"Roos broke within 6 months" - Andy D

[Tas]

Its pretty bad being the butt of everyones jokes for an entire season, and the off season. Its exciting around trade time because you see a lot of action and theres a lot of hype, and it makes for an exciting off season because really, the only way is up.

What's it like to spend the final few weeks of the season knowing that you will be playing finals footy, all of the excitement, and then seeing your team totally fall apart in a 17 goal flogging??

Or how about making a semi final, a week out from the grannie, and throwing it away to the tune of another 15 odd goals? Furthermore, how did it feel then seeing the team who beat you get flogged by a further 100 points?

My initial question was, do you reflect on this years finals series and give it a tick or a cross?

How does it feel, 27 years since your last premiership... not only 27 years, how many finals have the rag tag tigers played in since then? Does money or membership or priority picks mean anything when you get no joy during the actual football season?

It really doesn't matter who you pick up, if they play like the Tigers have for the last quarter of a century then they will never play to their potential.

Is that why you have become a bitter moron? Does it really burn you up inside that this team that has never won a spoon during your lifetime, never had a number one pick, never had a priority pick managed to make the finals with a no-name team, the top 4 at that, and win a semi-final while Teflon Terry was too busy making a 20 year lack of accountability plan and tanking for more priority picks because he is unable to make the most of what he has available?

You sure have a lot to look forward to...

 

[Salsa68]

Its a pity the eavesdroppers aren't named and quoted. Might give the story some credibility.

Mate can't you read? The author of the article, Charles Happel was at the Montague and heard the whole thing. He said it was an unconventional way to get a story but the coversation was so lkoud he could not help but overhear. Charles Happel btw is a former sports editor at the age and was the boss of all the senior sports journos there so he is not some nobody making up stories. Of course Demetriuo would sue if any of that was untrue.

 

[Junior24]

Is it that hard a question to answer?

What does my club have to do with your finals performances? If your only response is deflection, i think that speaks volumes in itself. Yes North surpassed all expectations by finishing the H&A season in 4th place, which in itself was a great achievment. It doesnt change the fact that your last six finals series have been woeful.

So do you give the 2007 finals series a tick or a cross?

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

Whether AndyD belives it or not, it would not be surprising if he was to notice a journalist a table or two away and deliberately say something like this to get the undermining further underway. And given that over the whole GC thing he's been about as honest as John Howard, not believing it would be no barrier to him proclaiming it.
Far from being "incompetent" as somebody labelled it earlier, it could well be a deliberate strategy to cut the club down again. The article mostly reads exactly as AndyD would want it to read - at least where North is concerned. It might not put the best light on him, but if he's doing this type of thing its all about mindless revenge now and he wouldn't care if he hurts his own image in the process.

 

[Karl Pilkington]

"Played into our hands"? Hilarious. If Gilligan and the Skipper hadn't botched everything their hands touched this year, things might have turned out differently on several fronts.

And I'm not sure, if you had a cunning plan to kill off one of sixteen employing clubs in the league, you'd sit at a cafe and run through it with the head of the players' union. Maybe it's just me?

Gale is just angling for a job on the commission anyway.

I swear, the AFL is about 2 moves away from actually causing militant fans to declare war on them.

 

[Salsa68]

Whether AndyD belives it or not, it would not be surprising if he was to notice a journalist a table or two away and deliberately say something like this to get the undermining further underway. And given that over the whole GC thing he's been about as honest as John Howard, not believing it would be no barrier to him proclaiming it.
Far from being "incompetent" as somebody labelled it earlier, it could well be a deliberate strategy to cut the club down again. The article mostly reads exactly as AndyD would want it to read - at least where North is concerned. It might not put the best light on him, but if he's doing this type of thing its all about mindless revenge now and he wouldn't care if he hurts his own image in the process.

Think you are giving Andy D way too much credit there. He comes out of that story looking like indiscreet and incompetent. You might be right but I think its more likely this is just another stuff up by Andy.

 

[Ghostwriter]

Considering Crikey articles about the current situation have been anti AFL, methinks this one is too, Vlad is making more and more enemies by the day, will rejoice the day he is booted out of office.

 

[Theseventhhamster]

What kind of lowlife spends their time online taunting people about the possible death of their footy team? Good luck Roos, as for the rest **** off to bay 13 and play with the other morons.

 

[Junior24]

What kind of lowlife spends their time online taunting people about the possible death of their footy team? Good luck Roos, as for the rest **** off to bay 13 and play with the other morons.

Your club is poor too

 

[greennick]

Most clubs during pre 70s struggled to make ends meet so that doesn't put us in a minority group. It has really been since the 70s that football has grown to the point where it is not a purely amateur grade sport.

A problem for us has been periods of success have been met with long periods in no-mans land so we have minimised what we gain from good eras. We were very poor in the 80s after a good mid-to-late 70s period. We have been poor this decade after a good mid-to-late period in the 90s.

On top of that we had zones which have been rather limiting in the past, teams like Bulldogs still draw a majority of their supporters from the West, Hawthorn from the East, even Essendon from the North. Most other sides have a dispersed inner suburban catchment area but most others have benefit from being in the VFL from inception.

The North Melbourne/Hotham area is a heavily industrialised area and is not a huge population centre which had close proximity to other sides as we were stuck in the middle so we like a few other clubs have a dispersed supporer base which makes it hard for the club to identify and service.

In this modern era, however, clubs can focus on areas beyond their normal historical boundaries. If our club picks a region of Melbourne and just focuses time, effort and resources then we will grow and develop supporters from that region. It doesn't mean we will be the only team followed but it takes resources to develop a supporter base and in the decades previous to the ones Archer mentioned we did nothing in the past to prepare for the future.

It is why we are in this position because nobody at the club had the foresight in the 70s or 80s to pick a region and develop it. Had the club done that then we wouldn't be here having this conversation. We have to do that now so in the next 10, 20 or 30 years the club doesn't have the same issues.

The AFL was trying to get you to pick the Gold Coast.

How do you think you are going to pick a region of Melbourne and develop it anyway? How are you going to relate to the people of an area that are closer to another team?

 

[PeteD]

Assume AD would be talking about the GC training/admin home and it would be a bit of a hike from Carrara. Dunno why you would sign a 50 yr lease for that.

Looking at the website for Runaway Bay, the grandstand is only about 3,000 and the square rugby size field is surrounded by the 400 m rubber track. Couple of crap cricket ovals nearby.

 

[robaba]

Assume AD would be talking about the GC training/admin home and it would be a bit of a hike from Carrara. Dunno why you would sign a 50 yr lease for that.

Looking at the website for Runaway Bay, the grandstand is only about 3,000 and the square rugby size field is surrounded by the 400 m rubber track. Couple of crap cricket ovals nearby.

Maybe Clarkey needs some tenants and would pay a bit to get something happening.

 

[Tas]

The AFL was trying to get you to pick the Gold Coast.

How do you think you are going to pick a region of Melbourne and develop it anyway? How are you going to relate to the people of an area that are closer to another team?

Clubs are about two things, the team (players) and the supporters. There is a symbiotic relationship, can't have one without the others. Gold Coast has no links to our club, none at all. It might be a great spot for a team but not the NMFC.

We can focus greater effort into the regions where our VFL teams are playing, we have been with North Ballarat for a year now and are have switched from Tasmania to Werribee with our second VFL team, this gives us the ability to focus more in this region especially if our players are helping to represent them.

You can then create training and social facilities in a centralised position and do a lot of community work, spend resources drumming up public support, past and present players working more with the communities, focus on high growth regions where a lot of new Melbournians are coming to.

You wont see overnight success but you will see over a period of time more support from the regions, especially if you have the kind of relationships with schools and the juniors as I wish we will have. We more or less need to go on the front foot and promote the team to the Northern regions of Melbourne and that will allow us to leapfrog teams like Bulldogs and Essendon that have typically boxes us in.

 

[The Chad]

Is it that hard a question to answer?

What does my club have to do with your finals performances? If your only response is deflection, i think that speaks volumes in itself. Yes North surpassed all expectations by finishing the H&A season in 4th place, which in itself was a great achievment. It doesnt change the fact that your last six finals series have been woeful.

So do you give the 2007 finals series a tick or a cross?

mate don't you know that richmond's performance directly relates to the kangaroos finals performances? same way richard pratt and carlton being punished will be the difference between them surviving and folding. bigfooty logic mate, and bigfooty is a north melbourne stronghold.

 

[Junior24]

mate don't you know that richmond's performance directly relates to the kangaroos finals performances? same way richard pratt and carlton being punished will be the difference between them surviving and folding. bigfooty logic mate, and bigfooty is a north melbourne stronghold.

My bad.. I should have known better!!

Apologies

 

[robaba]

My bad.. I should have known better!!

Apologies

Do not believe everything the Cad says, or maybe you prefer the Cad to keep pissing in your pocket.

 

[CF]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]It was last Thursday morning when patrons at the Montague Park café were given the impromptu rundown of the AFL’s plans by Demetriou, whose voice knows only one volume setting: foghorn. As the regulars were sipping long blacks and quietly minding their own business, at the next table Demetriou began outlining the League’s plans to Gale. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]They heard Demetriou say that the Roos, by turning their back on the AFL’s lucrative deal to relocate to the Gold Coast, had "played into our hands". A neat segue – Roos out, Gold Coast in – was now possible.[/FONT]

hearsay is inadmissible as evidence in a court of law. I would take this crap with a grain of salt really.

 

[Theseventhhamster]

Your club is poor too

What the **** does a Richmond supporter have to brag about?

 

[Junior24]

Do not believe everything the Cad says, or maybe you prefer the Cad to keep pissing in your pocket.

It's "The Chad". Where have you been for the last five years?

 

[Junior24]

What the **** does a Richmond supporter have to brag about?

Does it make a difference who i go for? You guys are still poor... And you are also down the bottom of the ladder lol.

 

[Roylion]

I was a Fitzroy supporter; this is just the beginning. The de-stabilising is part of the strategy.

Yep, I agree. You'll hear plenty of these types of stories over the next few months and years. Every North Melbourne setback will be magnified by the AFL, every success will be marginalised and ignored as much as possible.

 

[robaba]

It's "The Chad". Where have you been for the last five years?

Near the bottom of the ladder?

 

[Theseventhhamster]

Does it make a difference who i go for? You guys are still poor... And you are also down the bottom of the ladder lol.

What, are we playing monopoly now? Your team finished last and has played finals twice in 26 years. lol

 

[Adz]

JB will go down in history as the worst thing to ever happen to NM.

Good riddance I say.

 

[Matt_TY]

If by "worst" you mean "best" then I agree.

Long live North Melbourne. While I don't doubt that power-mad idiot Demetriou (by the way North - I think it's time to retroactively remove Andy D's playing record from your club histories) really does think this, remember that previous administrations have also thought this way about the Bulldogs (2 weeks to raise the money they need to survive? They'll _never_ do that!) and the Hawks (who cares what the members think, the Dawks merger is _for the good of the game_, right?)

Let's not forget that severe financial situations have also befallen Carlton, St. Kilda, Richmond and even our own beloved Collingwood, "Magpie", in the past 21 years. Should we have given up, staring down the barrel of bankruptcy in 1986?

No?

I didn't think so.

Put your own club on the table, or shut up.