Where are north at?

[BPikkers]

I'm not a huge fan of North, so correct me if i'm wrong, but i would have thought:

Boomer = Corey Wagner
Wells = Ryan Clarke
Petrie = Ben McKay
Waite = Majak Daw
Dal santo = Mitchell Hibberd

They also have Sam Durdin at Weribee who looks like a good developing KPD.

Not saying that those players will necessarily match up exactly, and i would assume that North will probably be around 8-10 at the end of next season as well. I wouldn't be expecting North to drop off a-la Melbourne/Carlton of the late 2000s though.

Mason Wood looks handy

 

[FlowersByIrene]

Shit journalism?

haha good one

 

[Wild Bill]

Of course you are

Facts are we don't bottom out. I can understand you don't like to reflect on history as you would be headed for 9th next year.

Actually that might be a win.

 

[Jesslc]

Because we all know past performance is a great indication of future performance. Glad Freo are going to be minor premiers again this year



You make those 5 changes to North's side and they are bottom 4 next year for sure.

Haha tigs supporters really lighten things up in here.

 

[Coach Bombay]

Haven't read the thread but North Melbourne are in a pretty bad spot. After 6 years of Brad building this side North are still only the 8th best side in the league. Just not good enough. On the way down now and the sooner it is realised the sooner they can act on it and open up the next premiership window. I personally believe that unless you are a premiership coach you only get one shot at building a list so Brad has to go. Unfortunately he is still contracted, why it was extended ill never know.

I'd love to be wrong but I think its at least another 4/5 years before North contend again.

 

[Sprout]

Some sides are better at not having to have years at the bottom of the ladder. We are one of those teams.

If North can get through their next phase following the retirements of Harvey, Wells, Dal Santo and co without moving into or near the bottom four, it will be a pretty impressive effort. I know North fans like to claim they never bottom out but the biggest test of that is about to come.

 

[The Gong]

You broke the 1st rule...

Finally!

 

[Hearts to hearts]

If North can get through their next phase following the retirements of Harvey, Wells, Dal Santo and co without moving into or near the bottom four, it will be a pretty impressive effort. I know North fans like to claim they never bottom out but the biggest test of that is about to come.

Not sure it's the biggest test. The departures of Carey, Stevens, McKernan, Martyn, King, Rock, Blakey, Longmire and the rest was a bigger challenge, after seven years of top four finishes and the lack of high draft picks that went with that (compounded by the self-inflicted issues of paying a year's worth of draftees for Colbert). Slid to bottom four once and not until 2006, finals the year before that and then back to finals the year after.

Not saying it will be easy to replace those guys - Harvey is probably Norths best small player ever, so they don't grow on trees - but I don't see this is a huge watershed moment.

 

[mtooler]

Haha you're kidding? Have you been living under a rock the passed 12 months and avoided what north fans dribble on the game day threads on the main board ?

I haven't been on the mainboard barely at all, just the Swans board, thought Id check it out.

 

[Thats Wright]

If North can get through their next phase following the retirements of Harvey, Wells, Dal Santo and co without moving into or near the bottom four, it will be a pretty impressive effort. I know North fans like to claim they never bottom out but the biggest test of that is about to come.

It's a bit of an unusual situation at North.

Brad Scott is the self-appointed manager of mediocrity. For good and for bad.

For every absolute turtle that Brad brings in (Farren Ray, Robin Nahas, Sam Gibson, Will sierakowski, Ben Mckinlay) or even the soft (Dal Santo) or injury prone (Waite, Higgins), there's a collection of blue balled talent itching at the bit in chains.

The trick is to expend the experienced turtles before introducing the players that will eventually fill their void.

It takes a special kind of coach to successfully fall short of utilizing available talent while exhausting all the experienced role players.

Brad Scott has a license to mediocrity and he excels at it.

 

[Joey longshadow]

North Melbourne are the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. They have no Great War. No Great Depression. Their Great War’s a spiritual war… their Great Depression is their lives. They’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day they’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But they won’t. And they’re slowly learning that fact. And they’re very, very pissed off.

Wow. So your saying that Nth are the Jan Brady of the AFL.... inspired thinking

 

[Jeremias]

North went all out for a flag but have obviously fallen short. You can't blame them for trying but now they're not in a great position and have some big decisions to make.

Very mature side and you'd have to think they'll look to even the ledger with youth starting at the end of this year rather than push once again for something which is quite clearly out of reach.

There are plenty of players there with serious question marks over them - Firrito, Dal Santo, Petrie, Waite, Wells and of course Boomer - but you can't get rid of them all at once.

Firrito you'd think is surely gone as well as one of Petrie or Waite, with the other to depart at the end of next year. NDS is obviously in a precarious position given he's out of contract.

Both of Wells and Boomer are playing well enough to go around next year.

On top of the above surely both Nahas and Ray are let go - I was never quite sure why either were given another opportunity and you'd have to say their time is up.

Get rid of these players and replace them either with youth already on the list who haven't had much exposure or new draftees and start the process again.

 

[Thats Wright]

Development?

I did laugh.

They will pick up 2 experienced players in the off season.

And while Brad Scott is coach, so they should. He's utterly useless with young talent and has the empathy and vision of a stranded coconut.

 

[Sprout]

Not sure it's the biggest test. The departures of Carey, Stevens, McKernan, Martyn, King, Rock, Blakey, Longmire and the rest was a bigger challenge, after seven years of top four finishes and the lack of high draft picks that went with that (compounded by the self-inflicted issues of paying a year's worth of draftees for Colbert). Slid to bottom four once and not until 2006, finals the year before that and then back to finals the year after.

Not saying it will be easy to replace those guys - Harvey is probably Norths best small player ever, so they don't grow on trees - but I don't see this is a huge watershed moment.

Fair point. Not watershed in that the players at the pointy end aren't all greats, but they are playing a large part in the relative successes. And there are a lot of them.

How those players are filtered out of the side and the list management in general over the next couple of years will be interesting. Free agency could obviously impact the extent of the drop.

 

[Hearts to hearts]

North went all out for a flag but have obviously fallen short. You can't blame them for trying but now they're not in a great position and have some big decisions to make.

Very mature side and you'd have to think they'll look to even the ledger with youth starting at the end of this year rather than push once again for something which is quite clearly out of reach.

There are plenty of players there with serious question marks over them - Firrito, Dal Santo, Petrie, Waite, Wells and of course Boomer - but you can't get rid of them all at once.

Firrito you'd think is surely gone as well as one of Petrie or Waite, with the other to depart at the end of next year. NDS is obviously in a precarious position given he's out of contract.

Both of Wells and Boomer are playing well enough to go around next year.

On top of the above surely both Nahas and Ray are let go - I was never quite sure why either were given another opportunity and you'd have to say their time is up.

Get rid of these players and replace them either with youth already on the list who haven't had much exposure or new draftees and start the process again.

Nothing there to argue with, except the expression "all out" suggests eggs in one basket - the club has still drafted and developed its full quota of kids every year while also grabbing targeted free agents, so it hasn't been a huge gamble. Had some bad injury luck with quite a few draftees, but fingers crossed we are past that now and more of them can come in as Wood, Brown, Clark, Turner and Garner have and make an impact. Thought Ray and Nahas were kind of a waste of spots this year but it turned out we would have run out of options without them - hope we don't get that desperate again any time soon.

Also expecting a few retirements after this year, and looking forward to seeing some newer players get more regular senior time. Especially keen to see Brown and Wood up forward, Vickers-Willis and Durdin back with McDonald back on deck, Dumont stay in the team, Jacobs back, and Clarke and Anderson settle into mid-forward roles. It would be good to see how guys like Atley and McDonald go outside of defence, but we don't have the most adventurous coaching panel around so I don't want to be unrealistic.

 

[Thats Wright]

Fair point. Not watershed in that the players at the pointy end aren't all greats, but they are playing a large part in the relative successes. And there are a lot of them.

How those players are filtered out of the side and the list management in general over the next couple of years will be interesting. Free agency could obviously impact the extent of the drop.

It will be interesting.

Wells will stay. Harvey likely to stay.

Which means Dal Santo could be cactus.

Firrito will go as McMillian, McDonald and Tarrant have all shown a fair bit this year.

Petrie will go. Waite will get another year for Bradbury's sake while Harvey and Wells are ticking over. A bit of gambling but Scott has no experience in even thinking about regeneration, renewal or youthful drive.

I'd delist/trade Gibson, Thomas, Hansen and have Swallow captain Werribee to see an actual opportunity at improvement. But that's another story.

It's a pity that Petrie and Firrito are likely to play their last games in Sydney without much fanfare.

 

[Sausage Legs]

Spooners in 2 years

 

[Thats Wright]

Spooners in 2 years

Simpson in 2 years.

 

[TwentyNine]

Make the case for why one of yours should be in there and who should be left out?

Wood over McCarthy
McDonald over Sheridan

Wow, that was easy.

 

[Super Hans]

I still can't believe Ryan Clarke is playing VFL. A team screaming for youth and they won't play the kid who looks like he's ****ing decent.

 

[Richoman Tigers]

Wood over McCarthy
McDonald over Sheridan

Wow, that was easy.

McCarthys season last year would make him your best forward. Wood can't get a game ahead of Petrie, Waite and Brown none of whom are world beaters.

Sheridan is also statistically superior to McDonald quite comfortably and probably doesn't receive the recognition he deserves in victoria

 

[TwentyNine]

I still can't believe Ryan Clarke is playing VFL. A team screaming for youth and they won't play the kid who looks like he's ******* decent.

He's played one game of VFL after a decent stretch in the senior team. He had seven disposals, all handballs, in his last senior game.

McCarthys season last year would make him your best forward. Wood can't get a game ahead of Petrie, Waite and Brown none of whom are world beaters.

Sheridan is also statistically superior to McDonald quite comfortably and probably doesn't receive the recognition he deserves in victoria

Lincoln McCarthy, mate. Wood was best 22 before he did his knee. Sheridan is rubbish. But there are tons of defenders on the list McDonald is superior to so take your pick.

 

[Richoman Tigers]

He's played one game of VFL after a decent stretch in the senior team. He had seven disposals, all handballs, in his last senior game.



Lincoln McCarthy, mate. Wood was best 22 before he did his knee. Sheridan is rubbish. But there are tons of defenders on the list McDonald is superior to so take your pick.

You have your rose coloured glasses on. Oleg Markov has been statistically better than McDonald in almost every aspect this season despite being a first year player...ditto Jayden Short and they were pick 50 and a rookie respectively. If McDonald is the answer to your exciting youth then it's worse than we thought.

Wood wasn't getting a game until Waite got injured so he played some games as depth but wasn't "best 22"

 

[TwentyNine]

You have your rose coloured glasses on. Oleg Markov has been statistically better than McDonald in almost every aspect this season despite being a first year player...ditto Jayden Short and they were pick 50 and a rookie respectively. If McDonald is the answer to your exciting youth then it's worse than we thought.

Wood wasn't getting a game until Waite got injured so he played some games as depth but wasn't "best 22"

So you think Oleg Markov and Jayden Short are better than Luke McDonald, but I'm the one with rose coloured glasses on. I don't think you could be a bigger waste of time mate. Have fun not having any footy to go to in September

 

[Richoman Tigers]

So you think Oleg Markov and Jayden Short are better than Luke McDonald, but I'm the one with rose coloured glasses on. I don't think you could be a bigger waste of time mate. Have fun not having any footy to go to in September

I didn't say that I said statistically they have been better in almost every category. Haven't seen a single Richmond fan creaming their pants over either to get into the best under 22 list though. To me McDonald appears a big bust for a first rounder.