Quite a bit has happened since I last wrote to you, and I thought it timely to update you on a couple of key issues.

The AFL’s trade period is now complete and our list and recruiting manager Brady Rawlings, our new General Manager of Football Todd Viney, and our list and recruiting team have worked extraordinarily hard to deliver a fantastic outcome for our footy club. 

We’re delighted to welcome Griffin Logue and Darcy Tucker to North Melbourne. They’ve been steadfast about joining us despite the noise of the past fortnight, and that speaks volumes about their character. 

Our list and recruiting team were well-prepared leading into the trade period and they showed great flexibility and creativity in bringing high-end draft selections to the club after Jason Horne-Francis’ late trade request. 

We’re unashamed about chasing players with Shinboner values, drive and talent, and with four first-round picks across the next two years, we’re in prime position to achieve that.

Meanwhile, last week the AFL announced the first part of their process for addressing the allegations relating to the treatment of Indigenous and First Nations players at the Hawthorn Football Club between 2008 and 2016. 

The process will coincide with the start of our pre-season, with football department staff due to return in early November, and players back from late November. At this stage, the AFL’s position is that all will be completed by Christmas.

As we await further details on the process, we are taking an active role in liaising with the AFL and our incoming coach Alastair Clarkson on the details of his commencement with the club. 

Although we can’t comment on the allegations or the AFL’s process, it’s important to note that the way events have unfolded over the past fortnight has created damage for our club and our people – our players (Indigenous and non-Indigenous), our staff, our members, and of course Alastair himself. 

Regardless of our next course of action, the club’s number one priority is to look after our people and we will continue to do that. 

The Board is immensely grateful to our player leaders and the club’s executive team for the leadership role they have all played over a very difficult period for our club.  We didn’t create this problem but it’s now ours to deal with, and the unity and care in our response is a testament to our people.

The last big-ticket item to discuss is the search for our next CEO. The recruiting process is being led by Paul Hallam of Six Degrees Executive, and I‘ll be joined on the interview panel by club directors Suzana Ristevski and Rodney Piltz, along with one of the most respected football names in the country, former Essendon and Melbourne Football Club CEO Peter Jackson.  

I’ll share more news on this as appropriate but in the meantime, Chris Simmonds, the club’s long-standing chief financial officer, will take over as acting CEO following Ben Amarfio’s last day on October 31.

Ben has worked tirelessly on a number of big projects over the last few weeks and he’ll continue delivering on, among other things, the Arden Precinct project and the club’s Tasmania strategy until his last day. Ben is a person of great quality and humanity and we thank him for his efforts over the past three years. 

Finally, it's been good to see so many of you at our AFLW games so far this season. We’ve enjoyed four strong wins and suffered through three frustratingly close losses to genuine premiership fancies Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane by a combined total of 23 points.  

Emma Kearney, Darren Crocker and the team can take great encouragement from our start to the season, and we’ll look to come home strongly in the remaining three games, including the last home and away match at Arden St on Sunday, October 30. 

Take care of yourselves and ‘Go Roos!’.