North Melbourne are sliding under the mediocrity radar

It's a nightmare, my wife and one of my offspring go for Collingwood, either way I lose! Should be a good tussle, oddly my overexposure to Collingwood have made me quite like them.

You should do a preview on the North Pies game, North should win and it should be a good indication of where both teams are at. It'll be the 1st time Collingwood have had any quality opposition (should North come to play that is!)

josh, you are obviously know/follow north, and so do i. i disagree about greenwood. 7, 9 and 10 are good inside mids, but give little outside run. levi got a dozen contested possions, but had the running engine to get on the burst and take uncontested marks on the wing and run (like, 8, 29, 43 and 15 do). levi was invaluable in this respect. with 8 and 15 out, the outside running capacity is down a lot. i think levi not being there is a big factor in this. i think he was our best mid last year. i accept cunners beat him by 1 vote. but i assume you are familiar with the syd barker voting system. levi did remarkably well to run so close in such a voting system given not in the side until round 7 (and then it was as sub).

They didn't start last year slowly. Obviously, they had a poor result in round one, but they beat Sydney, Freo and Port in the opening rounds. For me, there's no need to explain their early season form as being down to a slow start or anything like that. Their results have been what one would expect of a team around the 7th or 8th mark, which is where I believe they've been consistently been the last few years, including in 2013 when they finished lower, and 2014 when they finished higher. I agree that Waite and Higgins have been pretty good pickups.

I hadn't forgotten that they got them via free agency. Well done to North.

Took a very non scientific look at the draw that would appall Ryan Buckland. Due to the vagaries of said draw and a bit of common luck North could go as well as 15 & 7. Certainly 14 8 or 13 9 so they should make the 8 comfortably. Gotta be in it to win it. Some stats Ryan would be more comfortable with although it is a drawing a looooooooog bow. NM won in '75 after losing the first 4 ( then only team to do so ) and then being 3 & 6. In '96 the lost by 79 to Sydney and 67 to WC and won the decider easily. Anyway it could all go to hell but if they get some form at the pointy end, anything can happen.

When we are good we are very good but when we are bad we are shocking!!!!! Consistency of effort is all we ask, is it time the evil twin was shown the door?????

There's a lot of things sliding under the radar this year thanks to the Malthouse soap opera. It appears to be close to winding up now though, so expect the media blowtorch to shift targets back onto the field rather than off it. North Melbourne will be squarely in its sights if they keep dishing up that rubbish against top sides.

Levi Greenwood was never our best midfielder - not even remotely close - and his departure had nothing to do with the arrival of Waite and Higgins as both he and the club have stated on numerous occasions. The key area our midfield is lacking in at the moment is outside runners due to the injuries to Wells and Dal Santo - something that still having Greenwood at the club would not help with in the slightest. I certainly wish we still had a hold of him as he was a good ball winner and shut-down player, but he chose to leave believing his spot in the side was not secure. Good luck to him, I hope he makes an impact for Collingwood when he gets back.

We haven't traded for any older experienced players, the likes of Dal Santo, Higgins and Waite all came to the club via Free Agency. There's a significant difference as we didn't have to give up any draft picks to get them meaning we didn't compromise our ability to draft talented youth into the side.

We have a history of slow starts to the year under Scott, which, as you suggest in the article, can be a bit frustrating at times. The flip side to that is that we also have a history of coming good in the latter half of the year which, well, is the better end of the year to be playing your best footy in I think. Yes we may be 4-4 but at the moment that's only two wins off second spot and I think that our fixture is just about to open up. The nature of our losses has been a bit disappointing but again, I think we're again going to peak in the latter half of the year and should hopefully have improved a fair bit when it comes to those crucial games at the pointy end of the season. I find those labelling the recruitment of Higgins and Waite as failures quite bizarre. Really, I think they have been some of the best recruits in the AFL so far this season - barring Dayne Beams, would you say any other player who swapped clubs in the off-season is playing better than they are at the moment? Higgins is averaging 1.6 goals per game for us and nearly 18 disposals, as a classy kick he has been incredibly important for us with Wells and Dal Santo out, Waite is going at 1.9 goals per game and has taken a fair share of the heat off Petrie and Brown and allowed them both to shine. Jeff Garlett and Mitch Clark are probably on a similar sort of level. Obviously at this point those recruitments haven't seen our ladder position rise dramatically, but you can't doubt the form either player is in. In short, no need to write us off just yet. We tend to come good in the latter half of the season & I reckon that'll be the case once again in 2015. Whether we can finish in form good enough to challenge for the top four or the flag obviously is yet to be seen.

The problem is we are beaten pointless in the centre clearances even though Goldy is doing a very good job. You cannot defend the ball when you are ten metres away from your opposition player. We were told that the players were fast and that endurance was good so how come opposition players can step around our players with ease. The most frustrating thing is these players that is on contracts that make our pay packets look empty cannot pass the ball properly and hopeless kicks at goal . How can it be fixed I cannot say but an answer has to be found soon or we cannot rise up the ladder this year . Signed Ernie. Oneeyeroo

interesting article. you discredit the richmond win because they used their sub early and cite injuries. please refresh me as to who was injured for them ? cotchin, martin, rewidold, rance, delidio, maric, miles, ellis all played. eager to hear whom it was. north were missing wells, dal santo, and grima - all 'best 18' players. north beat them fair and square and the tigers have sprung to life since. you then clot the port loss, but fail to mention that north lost ziebell early in the match and thus were 'one down'.he got injured much earlier in match than ben griffits did for tigers and is clearly a better player. sam wright got injured too, but had to stay on (or with limited game time). others have pointed out how ports form was very good at the time, for which i concur. as far as honourable losses go, this was a very game and brave loss when basically robbie gray won 2 clearances and our tired legs could run no more. north also had hansen and mc millan out that night - 6 of its 'best 18'. you cite the age of players on the list, but you might want to check the syd barker numbers from last year. cunnington won from goldstien. atley, gibson, swallow (despite being inj most of year) and ziebell were all in the top 10. hansen was running 3rd until he got injured. i think north have a good mix at present personally. as for waite, i concur. dont like getting him. would rather they had made daw, wood and black fight for the one spot. we did not need a tall marking forward. you pick free agents where they fill a void on your list. we had no void in this dept.. accept waite didnt cost us anything, but we could have picked another kid on the list instead. dal santo and higgins on the other hand, filled a void and no issue recruiting them. you say the are 'still' getting exposed against the best teams. i would say this is a new problem in 2015. in 2014 north beat every other side that made the finals. i think this is in part due to them being rated a higher and being taken more seriously. a challenge every contender must overcome, from going from 'upset' winner to winning as a peer. for what is worth, i think north will finish bottom half of 8. like last year. they were just fortunate enough to play finals in melb last year in some close games and get over the line. they were never really a top 4 side, and are not now. that said, it takes a bit of courage to recruit older players and have the gumption to admit you are having a crack at the flag. no point just waddling mid table, its easier to cop out and claim to be 'building' than pull the trigger and go for it. i think we all know they will fall short, but whats the point in not hoping for a bit of luck. the other factor is the harder draw from finishing top 6 in 2014. like a hcp in a horse race, north will have actually 'improved' in 2015 if they mainintain their 2014 spot of 5th to 6th.

Losing Greenwood had nothing to do with Waite or Higgins. Well, maybe forced the move for Higgins. Greenwood was lost when he wasn't re-signed early last year when he demanded. He made a decision then that he would not sign again at North without asking way more than he was worth. Higgins and Waite also cost no draft picks. They were free agents. Fact is, there is very little disposal skill among the group and the big forwards are far too much for North's key defenders.

I guess it's just their luck that the media attention has been directed mainly at the whole 'Carlton crisis', as well as how nicely teams like GWS and West Coast are travelling - to everyone's surprise. Completely agree that they're sliding under the radar

I have to disagree there Jax. The moves we made to bring in the likes of Higgins and Waite didn't compromise our list at all. We gave up zero draft picks and got them both through free agency.

Ah we've had worse. There's been a bit of topsy turvey action this season. They need to hold it together as better players come back on board. Lots of outs but good sides don't worry about that sort of stuff or their opponents and everyone has players out. They have Colliewobbles, WC, Syd and GWS in the next 4 rounds so will need to be 6 and 6 at the very least. The thing I notice is they don't seem to have a plan B when they are getting trounced. Freo are a pretty good side but North seemed to run around loose all over the shop regardless. Anyway onward and upward.

you are right Jax and it isn't just their age but the fact that Petrie and Harvey are still such important players to their success.