Waite could head North as AFL free agent

I just can't see how he would help North...permanent sub? I'd love to see him stranded with no-one picking him up...and having to crawl back to Carlton on a minimum player's wage. He has nothing to offer any team. People pick on Colin Sylvia...at least he has a few more years, still, to get his act together.

Ash, I would definately not say that majority of Norths list is young. What a misconception that is! When we refer to 'lists' we are talking about the 25 odd players who actually are considered for game day not the players who are 3 years away / getting developed in VFL or even the guys who don't end up cutting it & getting dropped. By picking up a free agent in 2013 with 3 odd seasons left in him (read Dal Santo) and in 2014 another with no more than 2 seasons left in him (read Waite), it's quite clear North are trying to 'pinch' a flag in 2015. That's not how the top teams have won theirs recently (Hawks, Geelong, Sydney). Even Port and Freo have been steadily building although I think Freo have missed their boat now. North will miss out on this pretentious 'window' then let's fast forward 3 years; No Petrie, Harvey, Wells, Dal Santo, Thomas, Firrito, Swallow (50/50) & Grima (50/50). I will give S. Thompson the benefit of the doubt. Don't think North a capable of great things without these guys. Much better to do a semi rebuild like Carlton and build the team around the young talent they have. The only comment I will withdraw from my last post is the bit about Grima. I had no idea he is 29! Thought he was young as he plays like a 21 year old <100 gamer. Can't build a team around him.

Considering where the list is at and considering how well they performed in finals despite an inconsistent season, I would rather they go for broke for a flag rather than sit back. If it doesn't work then we were simply not good enough.

yeah, north were awfully inconsistent this year......losses early in the season to the inform at the time coll, ess and gold coast. two losses to the cats (one in geelong), Adelaide in Adelaide, swans in a prelim. it seems north a being hung for two 'poor' games which were carlton and Brisbane as being the sole nexus for the 'inconsistent' label. on the basis of two bad losses, does that mean the swans were inconsistent cos they lost to GWS and Richmond. perhaps port and freo were inconsistent too, freo lost to the saints in melb (far worse than north losing to bris in bris or carl). cats lost to gold coast. im not saying north should be excused for those two losses, but pointing out every team will go through some ups and downs throughout the season and you cant really be at 100% peak every week. its just a very easy label to append in a season where every side lost atleast 5 games. in 2013 it was north lost the close ones - well they fixed that. this year, it was inconsistent, seemingly on back of bris and carl losses.

I would think maybe end of second round. I actually could see the blues end up with quite a few picks between their second and third picks, Robinson is getting some interest and could go for a pick in the 30's (maybe higher if the Hampson trade is anything to go by), Garlett might be late 30's early 40's and I could see Warnock going for somewhere around there as well.

I think Waite will go well at Nth. He should fit into there inconsistency program just fine.

Danny D , how is North throwing the kitchen sink by getting 1-2 unrestricted free agents what crap, the majority of the list is young and adding some top up players for depth and Waite as maybe a Blackman is not throwing the baby out with the bath water, you may want to revise your article.

Waite is only one player. No harm done and he's another option. All North's oldies are well aware they are running out of time. They will give it a shake.

Yes, North have beaten a lot of the top sides this year when the 'good' North turn up and have looked impressive but I believe Norths list is b grade talent heavy. If most of their players don't play near their best they go missing far too easily. Look what happened in the prelim?! Long way to go for North to be a convincing top 4 side. In addition, most of Norths most important if not best players are 28 years old plus! Give it two years once they go North will be a bottom table side. Taking in more top end players only prolongs mediocrity and hovering around 6-10th doesn't do a whole lot of good for draft picks you will only be at the bottom for longer. Makes more sense to be realistic about where you guys are at, trade off your 'good' senior players for draft picks (one or two a year) and build a team around Thompson, Grima, Swallow, Ziebell, Bastinac, McDonald, B. Brown, Atley, Turner. Hawthorn will have to do it with Hodge, Sewell, Mitchell and Lewis in the next two/three years not hold them until they all retire at once and then what? Doesn't make sense that one of the more inconsistent sides in the comp is going out on a limb for a laughable 'flag tilt' and picking up one of the more inconsistent players in the comp! They are only giving their supporters false hope or perhaps B. Scott is throwing the kitchen sink in for 2015 otherwise if they don't perform that might be his job?

Jack, with you. Half way through the season Waite was a write off, only the massive criticism of him by the likes of Mark McClure made him pull up his socks( a bit.) Who knows, now we might be able to draft a great player. North, you've been dudded.

A real gamble on Waite. The problem is he does not defend particularly well, and is really suspect as a kick. He takes big marks, but is very inconsistent. Carlton had him for 13 seasons, do they honestly think he will improve now? Waite might have actually saved Carlton from a tough decision. Half way through the season, Waite was gone. He obviously knew he had to play well in the 2nd half of the season to put off the retirement plans. Carlton needs to also unload Garlett and just concentrate on recruiting new talent. End of the day, Waite was not going to get us to a flag.

danny, why wouldnt north try and challenge for a flag. you have to 'go for broke' at some stage. not point sitting mid-table claiming you are building. of course recruiting older players could backfire, but reality is, you have to try and get the list to a spot it can compete with the best through natural draft processes and then try and add the cream to make that final leap. north beat every side in the finals this year and also 9th and 10th, so surely are not far off the mark. scott has built the list to about as good as it can get internally, the final step from being a 4th-6th side, is going to have to come from recuiting mature age players, not drafting 18yo kids. of course, this means in 5 years time, north wont have much in the 20-25yr old cupboard, but i'd rather take the punt and risk of winning a flag now in next few years by adding some cream, than keeping what we have and finishing 4th-6th for a few years and not bottoming out, but rather going for broke, maybe getting a flag, but maybe a wooden spoon to in 5yrs time.

norths key defender stocks are ok, missed hansen badly in finals. thomspon, grima, hansen. and then joel tippett and cam delaney who had injuries this year. toss in firrito as a quasi tall, and there are 6 players to fill 3 spots on any give week.

as a north fan, i dont understand why we would want him. key forwards is the one part of the list north have well shored up. scott likes to play 3 talls each week. petrie is no.1 and takes best defender. at end of year it was black and brown in the other 2 spots. young players with talent. majak can be expected to come on in 2015 (he had no pre-season coming into 2014 and as such actually went better than i thought coming back from an ACL). mason wood dominated in VFL, got 1 game late and kicked 3 goals. and robbie tarrant is better than all of them if (and its a big if) he can get his body right. so, thats 6 blokes fighting for 3 spots. that is good healthy competition. options aplenty. coverage for injuries. all bar petrie are 25 or under. why would we want to add a 7th who is costing coin, 31yrs old, with a modest track record at best. lets not forget his form was pretty average for 17 rounds this season. i can only assume its a case of north match committee seeing his match against us, and not much else. id much rather develop brown, black, daw, wood and cross fingers tarrant gets body right and work with what is already on the list. most clubs would kill for the 6 forwards we have. what north needs is another running wing or half back type. ie, sean atley or daniel wells.

What are North thinking? By showing interest in Waite they obviously think they're in a position to challenge for a flag in 2015? Long way to go I reckon. Surely Port would be an ideal proposition, they genuinely showed they are in the running and definately need another key forward alongside Shultz!

Will be interested to see what sort of compensation pick we get for Waite. My guess would be a third round pick.

As a massive blues fan I have to say this is great news . He is injury prone and did what this year? Kicked 4 golas in one game ? Now we are getting 23 year old Liam jones!!! Who has more upside? Look what happened to sculuze when he went to port! On North Melbourne I think they are buying there way out of a flag window. They were full on salary cap last year so surely can't afford Waite and Higgins ? North will have del santo 31 Petrie 31? Waite 32 and injury prone wells 30 Harvey 67? I dislike north and think blues will be top 4 next year and north will bottom out now

Wouldn't be the first time the masterplan has come unstuck, although people actually wanting to come to North is a bit of a novelty. I think Spud is retiring. Could do with an extra tall at the back as well.

I would be surrised if the blues were willing to part with pick 7 for Jaksch, even with pick 23 thrown in. By the sounds of things he is going to tell them where he wants to go (St Kilda or the Blues) and when that happens the whip hand is with the receiving club, the blues were on the wrong end of the deal when Jacobs left, they wanted pick 14 or so from memory but had to settle for pick 30 something or risk losing him for nothing. On top of that Jaksch has played 7 games in 2 years and has kicked a grand total of 2 goals and averaged just 3 marks a game, I know he has "potential" but the blues second pick or maybe Garlett and the blues compo pick for Waite (somewhere in the early 30's) would probably get the job done.

Ever since Wood came into the side and did well I have been saying that Warnock should be traded. Kreuzer plays his best as the number 1 ruckman, Casboult is the ruck froward and Wood is the reserve/pressure.