they had a somewhat acceptable backline. They were still crap, but they had those pieces, pieces North do not have.

 

[TeeJay Blue]

I wonder if Carlton, even in your depths of crapness were still better than North is now, still with more hope.

Even when Carlton were bad they still had fewer holes in their list. They had Fevola for instance, they had young mids, they had Betts, they had a somewhat acceptable backline. They were still crap, but they had those pieces, pieces North do not have.

They have Larkey, Sheezel, Curtis, Wardlaw, LDU, McKercher, etc.

Definitely players which a team can be built around.

The problem isn't the talent though.

It's all about synergy.

When GWS were spoon fed all these top draft picks during their inception, we knew much of them would come good.
But it's more than simply having the talent, that talent has to connect with one another. It's why despite their quick surge up the ladder 4 years later, they were never going to win the whole thing. There was no connection. No cohesion. No playing for one another. It was just 22 skillful individual footballers.

Many of the players wanted out sooner as they didn't see much to personally gain from sticking around. The spiritual aspects of the Giants were a work in progress. What I mean was it was a club, but one without any feeling just yet as that takes longer to find.

This is why endless priority picks will not help. Getting first dibs in the talent pool all the time doesn't guarantee a strong future team. Like jigsaw puzzles, they have to connect together.

And because of the raw talent and lack of synergy right now. It can lead to further problems like player retention. How much longer will these players last with the pain before bailing out and looking for better footy elsewhere?

 

[RUNVS]

They have Larkey, Sheezel, Curtis, Wardlaw, LDU, McKercher, etc.

Most of those players are midfielders. They have made no effort to get any top quality KPF's or KPD's.

 

[TeeJay Blue]

Most of those players are midfielders. They have made no effort to get any top quality KPF's or KPD's.

I said they are players the team can be built around. I never said all of them will be there for the team to be built around.

It only supports my point about synergy. Which midfielders of those will come good and which will best connect with the rest of the team?

 

[LukeParkerno1]

Really need to go hard at key position players in the draft and trade in the next 3 seasons if that means trade a LDU so be it

 

[TheKanga]

Really need to go hard at key position players in the draft and trade in the next 3 seasons if that means trade a LDU so be it

I agree
There's no point having a stacked midfield is there is no one to kick goals once it gets in there.

We will likely finish last so that's pick 1
If LDU requests a trade we would get similar returns to what we got for JHF.
Also would have some compo if Zuurharr leaves via free agency.

We simply cannot go into 2025 with a leaky undermanned defense and Larkey being tripled team every game.

 

[RUNVS]

Genuine question. Which team would win

B Walker, Livingston, McLaren
HB Lappin, Thornton, Scotland
C Simpson, Koutoufides, Sporn
HF Houlihan, Whitnall. Betts
F Murphy, Waite, Fevola
Foll French, Bentick, Stevens
Int Carrazzo, Chambers, Deluca, McGrath

vs

B: Comben, Corr, McDonald
HB: McKercher, Sheezel, Archer
C: Tucker, Davies-Uniacke, Scott
HF: Stephenson, Powell, Fisher
F: Curtis, Larkey, Zurhaar
Foll: Xerri, Wardlaw, Phillips
Int: Lazzaro, Greenwood, Hardeman, Shiels, Drury

 

[TheKanga]

Genuine question. Which team would win

B Walker, Livingston, McLaren
HB Lappin, Thornton, Scotland
C Simpson, Koutoufides, Sporn
HF Houlihan, Whitnall. Betts
F Murphy, Waite, Fevola
Foll French, Bentick, Stevens
Int Carrazzo, Chambers, Deluca, McGrath

vs

B: Comben, Corr, McDonald
HB: McKercher, Sheezel, Archer
C: Tucker, Davies-Uniacke, Scott
HF: Stephenson, Powell, Fisher
F: Curtis, Larkey, Zurhaar
Foll: Xerri, Wardlaw, Phillips
Int: Lazzaro, Greenwood, Hardeman, Shiels, Drury

Carlton would win
Waite & Fevola are match winners.

 

[TeeJay Blue]

Genuine question. Which team would win

B Walker, Livingston, McLaren
HB Lappin, Thornton, Scotland
C Simpson, Koutoufides, Sporn
HF Houlihan, Whitnall. Betts
F Murphy, Waite, Fevola
Foll French, Bentick, Stevens
Int Carrazzo, Chambers, Deluca, McGrath

vs

B: Comben, Corr, McDonald
HB: McKercher, Sheezel, Archer
C: Tucker, Davies-Uniacke, Scott
HF: Stephenson, Powell, Fisher
F: Curtis, Larkey, Zurhaar
Foll: Xerri, Wardlaw, Phillips
Int: Lazzaro, Greenwood, Hardeman, Shiels, Drury

I reckon put Carlton's 2018 line-up for a better comparison.

That being the club's worst season in more than 100 years.

 

[Macca18]

They'll rock up for their GF next weekend.

Whether it's enough to win it though is another story.

 

[TheKanga]

They'll rock up for their GF next weekend.

Whether it's enough to win it though is another story.

We had a better list last year when we only lost by 6pts & 9pts
I'm not very confident of an upset at all.

We have Eagles after the bye, maybe if they still have injuries and we actually turn up.

 

[Macca18]

We had a better list last year when we only lost by 6pts & 9pts
I'm not very confident of an upset at all.

We have Eagles after the bye, maybe if they still have injuries and we actually turn up.

Your supporter base will go into every game for the remainder of the season "not very confident of an upset".

It will happen at some stage though. Probably even more than once.

Just hope it not us next week. I think we are playing too well at the moment to allow it to happen but never say never.

 

[Purple7x08_24]

2017 - pick 4 - LD-U - pass
2018 - pick 8 - Tarryn Thomas, good player but a shite human
2020 - pick 3 - Will Phillips - 34 games, can't cement a spot, fail. Could have had Logan McDonald.
2020 - pick 13 - Tom Powell - 53 games, seems to be regular enough, not sure how good he is though. Could have had Max Holmes.
2021 - pick 1 - JH-F - the right player, but was always a flight risk.
2022 - pick 3 - Harry Sheezel - pass
2022 - pick 4 - George Wardlaw - only played 15 games
2023 - pick 2 - Colby McKercher - debuted, has played all games
2023 - pick 4 - Zane Duursma - debuted, has played all games
2023 - pick 20 - Taylor Goad

I don't think their drafting has been that bad. They've lost two in Thomas and JH-F, which hurts. The last five are all young. You could point to Phillips and Powell as being misses compared to who they could have had but that is all whataboutism. Also 2016 draft they got Simpkin (pick 12), so that's another pass, and found a late draft gem in Larkey (pick 73).

More interested to know who they have attracted to the club. Or not, as the case may be.

They've missed the boat on so many occasions. Recruiting has been terrible. Could have had a dozen players ahead of Thomas and they should have looked beyond raw talent.

Had plenty of opportunities to land Jake Soligo. They made a reasonable pick in Comben but they've completely failed to draft adequetly for KPPs in the 30-50 range, like Windhager and failed to bring players into the club.

Is there any reason the AFL couldn't give North 2 picks somewhere in the 20s for trading only.

They really do need to aggressively bring in picks to trade for players that aren't getting games at other clubs.

 

[RUNVS]

They've missed the boat on so many occasions. Recruiting has been terrible. Could have had a dozen players ahead of Thomas and they should have looked beyond raw talent.

Had plenty of opportunities to land Jake Soligo. They made a reasonable pick in Comben but they've completely failed to draft adequetly for KPPs in the 30-50 range, like Windhager and failed to bring players into the club.

Is there any reason the AFL couldn't give North 2 picks somewhere in the 20s for trading only.

They really do need to aggressively bring in picks to trade for players that aren't getting games at other clubs.

Yep. An example is George Hewett. If they made an offer to Carlton in the 30's they would likely get him, and Hewett would be really useful for them. Not a star, but super reliable and fairly hard too.

They could get bargain players like that if they go looking.

 

[Archer_11]

First, odds are we'll win a game. It just seems to be the way things are these days. Every time we disappoint we get closer to a match where a side turns up for an easy win and we play two or three quarters of footy and sneak over the line. That's not to mention playing non finalists in August like last year.

Second, there is not near enough analysis of our backline. We had a D grade backline with Mackay, and now that he is gone our best three defenders are on the LTI list. This is why our defence is like the VFL seconds. Compounding factors is that we really need Comben up forward so we're copping it both ways. Plus he is injury prone so our stocks are absolutely putrid.

Our recruiting has been rubbish, but no one should be surprised in 2025 with Goater, Logue and Dawson on the park why we're 'finally' scrapping through the occasional win.

 

[1970crow]

I genuinely don't understand how North can be so bad as they last played finals in 2016.

That is almost 8 years of rebuilding, and yet they not only have nothing to show for it, they still have huge holes in their list.

They really feel like a team that started rebuilding 2 or 3 years ago based on where they are right now in their list build.

David Noble.

 

[1970crow]

Yep. An example is George Hewett. If they made an offer to Carlton in the 30's they would likely get him, and Hewett would be really useful for them. Not a star, but super reliable and fairly hard too.

They could get bargain players like that if they go looking.

Elliott Himmelberg isn’t totally awful, has played a couple of ok games recently. They’d get him for a swap of 3rd rounders.

 

[BF Tiger]

They've missed the boat on so many occasions. Recruiting has been terrible. Could have had a dozen players ahead of Thomas and they should have looked beyond raw talent.

Had plenty of opportunities to land Jake Soligo. They made a reasonable pick in Comben but they've completely failed to draft adequetly for KPPs in the 30-50 range, like Windhager and failed to bring players into the club.

Is there any reason the AFL couldn't give North 2 picks somewhere in the 20s for trading only.

They really do need to aggressively bring in picks to trade for players that aren't getting games at other clubs.

Thomas was the right pick at the time. Anything else is all with the benefit of hindsight. Google 2018 AFL Phantom Draft and look at the AFL, ESPN, Fox Sports and The Roar (amongst others) lists and they’re all sending TT to the Roos.

Any pick after first round is really a shot in the dark. You’re hoping for a solid footballer first and foremost, and if he turns into a diamond you’re over the moon. Soligo went pick 36, plenty of teams passed over him who would prefer they’d have taken him, which is an indication of where he was rated at the time.

 

[dustysnecktattoo]

1 win for the year , round 21