North Melbourne legend Glenn Archer says a unique mindset among members has allowed the club to survive more than 150-years, and that same attitude will see it overcome the current crisis.
Re-elected to the Board earlier this year, the 311-game champion says the club’s survival depends on the continued generosity and commitment of its members, even though it’s unlikely the government will allow them to go to any games this year.
“I don’t buy my membership for a seat at the game, even though I get a seat and it’s great to go to the game, my mindset is: when I’m buying a membership, I’m not buying a membership to go to the game, I’m buying a membership to support the club, and I think the majority of people are like that,” Archer said in an interview during the lockdown period.
“I feel like it’s a donation to a place that has given me so much. It’s given me probably more than most because I was able to play football there for 17 years and it helped me set my whole life up … it’s a selfless thing, not a selfish thing; I’m here putting my money in because I want my club to do well and survive.”
With North’s membership just under 38,000, Archer said he feels an enormous amount of pride due to the giving nature of Kangaroos’ fans.
“One great thing about our supporters is, we get a report at the Board level every week at the moment, and membership is still really good – about 37-thousand – we’ve had to give back a couple of refunds … hardly any really, there’s been minimal,” he said.
“It just doesn’t surprise me. I’ve said for a long time that our members, our supporters, are the most passionate in the league. We might not have the most, but we have the most passionate and they stick fat, and that’s what they’ve done through this time anyway.
“[I was] just lucky that I got brought into a club where there was just so many people that would just die for the football club; it’s just their life. So we’ve been very, very fortunate to have that type of person because over the 151-years, it’s been a rollercoaster; we’ve been in that many stages where we could have died, but it’s always been the supporters, the members and the staff of the place that have kept us together and I’ve got no doubt they’ll do the same thing again through this [crisis].”
The fact North fought hard to hand the club back to its members in 2008 means the disappointment of not being able to attend games will be short-lived according to Archer.
“They buy memberships because they want to support the club. At the end of the day, we are owned by our members,” he said.
“The reaction to not being able to go to a game; there’s always going to be disappointment there, but it is what it is. We can’t change it, it’s just going to be very unique to watch a full season or nearly a full season with no supporters there … but what it will do in 2021 when it does open up and we can go to games, we’ll appreciate how good it is to go to a game.
“For me in a strange way, I think it’s a good thing. Something we’ve taken for granted for a long time that we can just rock up to the game every week and get a seat and watch it … and now it’s been taken away from us, it’s made me really appreciate what we had and appreciate what we’ve got going forward when we can go back to a game.”
Since arriving at Arden St in the early 90s, Archer has always known there was something special about North people.
“Our supporters remind me a bit of the US College supporters; they’ve just got this undying passion for their college and that’s what we’ve got with our football club and out supporters,” he commented.
“All I’ve known is North Melbourne; I’ve been here half of my life … but I obviously interact with friends who support other teams and I’ve interacted with thousands of other people but North Melbourne supporters are just unique. It’s very hard to explain but when you talk to someone, I can nearly pick if they’re a North supporter of not. They’re just a different breed, in a very good way. They’re ultra, ultra-passionate about their football club.”
