Season 2021 - North Melbourne

Football Discussion Non Essendon Stuff
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North Melbourne

Coach – David Noble

2020 –

Points For – 17th
Points Against – 17th

Top 5 Best and Fairest

  1. Luke McDonald
  2. Jy Simpkin
  3. Jed Anderson
  4. Todd Goldstein
  5. Trent Dumont

2020 Rising Star Noms

Curtis Taylor (Rnd 5)

Ins – Aiden Corr, Atu Bosenavulagi, Jaidyn Stephenson, Lachie Young, Will Phillips, Tom Powell, Charlie Lazzaro, Phoenix Spicer, Eddie Ford, Patrick Walker, Connor Menadue

Outs – Paul Ahern, Ben Brown, Joel Crocker, Majak Daw, Sam Durdin, Shaun Higgins, Lachie Hosie, Ben Jacobs, Jamie McMillan, Tom Murphy, Jasper Pittard, Ed Vickers-Willis, Marley Williams, Mason Wood

My Prediction

Talk about your bad years, at least you could see the direction that Adelaide were heading in and felt there was some improvement. North just gradually got worse and after losing a head coach, stripped their list back to nothing. They have appointed a brand new coach and an intention to play finals football with a very short turn around.

The backline has kept it’s bones together and will rely heavily on Tarrant to get the job done. He will be supported by Walker and possibly McKay. Luke McDonald played some of his best footy in the second half of last year and it will be interesting to see if he gets more time in the middle next season. Corr will come in and join the backline in one of the more baffling recruitment decisions of recent times.

The midfield is sparse and super reliant on Cunnington to do the things that Cunnington does. He will need to drag a young midfield into the contest. Ziebell is looking like his body is a bit worn out and think he will spend less and less time in the middle. Dumont and Simkpin will spend more time in the middle and LDU started to show glimpses last year of why he was recruited so highly and this could be a good year for him.

The forward line is bare. Ben Brown has been their best forward for a long time and they sold him for a pile of magic beans. Larkey will play at the front line. Zurhaar is a fun player to watch but needs to improve the impact he has on games and affect them for longer.

The ruck stocks always look OK as long as Goldstein is there. Keeping him feels like a weird choice for a team in a total rebuild. They look light on if he is injured, the second most taps from a North Melbourne player was Daw and he only had 23 hit outs. I don’t know what to make of the Noble appointment. If it works, it will change the way head coaches are appointed, I think it worked at Brisbane but their list was more advanced than the North list.

I don’t see a world where North don’t collect the wooden spoon this year. They have gutted their list and don’t have a lot of young talent ready to step up and fill the void they have created. They will win one or two games but not many more. Being a North supporter has been tough but its about to get harder.

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Fold FC.

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■■■■ off and die FC

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us and them for last

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I watched the draft with my brother-in-law, who is a Roos member. After the Doggies and Crows picks he was was rubbing his hands in glee at the prospect of picking up Logan McDonald, the highest rated tall forward in the draft. Instead they went for Phillips, a mid, and he was devastated. Says it all really about their chances this coming season. This club is set for a world of pain for years to come. Odds on for the wooden spoon.

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They will finish dead last, and won’t win a single game.

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They play us twice, I’d put it 50/50 they win one of them.

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Im 75/25 they win both

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So not a half full glass of beer man.

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More like Crows or Hawks

Cant see us being worse than North if we are then we are in deep ■■■■

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I was surprised by how aggressively they pruned the list…particularly with the uncertainty of this draft crop AND the coaching vacancy on top of everything.

I applaud their courage to do it, to take a long-term view…particularly for a club so financially weak…will be fascinating to see whether it works out, but won’t know for years.

They still have to find a way to use their salary cap space to attract good players. Stephenson was a decent value get, to exploit Collingwood’s woes, but they must still have huge cap space.

Spoon next year. Talls are non-existent, so they should perhaps be looking at the form of our fringe talls.

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Will likely finish bottom 4, but not sure they will be as bad as everyone thinks.

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Well they picked up Eddie Ford, so they should make the 8 at least.

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Legit who is their coach?

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Noble David

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A Noble coach embiggens the smallest club

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They going to look like rock stars in a few years or dead set trash bottom four for a decade.

The Shaw experiment appears to have been ‘planned’ knowing he will fail and using him to do the dirty work whilst he was barely capable from some personal issues. You have to wonder if the rebuild, list cutting and sacking of his coaching group led to some of his ‘issues’. Guess we will never know.

I just can’t see where their improvement will come from. None of the talented drafted players they have brought in have not set the world on fire and some of their trading has been questionable.

Not picking McDonald will come back to bite them.

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Coming into 2021 will they be worse than Essendon 2016?

Another comparison, I’ll be curious to know if they’ll top the 3 wins and a percentage of 61.0% from that year. I was stoked with those wins at the time, it was said we’d fail to win all year and then Parish dobbed that sealer against Melbourne only a few weeks later.

The season just past in a shortened fixture of 17 games all up: 3 wins and 71.2% They’ve gained new coaching staff and a new culture will sweep through long term, yet they’ve cut so much deadwood and experience.

It’s not particularly significant and not an empirical measure but a curiosity nonetheless to see how they compare to our brigade of kids, ring ins, rejects and misfits from that year. Half way through this year I actually felt for Nicks (apart from when we fell across the line) but prior to the return of Sloane and newfound confidence late on, it appeared as if Adelaide may even go winless until they went apeshit against Hawthorn and gave us all a big chortle. I’m not expecting the first winless side for donkey’s years but who knows with North?

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I thought the choice of Phillips over McDonald was a good one for where North is at. Kid looks like he’ll be a very good footballer, and is a natural leader. Has Cunnington/Ziebell to learn his craft from, and can fill that hole when they retire.

Don’t get me wrong, McDonald looks a great prospect too. But Phillips addresses a need which will definitely need filling in a year or two.

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I agree with this point. Sure Phillips fills a great need, but their need for a KPF is greater and McDonald ticks all the boxes. In this draft tall forwards were at a premium, and they should have snaffled him up.