‘Sick of losing’ Roos pledge recovery
Cellar dweller North Melbourne is “sick of losing” as cocaptain Jy Simpkin pledges a new attitude can help the Roos climb up the ladder.
The Roos have finished in the bottom two in each of the past four seasons and won just 12 matches in that time, a run the club has not experienced since its first years in the VFL in the late 1920s and ’30s.
Only an upset win over Gold Coast in round 24 last year allowed North Melbourne to avoid a third-consecutive wooden spoon.
While the TAB has the Roos as a $2.50 favourite to cop the most losses in 2024, Simpkin said his team had hit pre-season on a mission to shake off their recent form.
“I think everyone on the list is sick of being where we are,” he said. “We have been in the bottom few for three, four, five years. Everyone is sick of it. The change in mindset, everyone is working a lot harder.
“We have a lot of players who are sick of being where we are. We have had a couple of (assistant) coaches come in and they don’t want to be at the bottom either – the whole club is sick of being at the bottom, we want to make change.”
Coach Alastair Clarkson has bought into the shift and the players have been thrown random fitness tests to build their resilience.
Former Brisbane Lions assistant Jed Adcock, who was on hand as Chris Fagan turned the Lions from a battler to a premiership contender, moved south to join the Roos before pre-season.
While he labelled the North Melbourne list as “a little inexperienced and thin”, Adcock backed the attitude of the players to lead a resurgence.
“I couldn’t question the player’s attitude so far during the pre-season, it has been second to none and I think there is a really strong belief and hope we can push our way back up the ladder,” he said.
Dynamic midfielder Tarryn Thomas has begun joining more football drills after minor groin surgery slowed down his pre-season.
Defender Griffin Logue is still aiming at a mid-season return from a knee injury but he showed his fitness by finishing seventh in a 2km time trial on Monday, won by Simpkin.