North Melbourne have a rare opportunity to step on to a big stage when they celebrate 100 years in the VFL/AFL with a prime-time clash against the Western Bulldogs this week. It is an opportunity for one of the oldest clubs in the country to look forward as much as back, and one the present day Kangaroos must not waste while the stakes are higher than just what’s on the scoreboard.
It was not so long ago that there was a reasonable case for Kangaroos fans to resent having to watch their team perform off Broadway. The financially challenged club spent decades punching above its weight. Now, the earliest adopters of Friday night football are lucky to play under lights a few times a year. But a total of 15 wins in the last five seasons makes it hard to argue that their own supporters, let alone opposition or casual fans, would want to see the Kangaroos in the spotlight more often. Especially when the men’s team keeps blowing each chance they are given to shine.
North Melbourne campaigned for three decades to play games on Good Friday. It is the sort of determination to break with tradition that helped define the once working-class club. A club that has had to be innovative as much as resilient just to survive. But since wearing down the AFL to host the Bulldogs on Good Friday in 2017, the Roos have won just one of the eight marquee matches. The seven defeats have come by an average 10 goals. The worst was a 128-point humiliation dished out by the Dogs in 2021 – who were dumped from the burgeoning blockbuster the following year. With the Dogs now eyeing a top-four spot, it looks like they will return to haunt the Kangaroos once again. It is down to the current crop of North Melbourne players to ensure the centenary celebrations don’t turn into commiserations on Thursday night.
Carlton handed North Melbourne another Good Friday pasting this year. It was bad enough for the usual questions to resurface over whether the Kangaroos should even be part of the annual clash. Whether the light at the end of the six-year rebuild might just be another approaching train. But in the eight-game stretch between that thumping and the all too familiar horror show against Hawthorn in Launceston last weekend, there were signs the wheel is starting to turn. That the Kangaroos’ investment in top-end picks and highly talented youth might just be about to pay off.
The most lucrative draft capital has been spent on the midfield. Luke Davies-Uniacke is the line-breaker. Colby McKercher the thrill-seeker. Jy Simpkin the talisman who sets standards off the field. Luke Parker has arrived to help steer the ship. Tom Powell is out from under the radar. George Wardlaw leaves old school fans salivating over his ferocious attack on the ball. Harry Sheezel is the jewel in the crown.
The on-ball brigade gave a glimpse into a bright future when turning around the heavy defeat to the Blues within nine weeks. The midfield group was electrifying for two quarters of the most polished and powerful football the team has played in years. That was until they froze in the final term and almost lost the unloseable, then undid much of their good work against the Hawks. Even with promising signs emerging most weeks, the slow pace of improvement is a reminder that going from dead-last to back into premiership contention tends to take much longer than many predict.
Rebuilding from the ground up is a journey the Kangaroos largely avoided during the second half of their VFL/AFL history. The club might have got away with only six finals campaigns and two deciders – both ending in defeat – in their first 50 years. But with the threat of a merger, relocation or being forced to fold hanging over a club with one of the smallest supporter bases in the competition, it could not afford to bottom out. That is until, after two decades of mostly mediocrity, the typically creative club finally took the punt in going backwards to go forwards.
From Arden Street Oval, the MCG, Princes Park and now Docklands. To Canberra, Sydney, Gold Coast, Hobart and this year Bunbury and Perth. North Melbourne have become the roaming Roos in recent decades, which, counterintuitively, has helped to maintain a foothold in their spiritual home. Without the lucrative deals that come with finding a home away from home, it is unlikely the club would have survived in its current form. But here the Roos are; in much the same position as they were in nearly 100 years ago.
After five consecutive seasons of finishing in the bottom two – the worst run of results since the club’s early years – the Roos look on track to rise again. It needs to come with a big leap forward against the Bulldogs on Thursday night. It needs to come with a proud club known for its “Shinboner Spirit” performing on the biggest stages again.
