With Darcy Lang choosing to ply his trade at Carlton signifying the start and end of North Melbourne’s Trade Period it is time to have a look and sift through the reasons for the lack of activity from a club that was so outward going in their chase for Josh Kelly and Dustin Martin.
The list of outs from the North Melbourne Football Club stands at six with the main players being Sam Gibson (Traded to Adelaide) and Aaron Mullett (Delisted).
These two players are big outs although self-inflicted and Mullett especially is an interesting one as they got rid of Brad McKenzie a few years ago in favour of Mullett which I did not agree with.
In regards to their draft position they did not improve that either. I was hoping as a North man that they would go the whole hog and look to get a number of picks in the first two rounds of the draft. This did not happen.
When Andrew Swallow was wanting to be with his brother at the Gold Coast I thought North would have jumped at the chance to offload him, even for a third-round pick but no.
Goldstein was not a genuine possibility of being traded due to his massive price tag. I was hoping quietly that he would be offloaded for a high second round to late first round pick.
North could have spent some of their “War Chest” money to pay a portion of his contract and that may have brought some more bidders to the table.
I remain optimistic for this No.4 draft selection. Hopefully we can see Paddy Dow slip to No.4 although I don’t hold out much hope.
We all now know that North have come out and said rebuild but with older players like Swallow and Goldstein in the side I don’t think this is very beneficial for the club going forward.
North’s major opportunity to accelerate their rebuild was this trade period but unfortunately couldn’t improve their draft position.
This time that North have in the end wasted hopefully won’t cause any major issues for them going forward.
A positive to take out of it was that they did not jump at the first opportunity of getting a player to make up for Kelly and Martin.
It showed that they are looking for a really special player and that does give me as a supporter some excitement for the future.
Looking at my updated team for 2018:
FB: Sam Wright, Robbie Tarrant, Marley Williams
HB: Luke McDonald, Scott Thompson, Jamie Macmillan
C: Ben Jacobs, Ben Cunnington, Mason Wood
HF: Nathan Hrovat, Jarrad Waite, Kayne Turner
FF: Jed Anderson, Ben Brown, Jy Simpkin
FOL: Braydon Preuss, Shaun Higgins, Jack Ziebell
INT: Ryan Clarke, Shaun Atley, Taylor Garner, Trent Dumont
It’s a young team and the likes of Paul Ahern and the draft picks to come after pre-season I’m looking forward to updating this team after draft night.
Harsh Truth Harry
Roar Rookie
8 comments...says it all about poor North, the sooner they merge the better.
Kangajets
Guest
I think the disappointment for north starts with keeping brad Scott at the helm.
David C
Guest
Latest rumour is Lindsay Thomas is getting the chop and Port are going to pick him up. North are cutting experienced players but getting nothing for them. No draft picks to pick up talent to replace them. The next few years are looking very bleak.
Ditto
Guest
Hawthorn turned Jed Anderson into Ryan Burton. Someone should write an article on worst/best flips. That has to be right up there.
David C
Guest
Goldy was the one North needed to move on but there were no takers. Maybe Atley? Hawthorn had the same problem. They wanted to trade out players but nobody wanted the ones they wanted to get rid of. No love for poor old Billy Hartung.
Cat
Roar Guru
They did give up a first round pick for him ...
David C
Guest
Things are looking a bit shaky when Jed Andersen makes the best 22.
Ditto
Guest
Ben,you expressed a hope that North would, ' look to get a number of picks in the first two rounds of the draft '. How were they going to do that ? Trading out players like Brown, Ziebell and Cunnington ? Trading out their youth to draft more youth? What do they do? North are between a rock and a hard place and I think sticking with what they've got was their only viable option.
Stephen
Guest
I tend to agree Ben. There are too many mixed messages out of North Melbourne. And I fully appreciate the best way to lose heavily each week is to play a very young side. A mix is required. Interesting Goldstein fails to make your best 22. And he's contracted at $750k a year! The 'Shinboner' spirit and culture will live on. The heart of North's problems for mine - is a very immature and self-centred senior coach. His immaturity shows up in his playing of favourites. How does a club in full rebuild maintain the oldest player in the AFL (Waite) on the list? Even if he still has a few tricks left in him Waite - it's the wrong message and confuses the strategic direction. Brad Scott's self-centredness was on show when he deliberately - albeit indirectly, informed AFL journalists, he was being pursued by the GC Suns to coach - at a time when he was seeking an extension. Eventually he will out-smart himself. But he is one of very few people in our great industry - I would not want at my club.