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While North Melbourne’s win-loss record may not represent a nice season for this young team, it was a solid start for the first year of their rebuild. Here is my season review.
Previous season reviews
Carlton
Gold Coast
Brisbane
What happened
North Melbourne kicked off their season with straight losses to West Coast, Geelong, GWS, the Western Bulldogs, and Fremantle. However, despite their record being 0-5 after five games, they lost two of them by 43 and 42 points respectively, with the other three having a margin under a goal.
In their next six games before the bye, they managed to produce four wins, with the most impressive of them being an upset over Adelaide by 59 points and stunning them in the first quarter to be up 64-0 at quarter time.
Following the bye, they had six straight losses at the hands of St Kilda, the Western Bulldogs, Gold Coast, Fremantle, Port Adelaide, and Essendon, with two of them being close losses.
They finished off the season with two wins from five starts over Melbourne and Brisbane, and finally winning a close game over the red and the blue which was found to be one of the games that shaped the Dees season, but their three losses between those wins were rather disappointing.
Overall, the five close losses against Fremantle twice, the Western Bulldogs twice, and Geelong in Round 2 were the difference between contending for finals and placing in the bottom four.
Mark out of 10: 7/10
The coach
Brad Scott looks on the right track in the Roos rebuild, and once they find the way to eliminate the close losses and develop their young kids completely, expect them to be a contender.
Mark out of 10: 6.5/10
The Best 22 – End of 2017
B: Marley Williams, Scott Thompson, Daniel Nielson
HB: Shaun Atley, Robbie Tarrant, Jamie Macmillan
C: Shaun Higgins, Ben Cunnington, Luke McDonald
HF: Nathan Hrovat, Jarrad Waite, Kayne Turner
F: Taylor Garner, Ben Brown, Jy Simpkin
Foll: Todd Goldstein, Jack Ziebell, Trent Dumont
I/C: Braydon Preuss, Mason Wood, Declan Mountford, Sam Gibson
Ben Jacobs is unlucky to be in their best 22, having been injured for all of 2017. Young players such as Ryan Clarke and Sam Durdin, as well as developing Sudanese ruck-forward Majak Daw are unlucky not to be a feature by the end of 2017, however, their position in the team might change following the trade period and the draft.
List changes
Possible delistings:
Will Fordham – Fordham’s delisting has already been announced and is fair after not making much of an impact at the club in his time there.
Matthew Taylor – Taylor failed to make much of an impact in his year at Arden Street.
Lachie Hansen – The Roos rebuild forced Hansen, who is 29 years old, out of the team after eleven years at the club. He will most certainly appeal to clubs in need of short-term key defenders.
Scott Thompson – There is likely to be some controversial delistings again from the Roos this year, with them in rebuild mode, and I believe North will delist Scott Thompson to make room for younger talent such as Sam Durdin in their best 22.
Jarrad Waite – Waite has been a fantastic player when he’s available, however, he has struggled to stay on the park for a complete season in his time at the club, and I believe that North won’t offer him a new contract for 2018.
Free Agents
Their only free agent remaining this year is Scott Thompson, in which I suggested above that he will be delisted by North Melbourne to make way for young, developing defenders.
Picks: 4, 21, 44, 62, 76
Potential trade targets
North Melbourne was chasing Dustin Martin and Josh Kelly hard, but ultimately once again failed in their chance of wooing an A-Grade player to Arden Street.
There has been talk about whether Andrew Swallow will join Gold Coast in a late-career club change, however it seems more likely that the ex-skipper will remain at the Roos in 2018. However, if he does, the Roos could demand a second-round pick in return for him.
Jake Stringer has been strongly linked to North Melbourne, and could definitely get there. A trade that could get Stringer to the Roos is Todd Goldstein and a young player, such as Jed Anderson, Ben McKay, Ed Vickers-Willis, or Corey Wagner, for Jake Stringer and pick 39, which is originally North Melbourne’s third-round pick.
Stringer would add a long-term partner for Ben Brown in attack for the next eight to ten years, and would bolster their forward line with young talent, as well as adding players into the 24 to 26-year-old age group.
They might try and look at attempting to bolster their midfield by looking at gems by possibly making a play for Harley Balic, Tom Lamb, Lukas Webb, Anthony Miles, or Patrick Lipinski. All of them are aged 25 or under, and you could get either of them for a third or fourth-round draft pick. Besides that, they should look to the draft and focus their future.
Retirements
Hansen has already been delisted and seems unlikely to continue his career within the walls of another AFL club at this stage. Jarrad Waite seems likely to either play on or retire, and you would bet that North won’t offer him a new contract considering they are in rebuild mode.
Others who may be forced to contemplate retirement are Andrew Swallow, Lindsay Thomas, Scott Thompson, and Sam Gibson.
Early prediction
I suspect will stay around the same mark of five to seven wins, however it wouldn’t surprise me if they did better than last season.
That’s my review of North Melbourne’s 2017, what are your thoughts?
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