BRINGING ROOS NORTH

Q

I believe there was a fairly decent price to bring North Melbourne north. How much?

A

It probably cost us about $400,000 overall but it was worthwhile because it was promotional money and one of our objectives was to get AFL footy back on the Gold Coast. So it was considered to be a good investment but not something you’re going to do forever.

Q

Was there any AFL financial support or were you left to hold the baby and cover all costs?

A

That’s where the push for North to relocate started.

Q

In your learned view, should North have relocated lock, stock and barrel to the Coast?

A

It’s a difficult decision to move a football club that has been going for 100 years. There’s a lot of emotional attachments, like there were when South Melbourne event to Sydney so I can understand why they didn’t move. But they survived and they’re still thriving and they’ve kept their patrons and members.

Q

In 1982 Gold Coast clubs had spoken about putting a combined team in the QAFL. What happened?

A

We went alone. We paid an entrance fee of $40,000 which was probably a stumbling for the (Coast) competition as a whole. It was probably a bit of “extortionism-ate” at the time but that was the way things were – people did pay money to go into competitions.