North Melbourne great, Glenn Archer, believes the club is building for a new era of success, with a young talent pool similar to what the club had in the early 90s. 

Speaking to the Herald Sun, the two-time premiership player and current Board member believes North’s next coach will be super impressed with the young Kangaroos.

“If you’re the coach coming in, you’ve got a terrific young list which I don’t think we’ve had the potential talent since the early 1990s,” he said.

Joined by GM football, Brady Rawlings, Archer sat down for a wide-ranging interview and the pair explained some recent decisions that had been made, including delisting 11 players.

“Going into 2020 we had the most 26-plus players in the competition, and we finished 17th on the ladder, so clearly we needed to make change,” Rawlings said.

“We needed to change the list demographic. Going into 2021, we’ll probably have the most 22 and unders in the comp, which is exciting.

“I think the least we would be bringing in is ten and we need to have a range of players. We can’t be bringing in 10 18-year-olds. We’ll be looking at delisted free agency and trades. We think the future is genuinely exciting.”

Rawlings urged the members to dismiss negative talk about the club.

“There’s a lot of comments out there and I don’t listen to them anymore because it couldn’t be further than what actually happens. I feel for our members and I really hope they don’t listen to the stuff which has been said. We are making a lot of changes to get back to where we belong and that’s among the strong clubs in the competition.”

Rawlings’ sentiments backed up by Archer.

“The advice I’d give to members is, if you hear something or read something, analyse who is saying and who is writing it and look at what they’ve done, Archer commented.

“So, if they’re having a comment about club management, ask yourself: Have they ever worked at a footy club? Do they know the workings of a footy club? Have they ever been involved in a business? Do they know how to manage a business?

“We’re financially stable and we will be part of the massive urban precinct which will set up the club forever, and Roosy (Paul Roos) will be there to help when needed.”

Archer also addressed reports he’d gone “rogue” and was running the club single-handedly, making unilateral decisions at the Board table.

“If the inference is I go off and do my own thing, it’s completely illogical,” he stated.

“We’ve got a board, an executive, a footy department and I’m an ex-player who has a couple of small businesses. Just picture this, I walk into the board room and there’s a bloke who running a $2 billion business and has thousands of staff, there’s Brady Scanlon, Julie Laycock, who is one of the heads of 7-Eleven, there’s Ben Amarfio, Ben Buckley, Brady … and I go in there and punch the table and say this is what we’re doing and everyone just agrees. It’s illogical.

“I don’t get offended anymore. I run the logic. Who’s saying it? What’s their background? What’s their credibility? They can’t offend me because they don’t know, they have no idea. Where are they getting their information from? It’s not coming from the club because no one in the club likes them. Actually, I do get frustrated when it affects the members.”

Rawlings said all decisions are collaborative.

“There’s not one person making decisions,” he said.

“Everything goes through a process, just like at match committee, not everyone is going to agree on selection that week, but once it’s decided, everyone in the room is behind the decisions.”

With Rhyce Shaw stepping down as coach after 18 months at the helm, Archer said the club will look to improve when it signs its next coach.

“We’re never going to apologise for trying to get better,” he said.

“You’ve got to find the best candidate.”

Rawlings said there’s no preconceived ideas about who might be the best fit and hopes to have locked in a name by the end of November.

“We’ll look at four different types,” he explained.

“We’ve got the experienced former coach, that’s one category, we’ve got assistant coaches with 10-15 years’ experience, we’ve got the inexperienced assistant coaches who come with high credentials, and we’ve also got a category which is a bit left field, maybe they haven’t coached in the past year or two. I think this will be different because last year we had an interim coach that potential candidates might not have wanted to interview against because they might’ve thought he already had the job. This year, we’re the one team looking for a senior coach and we’re not discriminating against age or experience.

“We have started to contact some candidates to register interest.”

Archer reiterated whoever joins North as head coach will be coming to a club in great shape, contrary to reports.

“Again, the media absolutely does my head in. They are so lazy with their journalism. For them to point the finger at us about finances … we are as strong as any club in the competition. Debt is just about nothing, we’re posting profits every year, a profit this year and expect another profit next year,” Archer said.

“There’s absolutely zero talk at our board table about going to Tasmania. We’re at Arden St. We’re just about to be part of one of the biggest urban developments the city has ever seen. And we are going to be a major part of it. It’s scaremongering commentary.”

Regarding talk Ben Buckley can’t operate as Chairman effectively because he lives in Sydney, both men said it couldn’t be further from the truth.

“I’ve been in the game for 22 years and he’s the most involved president I’ve seen,” Rawlings said.

“Once again. unbelievable support. I actually feel sorry for him because he’s doing that much work.”

Archer agreed.

“He’s got business interests as well and some days he is 12 hours, 14 hours on the footy club,” he said.

“This is 2020, we can all work remotely and we’ve proved that this year. We’re doing it right now with Paul Roos who is on the coaching panel and who is in Hawaii.”