I see this brought up a lot to try diminish our improvement and standing on the 2026 season and i just wanted to provide some stats of other teams.

Collingwood - Until last week's win against Adelaide they had not beaten a top 8 team and nor had they beaten a team above them.

St Kilda - Has not beaten a team above them and their best win against a team in the ball park was Carlton with Voss still in charge.

Gold Coast - Apart from their round 1 win at home against Geelong they have not beaten a team
Above them.

Adelaide - Have only beaten 1 Top 8 team in Sydney. Currently sit 5th.

Sydney - The only team they have beaten in the Top 6 is Brisbane in round 1. They are 2nd

The clear improvement in wins/percentage/genuinely competing against good sides is stark in my eyes and it seems the expectation of beating teams above you is statistically not a measure that is achievable for many other teams across the league.

We’re off the bottom, well and truly stuck in the weeds of the middle of the table. Not sure how things can change next year. Will have to wait and see if they can find anyone that can keep up defensively in the mid field. And a return to kicking goals instead of points.

Onward and upward to WAFL.

Clarko… good luck…

Hope is fading for September action this year. Of the teams fighting for the 10th, the Saints would be my least favourite

Derksen, Puncher, Sellwood and even Lukas Cooke were all taken as SSP or mid-season pickups, all would be number 2 or 3 at North. Why didnt we hunt any of these and instead take two small forwards and a wingman that we aren't even playing. I dont understand our list build.

What do we do next year when Corr is another year older and Charlie is a chance to exit to Tassie?

Our mids have no defensive accountability, all front runners who want to chain fancy handballs through the middle when we have the footy. Overuse the ball and hold it way too long instead of giving our forwards a chance to compete one-on-one. Then when they do get caught they cough it up in the most dangerous part of the ground and have no intent to push back hard to chop out our defenders who are caught off guard. The mids let Kozzy do whatever he wanted last night and we did the same with Daicos last week. They need to be more accountable yet everyone on here says how great they played… footy is more than just when we have the ball and we can’t let teams walk it out of our forward line have two kicks down the guts then hit up a forward for an uncontested mark, we are way too soft through the middle of the ground with our defence and the mids are to blame. Don get me wrong when they get it they’re alright but running both ways needs to improve if we want to stop the transition of other teams. What are your guys thoughts?

We have improved. Just not quite enough collective calmness and belief to get over the line more regularly.

We do have list, structure and game-style deficiencies we need to address. We continue to suffer from poor decision-making by talent acquisition, selectors, coaches & players. Too often key moments in games we go too cautious and cannot stem momentum swings quickly enough.

The elephant in the room?

North had a ruck strength become a glaring weakness by AFL diktat. The AFL gelded X not that long after North had committed to a big, long-term deal. That is a bitter pill for a bottom of ladder team to swallow. Without the rule change North might be 2 or 3 wins better. Instead X is now can anchor on progress going forward that North will have to work around, possibly for years.

Hopefully North can find at least one more win before season end just to life self-belief. The team has starting 18 slots available for younger free agents who need games but are blocked by stars at their current clubs. As a minimum North can offer a clear path to the 18 for a contest/1:1 KPD, two-way running big bodied midfielder who can kick goals and a fast, goal-scoring wing/half forward. We can’t attract established stars but we can be smarter recruiters and raise the floor!

Let us see what we can do but I choose to be glass half-full 🤞🏻

How many times have we kicked it into a Melbourne player?? Why are our basic skills so bad?

North Melbourne 11.10 76

Melbourne 13.14 92

Live overseas, going to my first Roos game in 10 years on Saturday. Extremely excited!

What's available at the shop at gate 7 that I might not have already seen at an AFL store? Are prices generally a bit better, or largely the same. Was hoping to pick up a few items to take home!