Battling Roos set for list overhaul
NORTH Melbourne is bracing for a massive list overhaul that will inject elite junior talent and make hard calls on the battling middle-tier core.
The club’s five-match losing streak has come amid a savage injury toll from a team coach Rhyce Shaw said in the preseason could win the flag.
North Melbourne has as many as 21 players out of contract and armed with two firstround picks has maximum flexibility to improve its list.
The injuries have laid bare the club’s lack of depth with stars and emerging kids missing, including Jack Ziebell, Ben Cunnington, Tarryn Thomas, Nick Larkey, Majak Daw and Luke Davies-Uniacke.
A trade for out-of-contract forward Ben Brown would not be out of the question if the Roos could secure a third firstround pick and his form slump continues late into the season.
The Roos have bolstered their recruiting department with head of player personnel Scott Clayton who joins recruiting manager Mark Finnigan and Glenn Luff as the club’s list manager.
It will give the club a fresh eye to how far it is from a premiership and the moves it needs to make to get there.
Players out of contract include Ben Jacobs, Mason Wood, Jamie McMillan, Ed Vickers-Willis, Jasper Pittard, Kayne Turner, Daw, Marley Williams, Lachie Hosie, Paul Ahern, Sam Durdin, Taylor Garner and Thomas Murphy.
North Melbourne has been roundly criticised for making backline coach Jared Rivers and forward coach Brendan Whitecross redundant but internally that is not seen as a cause of the club’s issues as the club has an array of coaches including Shaw, Jade Rawlings, Gavin Brown, Leigh Adams, Heath Scotland and Brent Harvey in its hub.
When the club moved on long-time coach Brad Scott there was an admission from the departing coach the club had never rebuilt and needed to bank more early picks.
“I look at the way this industry works and the recruiters need more opportunity than they have in the past,” Scott said. “In terms of our build we entered it on the back of a period of competitiveness but the downside is in the first three years we finished ninth, ninth and eighth.
“Then we finished in consecutive preliminary finals so our recruiters have had an incredibly tough time.”
When Rhyce Shaw’s took on the job he said the sky was the limit. “I have seen big jumps before,” he said.
“We are in it to win games of footy and ultimately premierships. I don’t shy away from that. I am not here to win coach of the year. I am here to win a premiership.”