Where are north at?

[Senor Ed]

About what? Heading into another finals series? About knowing my team wins finals? Yeah - really tough to be a Roo supporter.

So you classify making finals and winning final matches a success?? Unless you win a grand final you shouldn't be happy; there's 17 losers every year. You can win all the elimination finals / semis / prelims that you'd like, but you're still a loser.

Sure, i'm a Bulldogs supporter so give me crap about the not winning prelims and only having one flag. But i'm not satisfied and won't be until we win the big one.

I'd rather that then support North and their faux-tough players and still be happy just to make / win finals.

 

[Big Bryza]

Started the season 9-0 and all and sundry were talking premierships with a lot of their fans taking the opportunity to whack any critic of their list age by saying bigfooty is the only police where it is better to be young then good. Fast forward 10 rounds and they have gone 3-7 in their next period with wins against 11th, 12th and 13th. Their older players form has suffered and their list depth has shown to be substandard for premiership contention.

They will play finals but it is hard to see them causing any of the other top 8 sides any grief. Their recruiting strategy of topping up with free agents (Waite, Higgins, Dal Santo, Anderson, Nahas, Ray) hasn't succeeded and it is my belief hard calls will need to be made unless they want to have a freo-like season in 2017.

Questions need to be asked in relation to their coach (no plan B) and their football department (recruiting strategy) as both seem to have come up short. They seem to lack composure and class through the midfield and I would seriously look at trading either Ziebell or Cunnington to gain an extra pick in the first/ second round and get some more youth and class into the side

Interested to see others thoughts on where they see North Melbourne

I drove down Arden Street before and North Melbourne were there.

Case closed.

 

[Percel]

I have an 11cm penis fully erect

cp?

 

[t_bond_legend]

I think you should stop posting for a while.

Take your own advice

 

[Wild Bill]

Take your own advice

If you can find anything remotely close to "twins have the same DNA and should think the same way" then I will delete my account........

 

[Wild Bill]

So you classify making finals and winning final matches a success?? Unless you win a grand final you shouldn't be happy; there's 17 losers every year. You can win all the elimination finals / semis / prelims that you'd like, but you're still a loser.

Sure, i'm a Bulldogs supporter so give me crap about the not winning prelims and only having one flag. But i'm not satisfied and won't be until we win the big one.

I'd rather that then support North and their faux-tough players and still be happy just to make / win finals.

I have seen 2 live - I can die happy.

We finished 8th last year and won 2 finals. Not sure you would call it a disaster. I like winning finals.

 

[citizen-erased]

2018 onwards ..

The definite core:
B: McDonald - Tarrant - Wright
HB: Atley - ? - Macmillan
C: Clarke - Dumont - ?
HF: Ziebell - ? - Wood
F: Thomas - Brown - Higgins
R: Goldstein - Cunnington - Jacobs
I: ? - ? - ? - ?

Question marks for 2018: Wells, Swallow, Harvey, Gibson, Preuss, McKenzie, Anderson, McKay, Durdin, Garner, Turner, EVW, Majak, Hibberd, Wagner, Mountford

Definite Retire / delist / trade by 2018: Petrie, Waite, Firitto, Dal Santo, Ray, Nahas, Thompson, Hansen, Mullett, Black, Tippett, Fordham

There's a lot of talent in that question mark list but they are all unproven. We definitely need a few kids to step quickly if we're going to stay relevant 2018 onwards.

Solid assessment of your list.
I think Wood, Waite and Thomas can be the talls for next year.
Durdin will be getting closer and can either replace Waite or Firrito.

I think McKay will be fine as well. Was a bit of a draft bolter so wasn't quite ready for the big time
Hibberd will slide in nicely too.

Still needs more elite class to really step into top 4
i.e if Wells, Swallow and Harvey were 5 years younger.

 

[Royal Flush]

The problem they have is that they have a fair chunk of their list to be delisted/retired in the next 24 months. There's only so much quality you can replace with in such a short space of time. Not a lot of decent youth in their current 22. Going to be a tough 5-10 years for them going forward.

most of the criticisms are very valid and truthful in this thread and i agree with them. But yours wins the stupidity award.
you still havent won a final and spent 4 consecutive on the bottom of the ladder picking up early draft pics.
We are a new coach away from a complete turn around,
Mason Wood, Clarke, Dumont, Garner, Wagner. all wouldn't have 50 games between them.
Mason Wood was decent enough for you guys to have a crack at getting him.

 

[Le Grille]

Barring major trades or snapping up a few A grade i see north as perennially in that 8-14 range in the next few years. I think there is enough talent not to completely bottom out.

I think our method with older free agents made sense considering the fact that GC/GWS had such a large proportion of draft picks and when you consider the fact that we never truly bottomed out in that period so A grade quality picks weren't really available. I do think that the intention was to get more out of these guys than we have.

As a list our best 22 is too one dimensional (particularly in midfield), it sticks out that cunnington, zeibell, swallow rarely play well in the same game because they are too similar at their best they are all good players but I wouldn't be adverse to trading one of them at the right price. It's concerning as dumont looks like a really good player but he is still too similar. This makes us too predictable and inflexible when it doesn't work.

Will be an interesting few years that's for sure.

 

[tallyho7]

Has not been a worse team to watch play footy this year then north,

Except marginally Brisbane, Ess and Freo

 

[Thats Wright]

Has not been a worse team to watch play footy this year then north,

Except marginally Brisbane, Ess and Freo

Hard to disagree with that.

I've been going to most games for years and have only swiped the membership twice this year. Petrie and Harvey's milestones.

The kicking down the boundary with Hollywood Thomas roaming the forward line is just too much. The ducking and diving until recently (apart from Thomas) was sickening. The club isn't what it was. Brad has torched the culture.

Posters like Wild Bill are almost reason to quit reading Bigfooty.

The team won't have the luxury of 'Waite's last stand' or using Thomas as sub in finals this year.

Will get rightfully smashed week 1, and they can limp away blaming injuries and draw.

I can handle Brad's cowardly boundary line play or even his constant weak excuses but when he started to encourage his players to play like soft cheats, its just too much on top of having Thomas the fraud.

Unwatchable con artist of the highest order. Has the integrity of an ice cube.

 

[Engimal v2]

give us the flag boyos

 

[Richoman Tigers]

give us the flag boyos

Unlike north to ask for a handout

 

[Rooboys Rool]

At the risk of entering some facts into the matter, North has an extensive injury list and only two of them are aged over 30 and that's including Ray who is only a rookie. So all those saying injuries to our ageing players are costing us are barking up the wrong tree.

That said, there are a lot of posters on the money. We need to move on Petrie, NDS and Firrito. Nahas and Ray will obviously go. That nearly cuts our number of over 30s in half and will leave us with room to chase a big name or two. If we could get a Hurley and O'Meara (if knee ok) to address the key back and classy outside mid that we need, with the players we will have coming back from injury we will be a good team next year.

 

[perplexed]

We're preparing to win a few more finals. Where are you guys at?

 

[peppy la pew]

So you classify making finals and winning final matches a success?? Unless you win a grand final you shouldn't be happy; there's 17 losers every year. You can win all the elimination finals / semis / prelims that you'd like, but you're still a loser.

Sure, i'm a Bulldogs supporter so give me crap about the not winning prelims and only having one flag. But i'm not satisfied and won't be until we win the big one.

I'd rather that then support North and their faux-tough players and still be happy just to make / win finals.

If you can't enjoy the ride that your team takes you on, unless you win a GF, then I pity you

 

[Engimal v2]

Unlike north to ask for a handout

On the contrary. Due to our low levels of income, it has actually been common for North Melbourne to ask for handouts, particularly in the mid-2000s when we really struggled financially. How embarrassing for you.

 

[Scotland]

North's 25-30 bracket is a bigger worry than their 30+. Everyone knows they are reliant on Harvey, Wells etc. but the next group of senior players are a bit underwhelming.

1987: Nahas, Swallow
1988: Higgins, Hansen, Goldstein, Thomas
1989: Tarrant
1990: Wright, Black
1991: Daw, Macmillan, Cunnington, Ziebell

Some good players among them but not exactly a collection of game breakers.

 

[Mattdougie]

At the risk of entering some facts into the matter, North has an extensive injury list and only two of them are aged over 30 and that's including Ray who is only a rookie. So all those saying injuries to our ageing players are costing us are barking up the wrong tree.

That said, there are a lot of posters on the money. We need to move on Petrie, NDS and Firrito. Nahas and Ray will obviously go. That nearly cuts our number of over 30s in half and will leave us with room to chase a big name or two. If we could get a Hurley and O'Meara (if knee ok) to address the key back and classy outside mid that we need, with the players we will have coming back from injury we will be a good team next year.

Yep the old Richmond play.

Don't admit we are not good enough just a couple players away from a good team again.

You rely way too much on your old bloke
Your mid age tier isn't that great
Uour kids are ok but nothing really to get too excited about except maybe a couple.

It's rebuild time not band aid time mate, if your club can't accept that it will float mid table for years. I'm more than happy for you guys too do that but if I supported the Roos I'd be ropable if they chase more mature fixes at this stage.

 

[Rooboys Rool]

North's 25-30 bracket is a bigger worry than their 30+. Everyone knows they are reliant on Harvey, Wells etc. but the next group of senior players are a bit underwhelming.

1987: Nahas, Swallow
1988: Higgins, Hansen, Goldstein, Thomas
1989: Tarrant
1990: Wright, Black
1991: Daw, Macmillan, Cunnington, Ziebell

Some good players among them but not exactly a collection of game breakers.

Think you are being a bit dismissive of the quality of some of those players. That said, have to agree that we don't have enough game breakers. Have too many players that promised a lot but haven't come on like hoped. Eg Ziebell. At his best he is game breaking elite, but he just doesn't do it anywhere near often enough.

 

[Ambrosia]

I don't see North's list falling off a cliff the way people are predicting.

All of; Brown, Wood, Goldstein, Ziebell, Cunnington, Tarrant, McMillan, Atley, Mcdonald and Swallow should be close to the prime of their career come 2017

 

[THECHIEFTON]

I just think they are to slow besides Wells in the midfield. Swallow, Zeibell, Cunnington, Gibson etc... Good players but all very similar.

 

[Rooboys Rool]

Yep the old Richmond play.

Don't admit we are not good enough just a couple players away from a good team again.

You rely way too much on your old bloke
Your mid age tier isn't that great
Uour kids are ok but nothing really to get too excited about except maybe a couple.

It's rebuild time not band aid time mate, if your club can't accept that it will float mid table for years. I'm more than happy for you guys too do that but if I supported the Roos I'd be ropable if they chase more mature fixes at this stage.

Yep, have to admit, if there's one thing I wish North would do it's model itself on the Bulldogs' premiership winning formula

 

[Rooboys Rool]

I just think they are to slow besides Wells in the midfield. Swallow, Zeibell, Cunnington, Gibson etc... Good players but all very similar.

Agreed. Desperately need more pace. Targeted that in last year's draft and those picks are looking promising but we need to go after pace again in this year's draft.

 

[Mattdougie]

Hahs

Yep, have to admit, if there's one thing I wish North would do it's model itself on the Bulldogs' premiership winning formula

really well done