Hello all,

It’s now almost a week since our last AFL match and just two days before we launch our 2023 AFLW campaign so it’s a good time to write to you all.

It’s amazing the tonic a win can provide. Add to that Harry Sheezel winning the 2023 AFL Rising Star and AFLPA Best First-Year Player awards, and Nick Larkey’s first All-Australian selection, and it’s been a very good week for North Melbourne. But in case you’re wondering if we’ve forgotten we lost 20 games in a row – I can assure you, we haven’t.

Granted, we lost five of our last 14 matches by under 10 points, so to score a terrific come-from-behind win in Round 24 was great reward for the incremental gains made across the season. That win over Gold Coast in Hobart featured seven players aged 21 or under, a nice sign of things to come. 

But facts are facts. We still won just three games for the season – making it 12 wins across four seasons. We’re losing by less, and we’re in games for longer, but we’ve still got a lot of work to do.

In recognising that, there’ll be more change in the off-season. We’re not going to just sit around and wait for improvement to happen – we’re going to do everything we can to help that improvement come as quickly as we can. 

Off-field, in coaching and the broader football department, we made very few staff changes when Alastair Clarkson started (although we did remove a fair few walls!). Instead we chose to keep mostly everything else constant – a really important decision, given the amount of change that had gone on in recent seasons. We have good people in our club – they just needed some time and some stability. 

Clarko and our GM of Football Todd Viney are now one season in and will have a view on how we can improve from this year to next. Their charter will be to make sure we have the right people in the right roles across the entire football department, and they’ll leave no stone unturned in driving our club forward.

One change is the departure of our 2023 interim coach Brett Ratten. I want to pay tribute to Ratts, who stepped up and led our football program without hesitation. Brett and his wife Jo and the whole Ratten family have been immensely important in our club this year, and we owe him and them a huge debt of thanks. Ratts made a season-long commitment to us and as sad as we are to see him go, we wish him well in the next phase of his career.

On-field, we started a heavy reshaping of our list profile back in 2020 when we finished second last but had close to the highest total player payments spend in the competition. 

The club has done a power of work to get our list into really good shape since then, both from a talent perspective but also with regard to our salary cap. And while we can all see the improvement and potential on our list, we know we’re not there yet. 

As far as those we know won’t be with us next year, I especially want to pay tribute to Ben Cunnington and Jack Ziebell and their families for their contribution to our club over a combined 29 years and 518 games. Ben and Jack, you’ll always be a part of our Shinboner family and you’ll be greatly missed. 

I’m so proud that we were able to give both of these men a farewell game, and that so many of you came out to support them. 

With their departures, players like Harry Sheezel and Nick Larkey, this year’s Rising Star nominees George Wardlaw and Eddie Ford, as well as those around the 100-game mark – Cam Zurhaar, Luke Davies-Uniacke, Bailey Scott and Griffin Logue – now have to step up to fill the leadership gap and take charge of the direction of this club, supporting our co-captains Jy Simpkin and Luke McDonald.

Off the field, thanks, too, to Jen Watt for her leadership in what has been a very eventful first year in the role, and to the club executive team, staff and volunteers for making this club the best in the world. We might not be winning enough games (yet) but we’re winning everywhere else.

Looking ahead, we anticipate another exciting AFLW season. We play four of first five games at home venues, starting with St Kilda in Hobart this Sunday, two at Arden St and one in Launceston.

We welcome eight new players to the club, six of whom have senior AFLW experience and this week we’ll see Ruby Tripodi playing her first-ever AFLW match.

To them, coach Darren Crocker, skipper Emma Kearney and the rest of the team, we wish you well as we look to exceed last season’s preliminary final and aim to bring home our first piece of AFLW silverware. 

Finally, thanks to our members – all 51,084 of you. That’s another record in a tough year. It’s no exaggeration – we do have the best, most loyal and passionate fans. And if you’re reading this as a club supporter and you haven’t quite joined – it’s not too late, and, if I can be blunt, we need you. The power of North Melbourne is in its people. 

We’re on a journey – some days it’s great, some days it’s not, but honestly, why would you be anywhere else? 

Go Roos – and see you at the footy!

Sonja