Dear North members,

How to sum up 2022? We’ve had some disappointment on-field, alongside some really promising signs for the future, and some tremendous results off-field. 

We’ve seen some significant personnel change across our whole club, and we appointed Alastair Clarkson as our senior coach (welcome Alastair!). 

So, bear with me, as this is going to be slightly longer than usual given there’s a bit to cover.

Let’s start with our men’s team. This year we saw the AFL debuts of Jason Horne-Francis, Paul Curtis, Miller Bergman, Jackson Archer, Kallan Dawson and Josh Goater and the club debuts of Hugh Greenwood and Callum Coleman-Jones.  

Jy Simpkin was a worthy winner of his second Syd Barker medal in a season that saw him – along with runner up LDU – dominate our midfield, and Bailey Scott’s third placing was a testament to the significant improvement we’ve seen in him this season.

I’m excited that a clutch of our promising young talent has committed to the Roos for seasons to come. Capturing the signatures of Todd Goldstein and Ben Cunnington, whose round 22 return was the highlight of the year, was also incredibly significant.

But while that’s a lot to celebrate, no one can be happy with a season that saw us win just two games, and only really be competitive in a handful more. Which is why we engaged Geoff Walsh mid-year to spend a month in our football department to help the Board understand what was working and what wasn’t. We’ve had significant change in the intervening period, and Geoff’s findings have been crucial in helping us understand where our strengths lie, and where we can do better. 

Geoff’s report highlighted the many highly regarded and skilled individuals within the areas including high performance, medical and support, player excellence, development, analysis and operations. The report also spoke very positively about the environment and culture. The playing list, coaching and list management received both positive and negative feedback. 

Most of Geoff’s observations related to structural, rather than personnel changes, and we’ve started to implement some of his recommendations. One of these included a recommendation to restructure the football department under one General Manager of Football (where previously there had been two), and for the senior coach to report into this role. 

The report also recommended closer collaboration between list management and coaching, and more clarity around the roles of the player performance and performance psychology teams. Both of these areas which will be a focus for Todd Viney as the new General Manager of Football going forward. We have already seen some key outcomes that came off the back of Geoff’s work and the final structure will be in place ahead of the start of pre-season in November.

This now brings me to our AFLW program, which is three games into its second season this calendar year.  As I write this, the girls have had one win and two close losses, each of those coming against last season’s grand finalists.  

It’s been a turbulent time in the AFLW space broadly, with four new teams adding a layer of uncertainty around player movement in between seasons. Our team looks quite different, with some familiar faces gone and lots of new ones in their place. 

We knew the start of this campaign was going to be challenging, especially given the number of new faces in our squad. Despite the significant turnover, we’re confident we are on the right track and the wins will come. 

Off the field, we’ve been busy in the last few weeks, with the re-signing of Mazda until at least 2025, and then last week’s launch of the Arden Fund. These are the foundation stones which will help create the financial security our club has worked so hard to build in the preceding 15 or so years. 

Finally, a quick update on the search for our new CEO following Ben Amarfio’s resignation earlier this month. The Board will in the coming days finalise the appointment of a subcommittee comprised of directors and club executives, with some external support, to find our new CEO. The club will be in great hands with Ben working through until October 31 but we are determined to get that process moving over this next crucial period.

Again, thanks to you, our members and supporters, for being there through these rather turbulent times. Change creates uncertainty but there’s also great optimism around our club right now. That was incredibly palpable when Alastair took to the stage at our Syd Barker Medal event. There’s still much work to be done but we’ll enjoy the journey together, as we’ve always done. 

I look forward to seeing you at the AFLW.

Go Roos!