AFL
The home-and-away season has come to an end and while a finals berth fell just out of reach, the future remains bright.
From the outset, no ceiling was placed on expectations, and within the walls of Arden St, there was always a strong belief our best would be good enough to beat any side.
There were plenty of memorable games including:
- Round 5: A win against the odds against Hawthorn. After losing Shaun Higgins and Ed Vickers-Willis after half-time, the players hung on for a memorable victory
- Round 7: A thrilling two-point victory over the Sydney Swans at the SCG with Mason Wood breaking several tackles to put the game beyond doubt
- Round 9: A big win over the highly-fancied GWS at Blundstone Arena
- Round 10: Defeating Fremantle at home at Optus Stadium
- Round 14: Another closely fought contest against the Bulldogs, with Jack Ziebell kicking the sealer in the dying seconds at Etihad Stadium
- Round 19: Taking full advantage of our home away from home with another win at Blundstone Arena - this time over the Eagles
In terms of individual players, many had breakout seasons including:
- Shaun Higgins: an All-Australian nod after elevating himself to the upper echelon of midfielders
- Ben Brown: runner up in the Coleman Medal race with 61 majors, just 4 behind Jack Riewoldt
- Ben Jacobs: cemented himself as the best tagger in the land shutting down such players as Tom Mitchell, Dustin Martin, Clayton Oliver and Patrick Cripps
- Jack Ziebell: the captain moved to the forward line and had a remarkable 64 shots on goal returning 35.29
- Jed Anderson: attacked the contested ball with unmatched courage and continually put his body on the line for the team
- Majak Daw: transitioned to the backline and was ranked an ‘elite’ defender by champion data after taking the 5th most contested marks
- Ben Cunnington: took his game to a new level, breaking the record for contested possessions with 32 against Richmond in Round 8, and was ranked 4th for total contested possessions league-wide
- Trent Dumont: emerged as a consistent accumulator of the footy averaging a career-best 21 disposals and 4 tackles
- Jarrad Waite: in arguably career-best form, before announcing his retirement
- Paul Ahern: bouncing back after two knee reconstructions, collecting an astonishing 37 disposals (22 contested) and 12 clearances against the Eagles in Tasmania
Milestones
- Brad Scott coached his 200th game. Only Denis Pagan (240) and Wally Carter (219) have coached more for North
- Shaun Higgins & Todd Goldstein - 200 games
- Marley Williams – 100 games
- Majak Daw, Trent Dumont & Kayne Turner – 50 games
Debutants
- Luke Davies-Uniacke
- Tom Murphy
- William Walker
- Alex Morgan
New deals
- Shaun Atley: 2021
- Paul Ahern: 2020
- Luke McDonald: 2021
- Cam Zurhaar: 2020
- Will Walker: 2020
- Declan Watson: 2019
- Ed Vickers-Willis: 2020
- Tom Murphy: 2020
De-listings
- Billy Hartung
- Oscar Junker
- Tom Jefferies
- Josh Williams
- Daniel Nielson
- Gordon Narrier
- Mitch Hibberd
VFL
The club’s VFL side narrowly missed out on finals finishing 10th, with 8 wins and 10 losses.
However, the benefits of having a standalone team far outweighed its ladder position, with AFL-listed players able to play Brad Scott’s system all-season long.
Although co-captain Michael Close was ruled out early in the season after a serious concussion, Chris Jansen led the young side admirably.
Nick Larkey took out the VFL’s Frosty Miller Medal goal kicking award with 41 goals, while Braydon Preuss dominated in the ruck. The backline held up well with emerging defenders Ben McKay and Sam Durdin enjoying fantastic seasons. Nick Rippon and Nash Holmes were ultra-consistent in the midfield working from contest to contest.
A big thanks to our first ever VFL sponsors, PSC Insurance Brokers, Flemington Community Bank and Intuitive Finance.
AFLW
The North Melbourne Tasmanian Kangaroos are well placed for their inaugural season, having signed 25 of 30 players leading into the AFLW National Draft on October 23.
Most recently, three open-age recruits have been acquired in Taylor Mesiti, Alison Drennan and Jess Trend.
Off-field has also been bolstered by the appointments of:
- Dennis Armfield: senior assistant coach
- Lauren Morecroft: assistant coach
- Jackson Kornberg: football performance coach
- Greg Clugston: AFLW Doctor
- Esther Hassett: player development coordinator
- Kate Gordes: provisional performance psychologist
- Melissa Haberfield: physiotherapist
“We went hard in the recruiting phase so we need to ensure we have the resources in place to get the girls on the park each week and have them performing at their best,” North Football operations manager Laura Kane said.
North is one of the only clubs to have full-time AFLW resources in place, including coach Scott Gowans, Dennis Armfield, operations manager Matt Bolitho, physiotherapist Marie Pham and high-performance manager Alex Veitch.
