North Melbourne Tasmanian Kangaroos coach Scott Gowans has labelled recent external criticism surrounding how the club assembled its squad as “disappointing”.
Sitting undefeated at the top of conference A with an impressive percentage of 250.80, Gowans says prior relationships with players is what allowed the club to build such an impressive list.
“The talk around (how North assembled its list) is a little disappointing, but it is what it is and we can’t control that,” Gowans told SEN.
“The process was put in place by the AFL, and we just followed the rules.
“There’s a bit of a school of thought around our list being a super team, but for me it’s more about the relationships with Melbourne University, and in my case, Vic Country and Diamond Creek, and putting them all together.
“It’s a fact that 18 of the 30 players have a relationship with me from the past, or Melbourne University, or Tasmania.
The Roos were able to recruit the likes of Emma Kearney (former Western Bulldogs), Kaitlyn Ashmore (former Brisbane Lion) and Moana Hope (former Collingwood Magpie) from rival clubs, all of which have a connection with the Melbourne University Women’s Football Club, North’s VFLW affiliate club.
“Yes, the top part of the list is very good and Emma Kearney is number one, but she had a relationship with Melbourne University, so she was always going to come,” Gowans said.
“I suppose if you look at it from the other perspective, if we had have come into the competition in year one, it basically would have been a Melbourne University side.
“We would have had Ellie Blackburn (current Western Bulldog), Alicia Eva (current GWS Giant), Louise Stephenson (current GWS Giant) and Maddie Keryck (current Carlton Blue), so it would have been a stronger team.”
Gowans was also a coach of Diamond Creek in the VFLW, which he spent time working with Jess Duffin (former Collingwood Magpie) as well as Sophie Abbatangelo and Ash Riddell, who have both been break-out players in the competition in the opening three weeks.
Jas Grierson (former Melbourne Demon) also featured for Vic Country under Gowans.
While the North coach has a strong relationship with many of the players in the side, he’s also working hard to develop a great rapport with the remaining dozen.
“Naturally I know the girls that I’ve coached prior better than others,” he added.
“There’s other players that I didn’t know prior to the program, so I probably spent a little bit more time getting to know them, so I can say I know all the girls on the list fairly well.”
Listen to Scott Gowans' full interview here:
