The Chinese zodiac calendar proclaimed 2014 to be the Year of the Horse as of January 31, but many media pundits lay claim that 2014 could very well be the year of the Kangaroo according to the AFL zodiac.
The hype and excitement surrounding the men of Arden Street is high after an off-season where the club has kicked significant goals both on and off the field.
These include key administrative recruitments such as former Collingwood football boss Geoff Walsh, who has signed on as football director.
Walsh rejoined the Kangaroos after previously being CEO from 2002-06 before departing for the Magpies, where he worked alongside current North senior coach Brad Scott.
Highly touted aspiring senior coach Leigh Tudor was lured away from the Sydney Swans after failing in his bid to become Essendon interim head coach and will be senior assistant in charge of the Roos’ backline.
Another highly rated assistant coach in Gavin Brown signed on in October after leaving Carlton, where he worked under former Carlton coach Brett Ratten and his replacement Mick Malthouse.
Last season saw a major disparity in North’s statistics where their tackling skills – in particular late in games – at season’s end saw them ranked 15th in the competition (58.6 per game) for average tackles.
Enter John Donohoe, the renowned tackling coach from the Melbourne Storm who has the task of injecting fierce tackling pressure into their side.
Cameron Ling will assume the role of player and leadership mentor one day per week, with his experience as a three-time Geelong premiership player seen as invaluable for their young list.
It’s no secret that North had a terrible run with both closing matches out and maintaining the composure under pressure from the opposition.
Yes, they lost 10 matches by under three goals and an astonishing five matches by under a kick which was gut-wrenching for both the players and their supporters.
It almost become expected after the first few losses, when the likes of Nic Naitanui and the unfathomable Adelaide Crows made the impossible look routine.
The season slowly but surely slipped away and they had nobody to blame but themselves as their decision-making and gecko-like scrambling at the end became all too normal.
One of the key on-field recruitments was the addition of St Kilda midfielder Nick Dal Santo, who certainly had the football world buzzing after his split from the Saints.
He is exactly what the Kangaroos were looking for in a seasoned experienced midfielder who can play half back or forward and rotate through the centre of the ground.
His clean ball use and level head will aid the young Kangaroos mids, and will no doubt help keep their league-leading effective disposal percentage of 74.2 from last season rolling over into this one.
But all the painful losses are in the past now. Anyone outside the North Melbourne fraternity will be jabbing with a sharp stick and alluding to the horrid stretch they endured in season 2013, but inside – as we are told – is a different story.
“Brad [Scott] always says you get what you deserve in footy, and last year we deserved to finish outside the top eight because we weren’t good enough,” Roos veteran Brent Harvey told The Age.
”Whether that changes this year, we don’t really talk about that stuff – there is a lot of predictions going on at this time of year and we’ve just got to leave that to everyone else.”
With a few tweaks to the game plan and the addition of Dal Santo to add more midfield depth, North can challenge for a top-four position but – and this is a huge but – they seem to struggle against the top calibre sides, in particular defensive sides such as Sydney and Fremantle.
Their game plan from 2013 was not one that would win them a flag because everyone knows the term ‘defence wins flags’.
They could score at a rapid pace almost at will, but if the tables were turned and their opponent started moving down the field they would be cut through like butter.
Their form so far in the NAB Challenge has been far below their standard, but as we saw with Brisbane last season it means little how hard a team performs in the pre-season.
Time will tell whether North Melbourne make the leap from outside the Top 8 into finals contention and maybe a top four berth.
A team can have the backing of so many and all the components both on and off the field, but it matters little until we see what the players can do once they step onto the field.
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