Opinion What is the plan for North?

[Coolangatta]

It does seem like there is a growing chance the AFL is going to have to make a more permanent decision. It just cant keep going on like this. There must be pretty sombre discussions being had in AFL house right now.

I think what should happen is:

Roos move to Canberra
3rd club in Perth as the 20th team

Giants need to become a full time Sydney team, Perth is an under serviced footy market, and Canberra deserve their own team.

This would tick all these boxes, plus the Roos should improve on field with a unique home ground advantage and first access to the best players ACT and the Riverina have to offer.

Just as long as dwarf isn’t coach.

 

[Cursed Cat]

Is there a plan?

Clarko looks so beyond done, it’s not funny.

I look at guys like LDU and Simpkin on their stupidly long contracts and wonder where’s the actual leadership gonna come from?

Clarkson looks pretty checked-out, doesn't he

First, the mitigation: they were without their two best players in tonight's smashing. That's not insignificant

But they were basically uncompetitive for most of the match

I'm not sure that there's actually all that much young talent on the list, either

Sheezel, McKercher ... Wardlaw was looking ok but his concussion history isn't great for a young inside mid.
Maybe Curtis.
Hopefully Duursma,
it's not much to build around.

Jack Darling, Luke Parker, Caleb Daniel - they're not gonna move the needle. Look at the sh*tty early-Fagan Brisbane teams - yes they benefited from Luke Hodge's guiding hand on field. But North have overshot on this list management decision, too - Parker would have been enough on his own.

Not sure what the plan is; they should probably make an aimless LDU captain next year to best focus his ability; Xerri and Larkey do make them look more structured, too.

But it's a thin stew.

 

[projectv]

Everyone enjoys sinking the boots in occasionally but a team shouldn't be this bad for this long.

Something is broken, be it in equalisation or the way the club has been run.

Yes they've botched multiple drafts, that's what is broken.

 

[daniel_4tw]

North and Crows started their rebuilds at the same time.

Crows received no priority picks, no inflated FA compensation, no hand outs. Yet are now top 4 while North remain bottom 2.

It’s bad management with poor trades, poor drafting and baffling decisions.

 

[Aristotle Pickett the3rd]

Sonja Hood has to convince Clarkson to resign and accept a deduction on his contract .
Clarkson is taking the club backwards. The list is good.
He has to go. Sonja should go to as she has backed Clarkson to the hilt.

 

[NeutralFan]

I'm convinced these last 8 years is karma for forcefully moving Boomer and Petrie on not on their own terms

 

[Tugga27]

Sonja Hood has to convince Clarkson to resign and accept a deduction on his contract .
Clarkson is taking the club backwards. The list is good.
He has to go. Sonja should go to as she haa backed Clarkson to the hilt.

"The list is good".
OK.......

 

[Aristotle Pickett the3rd]

"The list is good".
OK.......

They have a heap of good young players plus Xerri and Larkey.
It's the coach, he's got no game plan.

 

[HugeJohnson]

I'm convinced these last 8 years is karma for forcefully moving Boomer and Petrie on not on their own terms

Yep got no sympathy for them after that shamozzle. You can't cut half your list and all your leaders and expect to stay competitive. They literally cut a 400 gamer, two 300 gamers and two 200 gamers. It was nearly unprecedented. Who was driving the training standards after they left? Who was keeping up the morale at the club after that? They fired that gun way too quick without a proper plan in place and it backfired stupendously. They dug their own grave.

Dig up, stupid.

 

[longsuffreosupp]

A few of the lower supported Melbourne clubs need to merge. They'll never compete with the Collingwoods etc for crowd size/supporter base, and thus it's hard to be a destination club.

 

[bzparkes]

9 years of Brady Rawlings ****ing up their list but sacking the coach will work this time, sure.

5 years actually, which is even more impressive when you think about it.

 

[The Casey Cat]

If they're like this again next year then the AFL needs to step in and broom them. Put someone like Murray Davis at the helm and get a plan in place to get them competitive over 3-5 years.

F!ck it broom them now. They should have been more competitive last year and this year the regular humiliating beltings should have stopped. Had half a decade of top talent and for the most part wasted it. Clearly can't take care of themselves to someone else is going to have to. Tonight was completely unacceptable.

 

[The Casey Cat]

"The list is good".
OK.......

Perhaps not yet 'good' but it shouldn't be playing this badly. But it's been a botched rebuild.

 

[Corn Cobbers]

A few of the lower supported Melbourne clubs need to merge. They'll never compete with the Collingwoods etc for crowd size/supporter base, and thus it's hard to be a destination club.

It's the Marvel clubs, they're all useless

Relocate them and bulldoze that stadium

 

[Gavin Excell]

It's sad to see the club like it is
Don't know what the solution is, but it's not Clarkson

 

[Cyclops]

The current AFL model is broken

1. Flat out warping the comp to try and give Syd/GWS/GC success (Money, players, even rule changes) to "expand markets"

2. NSW still not paying its way, so pay for this by milking Collingwood and a few big drawing clubs by giving us blockbusters ( small clubs become less desirable destinations )

3. Adding even more clubs when theres a shortage of administrators (the AFL just gobbled up Ireland Harley and the other fella because theres no talent at the top) players (clubs are keeping guys past their early 30s now) and umps.

How can North, St Kilda, Footscray, Port break out of the bottom 10? Frankly Geelong and Hawthorn are a couple of bad seasons away from this zone, its already happened to Richmond again. Maybe Footscray get to float up for a brief moment? When WCE recover then a small club gets squeezed out.

It's the Marvel clubs, they're all useless

Relocate them and bulldoze that stadium

There's a general trend of the Docklands based clubs underperforming.

I suspect the ridiculous surface leads to more injuries including niggles right up to the Essendon style slaughterhouse of injuries.

Maybe this is why Footscray seem flat vs top 8 sides? They front up with the edge taken of?

 

[Gavin Excell]

The current AFL model is broken

1. Flat out warping the comp to try and give Syd/GWS/GC success (Money, players, even rule changes) to "expand markets"

2. NSW still not paying its way, so pay for this by milking Collingwood and a few big drawing clubs by giving us blockbusters ( small clubs become less desirable destinations )

3. Adding even more clubs when theres a shortage of administrators (the AFL just gobbled up Ireland Harley and the other fella because theres no talent at the top) players (clubs are keeping guys past their early 30s now) and umps.

How can North, St Kilda, Footscray, Port break out of the bottom 10? Frankly Geelong and Hawthorn are a couple of bad seasons away from this zone, its already happened to Richmond again. Maybe Footscray get to float up for a brief moment? When WCE recover then a small club gets squeezed out.

There's a general trend of the Docklands based clubs underperforming.

I suspect the ridiculous surface leads to more injuries including niggles right up to the Essendon style slaughterhouse of injuries.

Maybe this is why Footscray seem flat vs top 8 sides? They front up with the edge taken of?

Free agency has created a two tier competition

 

[Cmarsh]

I think at this point the AFL ready needs to look at either winding them up or making the merge with Tasmania.
They just cant keep rolling along like this.
Priority picks havent helped, the best coach of our era couldn't help.

The club is just too far gone to recover it now.

They already play in Tasmania and get no interest. A merger with the proposed devils would compromise the branding of the devils which has been designed as Tasmania's own team. Would be deeply unpopular.

 

[Philhawk]

The current AFL model is broken

1. Flat out warping the comp to try and give Syd/GWS/GC success (Money, players, even rule changes) to "expand markets"

2. NSW still not paying its way, so pay for this by milking Collingwood and a few big drawing clubs by giving us blockbusters ( small clubs become less desirable destinations )

3. Adding even more clubs when theres a shortage of administrators (the AFL just gobbled up Ireland Harley and the other fella because theres no talent at the top) players (clubs are keeping guys past their early 30s now) and umps.

How can North, St Kilda, Footscray, Port break out of the bottom 10? Frankly Geelong and Hawthorn are a couple of bad seasons away from this zone, its already happened to Richmond again. Maybe Footscray get to float up for a brief moment? When WCE recover then a small club gets squeezed out.

There's a general trend of the Docklands based clubs underperforming.

I suspect the ridiculous surface leads to more injuries including niggles right up to the Essendon style slaughterhouse of injuries.

Maybe this is why Footscray seem flat vs top 8 sides? They front up with the edge taken of?

It’s an arms race.

Clubs like Hawthorn and Geelong should avoid this malaise due to the hard work they’ve now done off field.

As others have mentioned, free agency now adds an extra layer on top.

Clubs like St Kilda and North have certainly botched plenty of their top picks, but the stupidly compromised nature of the draft doesn’t help them.

Add to that the fact they’re both being pillaged by free agency and are unable to attract anyone themselves, it makes it nigh on impossible to climb.

This isn’t excusing how badly they both draft and are coached. It’s still a factor though.

 

[voorhees]

North and Crows started their rebuilds at the same time.

Crows received no priority picks, no inflated FA compensation, no hand outs. Yet are now top 4 while North remain bottom 2.

It’s bad management with poor trades, poor drafting and baffling decisions.

this summed it up..
bad management..it's on you roos.

 

[AlwaysHawks15]

Clarkson looks pretty checked-out, doesn't he

First, the mitigation: they were without their two best players in tonight's smashing. That's not insignificant

But they were basically uncompetitive for most of the match

I'm not sure that there's actually all that much young talent on the list, either

Sheezel, McKercher ... Wardlaw was looking ok but his concussion history isn't great for a young inside mid.
Maybe Curtis.
Hopefully Duursma,
it's not much to build around.

Jack Darling, Luke Parker, Caleb Daniel - they're not gonna move the needle. Look at the sh*tty early-Fagan Brisbane teams - yes they benefited from Luke Hodge's guiding hand on field. But North have overshot on this list management decision, too - Parker would have been enough on his own.

Not sure what the plan is; they should probably make an aimless LDU captain next year to best focus his ability; Xerri and Larkey do make them look more structured, too.

But it's a thin stew.

I'd argue Sheezel and LDU are their best players. Xerri I think is overrated as a ruck. Gets away with alot more than other ruckman which makes it look like he's dominating. He's a rugged old fashioned ruck. Larkey is a bit of a 1 trick pony, if he's not leading and marking he becomes almost irrelevant in the general flow of play. Top 5 players yes. The backline is an absolute disaster, arguably the worst in the league. The ease in which Geelong scored while pretty much cruising around was diabolical if your a North fan. Positioning awful, intensity non existent. We looked the best we have all year against them too which is not saying much now that we have seen other results. There was slight improvement in consistency for a 6-8 week block, than we belted them and it's all gone pear shaped again. They are cooked especially with Clarko at the helm the game has gone past him it's pretty obvious to see it's whether North have the courage to make the call.

 

[Bop]

Sack the females at the top. Useless....

Let's be honest here, it's football & is much better run by males. Look at all the females involved in AFL or the clubs - pretty bad track record.

 

[Cmarsh]

Their AFLW team is going pretty well.

 

[Cmarsh]

Sack the females at the top. Useless....

Let's be honest here, it's football & is much better run by males. Look at all the females involved in AFL or the clubs - pretty bad track record.

Google Peggy O'Neal. You will then find your theory challenged.

 

[Elixuh]

Free agency was the worst thing to happen to clubs like North and St Kilda who are the smallest fish in the saturated VFL market.

There are too many teams in the VFL.