Confident Roos aim for top 4
NORTH Melbourne wants to push for the top four and a premiership as soon as 2022 under its new coach, chairman Ben Buckley has declared.
And the club isn’t backing down from its bold and ambitious vision, with premiership coach Paul Roos on board — not only having helped to secure new coach David Noble, but to serve as a mentor to the first- time senior AFL coach.
Buckley said on Monday that Noble had embraced the time frame amid the club’s “transition phase”, which he said gave the incoming mentor “two to three years to get us in a position where we’re competing regularly in the top four and ultimately looking to win a premiership” with “a core group who should take us through the next five to 10 years”.
And he won’t apologise for the lofty objective, despite the club’s dismal 2020 season and 17th- place finish. “If a club is not ambitious, then it’s really not serving its members properly,” Buckley said.
“Every club in the competition, ultimately, wants to win a premiership, and the best way to do that is to be a consistent performer in the top four.
“Time frames are always difficult things to nail down. But I think it’s realistic that we think in that time period, we should be competing at that level. That’s our ambition and that’s been the goal that we set ourselves as an organisation.
“We’re not going to get there immediately. There’s still parts of the puzzle to put together and there’s foundations
to build on. But ultimately, that’s our goal and I don’t think we should apologise for it. We have to be ambitious.”
Noble, who was announced on Friday as the club’s new senior coach on a rolling contract following the departure of Rhyce Shaw, agreed that the goal was one he welcomed.
“That’s in line with what we spoke about at the board meeting,” he said. “I love ( it) … we’ve got to have that ambition.”
“The chair made it really clear — we’ve got to get ourselves organised, we’ve got to build a plan that’s going to be long- term, but there’s no ceiling on our group.”
Roos, who “rattled the cage” of Noble and made initial contact on behalf of North Melbourne’s coaching selection panel, will be at the club next year in an official capacity to mentor Noble and other administrators, chief executive Ben Amarfio confirmed, with details currently being nailed down.
“I’m really keen for him to have a role,” Noble said of Roos.
“I think we can absolutely utilise his knowledge and experience.”