North Melbourne has played it's worst half of football this year to through away the clubs fourth Premiership going down to the Crows in the Grand Final. North Melbourne should have been up by 10 goals at half time but the kicking for goal was shocking. Adelaide then came out and wiped the floor with us in the second half.
Winston Abraham as expected has taken out the 1998 Cadbury mark of the year for his supurb fly again Port Adealide up in Canberra. Abraham beat out team mate Scott Welsh and Jeff Farmer for the award of $10,000.
North Melbourne will use their regular rooms in the Southern Stand for this weeks Grand Final, they will also be the home side wearing blue shorts and the traditional Blue and White Striped uniform. Everyone trained well at Arden Street last night, Chandler played in the senior team in drills up against Freeborn and that is looking the only likely change at this stage
The Brownlow Medal was once again shown that is an award that is not representative of the games best player when Robert Harvey took out his second consecutive medal while Carey struggled and never got a look in all night. Carey was again ignored for votes in the games that are brilliant by any other players standards but his own and was even overlooked for best of ground three times when he had clearly dominated proceeding. In both the games against Adelaide and St Kilda, games which Carey was BOG by a mile and a half David King was given the three votes. King did play well in both games but wasn't deserving of best on ground honours over his captain. Maybe the umpires just voted for King Carey and got confused, who knows what goes on in umpires minds they clearly don't seem to be able to think straight. Robert Harvey is a good player but compared to Carey he's a mere reserves player, his disposal is terrible and he very very rarely wins matches off his own boot.
A large number of North Melbourne fans have missed out on Grand Final tickets after the remaining tickets were sold out yesterday morning. 4512 tickets were available to the general members, which was more than I expected actually were snapped up in 40 minutes. In the line I was in at the MCG I would say anyone who came after early Sunday morning would have missed out. The Northern Stand was probably the best of all the outlets so it may have been worse at other venues, the line at Her Majesty's theatre was massive while the AFL outlet at the G only had half the machines as its MCC counterpart making the line much slower moving. As soon at the Crows won it was obvious we would be in trouble as they get twice as many tickets as we do. Thanks must go to the North Melbourne Football Club and Greg Miller in particular for keeping everyone in the lines (MCG outlets anyway don't know about the others e-mail me if you were in them) informed about the number of tickets available and the chances of securing one. We were also feed Kit Kats and Crisps on the Saturday night which was good of them. The line for Pagans Members on the Sunday Morning stretched the length the MCG car park and it took until 4 o'clock to service them all. At least they all got their chance to buy tickets though. The AFL needs to rethink its Grand Final ticket policy to give the members of the competing clubs more of a go. People have been selling tickets in the Paper since the start of the week and certain radio stations are giving away two tickets a week to the Grand Final. Why do these people get priority over out members?
North Melbourne has advanced to the Grand Final for the second time in three years with a comfortable win over the Demons at the MCG. North was jumped early on but stayed in it thanks to some accurate kicking and managed to wear down the demons after quarter time. Melbourne's over rated forward line went the same way as Essendons failing miserably not one of Melbourne's so called gun forwards could manage more then one goal against North's superb back half. North trained at the MCG yesterday for 30 minutes and will have a full session on Tuesday night at Arden Street
Jeff White may miss tonights game with a knee injury, Althought the player and his club are confident publically he will play some belive he has picked up a knee injury and will strugle to take his place in the side.
Allison and Scott have been recalled to the side to take on Melbourne tonight at the expense of Chandler and my favourite player John Longmire. Longmire now looks set to miss another chance at a premiership unless North win tonight and pick up an injury along the way. I would have thought that against Melbourne who have a number of tall players Longmire would have been able to get a defensive roll but Pagen seems more consious of the smaller Melbourne players and probably the recent lack of form from Winston Abraham as speeded up Allisons inclusion into the side.
North Melbourne would have made a clear sweep of the AFLPA Awards last night if it wasnt for Pickett playing one game last season. Pickett wasnt able to get the Rookie of the year award which went to Danny Stevens brother Nick of Port Power. Carey won best player, best captain and Lethal Weapon while Archer was voted the most couragous player in the AFL.
Glen Archer says that if North does win this weekend some of the players would be getting out the razor blades, it is about time we made another Grand Final.
Wayne Carey has been named Captain of the AllAustralian team. Wayne is back to his rightfully positon that has been given to all sorts of idiots who dont even Captain their clubs in the past couple of years. Carey has been named a Centre half forward. Archer and King were selected in the back pockets while Stevens finally got into the side being selected on the interchange bench
For all the details on the special meeting at Arden Street that took place on Monday go to the Future page.
North Melbourne will take on Melbourne in the Preliminary Final at the MCG this Friday night. Melbourne won their way through after easily accounting for St Kilda on Saturday. White and Farmer were again in good form and will be a danger to the Roos this Friday night.
North has sent out a letter to its members outlining the plan to play games in Sydney from next season. The plan is brought about because the club belives that the supporter base is not strong enough to sustain a downturn in onfield performance. The proposal that has been accepted in principle by the AFL includes.
15 Games in Melbourne with preference for all games to be played against other Melbourne based teams.
Five games in Sydney, 2 against the Swans
Two games at other interstate venues
an initial five year agreement that is to be renegotiated with the AFL
The Choice of Membership packages including
7 Games Southern Stand ticket
15 game Melbourne ticket
4 game interstate ticket
The Board believes the proposal will give the Club new markets in which to increase membership and sponsorship and the club is also banking on substantially increased gate receipts. The interesting thing is that the letter makes no mention at all of what they are going to call the club with rumours still circulating that the name North Melbourne will be dropped. There will be an information session at Arden Steet Social Club on Monday 12 September at 6pm where members will be given an opportunity to voice their opinion. I encourage every supporter to get along to it if they can.
Byron Pickett has won the Norwich Rising star award polling a perfect score of 30 points. Pickett is the first player to get a perfect score and is the first North Melbourne player to win the award. Corey McKernan would have won it but was robbed because he was suspended for tripping with the hand (a no longer reportable offence). Pickett was North Melbourne's 67th pick in last seasons draft and was formally a Port Adelaide Magpie who was over looked by the Power when they formed their inaugural squad. Byron wins a $20,000 investment portfolio from Norwich as well as the trophy. Wayne Jackson was full of praise for the North backman saying "Byron thoroughly deserves the accolades which have
been bestowed upon him throughout an exceptional year
and the ultimate recognition through the winning of the
1998 AFL Norwich Rising Star Award.
"Byron's success can serve as a lesson to all young
players that commitment and perseverance can be richly
rewarded,". Nick Stevens a player North should have drafted came second in the award with 17 votes while Even Hewitt received 2 votes.
Dean Laidley will leave his position as Assistant and spy at North Melbourne to take on a position as one of Leigh Matthews assistant coaches at Brisbane. Laidley was chased by a number of teams including Brisbane , Port and the Swans before settling on the Brisbane job. Good Luck to him, at Brisbane he will probably need it.
North Melbourne has advanced to another Preliminary Final after taking care of Essendon at the MCG on Friday night. Wayne Carey was once again Best on Ground for North while Stevens , Bell and Archer also had huge games. John Longmire was a late inclusion for Robert Scott but didnt get much playing time due to the poor conditions. North played poorly early on but as usual wore the opposition down as the match went on. Carey kicked a lazy 5 while Grant and Harvey again did a good job at providing an option at the feat of Carey. Winston Abraham had a poor game and his form is a bit of a worry, he might come under presure for Allison for his place in the side if he doesnt pick it up a bit.
North will play its Prelim final on Friday night against the winner of Melbourne V St Kilda. North have beaten both sides in recent weeks by over 10 goals so confidence is high that North will advance to the Grand Final. The Friday night game will give North an extra days break then its Grant Final opposition.
North's reserves have been knocked out of the finals after going down to Melbourne at the MCG on Friday night. The lack of a reserves team will make it difficult for players such as Anderson, Allison, Hewitt and Crocker to push for senior selection.
First trade rumor for the year, Evan Hewitt is homesick and North will try and trade him back to Perth to the Eagles in exchance for Michael Gardiner who wanted to join North two years ago but was snapped up by West Coast. I can't see the Eagles parting with him for just Hewitt so it might be a multi player deal.
North take on Essendon in the first of hopefully three finals in the 1998 campaign this Friday at the MCG. Tickets are selling well and the game should draw a big crowd if the clouds stay away. Its given out rain I think so that will effect the number of AFL members that turn up. North will most probably be without Scott for the game who is strugling to overcome the injury to his shoulder he picked up when Cook cannoned into him on Friday night. Chandler would be the obvious replacement while Martyn will come back into the side for Hewitt. The only place that would then be up for grabs would be Brady Anderson's if wet weather is likely I expect his to keep his spot, dry conditions would make Longmire's selection seem likely.
North was too good for the Dogs in the end winning by 5 points after trailing for most of the night. Carey and Stevens were best for North.
This weeks game against Footscray could be seen as the match of the season, one V two playing for top spot but really I think North would be better off taking it easy and experimenting with a few things. As it is North cant fall out of the top two and who knows Footscray may be our Grand Final opposition we wouldnt want to show all our cards too early. Denis Pagen would probably have thought of that though, really there is no difference between finishing 1 and 2 other then the teams you play but with the 8 being so even it doesnt really matter if its 7 or 8. North has done the job already its in the top two as was planned for pre season, its been a big turn around from 2 months ago when the team looked slow and out of sorts. I would love to see North finish top of the ladder but not at the expense of giving Footscray a chance to do their home work on the loss and come out and beat us 2 or three weeks later. It should be a great game but the most important thing is North gets through it injury free and goes into the first week of the finals fresh and ready to put another piece of silver into the cabinet.
Coming into the finals North couldnt be better places, there are a number of quality players in the reserves pushing for selection, must importantly John Longmire who has to be picked in the finals surely, Chandler too deserves to be there. Crocker and Sholl would seem to be the two Roos under the most pressure to keep their places will Brett Allison may also force his way into the finals lineup if fit.
North Melbourne have won their 8th game in a row this time over the Adelaide Crows at Football Park. North started slowly before taking control of the game half way through the first term. Wayne Carey was again best on ground kicking 5 goals and playing a major role in a number of others.
As expected David King's striking charge was thrown out after only 5 minutes and he will be able to take his place in the side for this weeks clash against Premiers Adelaide.
North Melbourne is now on top of the ladder after thrashing Fremantle by over 100 points at the MCG. Carey was again the dominant force kicking 8 goals and have a million possessions all over the ground. Even better news for North was the form of Corey McKernan and Anthony Rock both playing great games, McKernan was finally marking over head and Rock picked up over 30 possessions in midfield and kicked 4 opportunist goals to cap it off perfectly. North were a bit scrappy early but got into gear after half time kicking 18 goals. David King was reported which was the only bad news but he will get off as there was nothing in it at all. North now have to go to Adelaide and a loss even though it sounds stupid wouldn't be a bad thing at this point. North cant possibly win 12 games straight to take the flag you wouldn't think as we have already been up for a long time. North had a good record recently at football park though and another win isn't out of the question.
Nothing made me happier then the resignation of up himself Brisbane chairmen Noel Gordon during the week. He's not going until February but he may be pushed at the AGM, hopefully he will be as he's a disgrace to the side. Have to congratulate you Noel, you have got the better of North , a team full of hacks and more charity draft concessions, while "loser" North heads for yet another finals campaign and possibly their second premiership. No matter how much the AFL gives Brisbane they will never win anything that isn't wooden.
North Melbourne has had an easy win over Brisbane on Friday night. North never really got out of second gear in the game winning comfortably by 27 points. Archer and Pike injured knees but are luckily both ok and will miss no more then 2 games at most. Allison's season may be over though after breaking his thumb, a pin has to be inserted and he may miss 6 weeks all but ending his season. The good news for North is former comp leaders St Kilda and Footscray are both starting to drop off leaving North with a very good chance of becoming minor premiers if they win 2/3. The game against Footscray in the last will mean that North will be sure of top place if they dont drop a game for the rest of the year.
North Melbourne has had an easy win over Port Adelaide in Canberra. 12,242 fans packed into Manuka Ovel to see North's victory and maybe even the 1998 Mark of the year taken by Winston Abraham. The Canberra game was a huge success, the game was sold out and generated a lot in interest in the capital. The only problems really were the size of the rooms and the lack of equipment luckily the Canberra sex industry was able come to North's aid and donate a message table or two. If we are going to play more games there though we need to have the capacity of the stadium boosted to at least 25,000 though.
Five North players were inducted into the 200 club at an AFL function during the week. Craig Sholl, Brett Allison, Michael Martyn, Mark Roberts, and John Longmire have all been star North players over the last decade.
Wayne Carey is having his contract looked at again by the Club, Carey in the second year of a four year deal looks set to sign another 4 year deal worth $500,000 a year to tie him to the club until 2002. North has always placed top priority on resigning Carey and although he has had 3 four year deals it has always been extended in the second year of the contract. Opposition player managers have said that with no salary cap Carey is worth $1,000,000 a year which is hard to argue with but fortunately for us he has no intention of ever leaving the club.
John Longmire's injury looks certain to be a 2-3 week thing rather then the 1-2 first predicted by the club. Longmire could only manage 5 minutes of training tonight before limping off telling the doctor that it was too painfull to even jog on the bad knee. Glen Archer also came off the track early.
North Melbourne today denied that it intended to rid itself of the name North Melbourne, media speculation yesterday said that North might drop the name all together and just become the Kangaroos or chance it to something stupid like Northern Kangaroos. North will push the use of the name Kangaroos to try and gain more support Australia wide but would NOT drop the name North Melbourne. Think of it in Basketball terms, The North Melbourne Giants push the Giants aspect in their marketing but the team is still named North Melbourne Giants not just The Giants. North has applied for 4 games in Sydney, they will be home games but the club is currently holding discussions with the AFL to allow the better membership classes e.g Pagans, Medalist, Social Club, Legends to have access to the AFL members for 4 MCG away games as compensation.
North had its special members party last night at Crown which raised a heap of money from the Auction, Carey's boots dipped in Gold went for $1000, Careys jumper went for over $2000. Other items sold included Golf days with Corey Mckernan, Fishing with Peter Bell, a 1975 Weg poster signed by North's first Premiership team and a blue and white Wayne Carey armchair. One generous person even paid $750 for nothing.
John Longmire's injury prone season continues injuring his knee late on in the game against Melbourne and will miss the next two weeks, I just hope he is fit for the finals series wouldnt want him missing another finals series though injury
North is again leading the push for a Good Friday game at the MCG. North have been after this game for three weeks but the AFL has been against it due to objections by the church and worries it will detract from the good friday appeal. Carlton is said to be interested in taking part in the fixture with a portion of the gate going to the appeal.
North have had another big win, this time against Melbourne. The game was close for three quarters North waiting to the last term to click into top gear and blow Melbourne out of the water with a 10 goal term. North are now only one game off top spot and with a few easy games coming up against Port, Freo and Brisbane the stage could be set for a Round 22 clash with the Western Bulldogs to decide top spot on the ladder an achivement that was looking beyond reach only a month ago. The important thing now is that North dont drop off the boil in the next few weeks thinking things will keep on rolling and the wins will come automatically. In current form there is no reason why North cant win 4 of the next 5 and finish top of the ladder and hopefully give us a chance to show Kevin Sheedy how pitiful his over rated side is.
A Huge blow for North Melbourne, North's defence already a man short without McCartney has now lost Glen Archer for 2 weeks after he was found guilty of attempting to trip an Eagles players in the game on the weekend. The incident happened shortly after Archer was met solidly by Worsfold. Its a big set back, things were just starting to click nicely into place and now this. What I want to know is when was the report made?. The only player I heard was sited on video was Shane Crawford of Hawthorn, Archer's report wasnt mentioned in any of the media. It didn't look good so I supose he was always going to go once it got that far. I just didnt think the umpires had picked it up. North are going to be tested in the backline over the next two weeks, the return of John Longmire should help fill the void but a player as good as Glen Archer cant be replaced over night.
North Melbourne had a good win over the Eagles in Perth over the weekend. Wayne Carey again stared kicking 5 goals including a four goal demolition of Jackovich in the second term. David King and Anthony Stevens were also good in a game that was played in a very physical mannor.
Wayne Carey trained last night but did not kick with his right foot untill rear the end of training. THe foot which is supposed to be chipped may keep the gun forward out of the game against the Eagles. Now that the injury has been brought to the attension of the football public defenders will probably be stomping on his foot at every opportunity.
North has had its appeal against Jason McCartney's three week suspension dismissed by the AFL. McCartney will now miss the games Against the Eagles, Demons and Power. North did however get back $10,000 of the $15,000 because the appeal was viewed to have been reasonable.
As I write this Jason McCartney will just be going in to have his appeal heard. McCartney was found guilty and given three weeks in a shocking decision on Friday and North have rightly appealed against the sentence. North is only the second club to use the new appeal process and has had to pay $15,000 much needed for the privilege. We will get $10,000 of that back though should the appeal be successful. Its ironic that the player he hit was cleared of the same incident a week ago, three weeks for that is not on, its nearly as bad as giving Schwass 4 for the stomping incident in the finals last year.
King and Archer have been named in opposite back pockets for this Fridays State of Origin game against the Allies. Blakey may also play he is one of 6 bench players that has to be culled to 4 tonight.
Press here to see olders news
North Melbourne will use their regular rooms in the Southern Stand for this weeks Grand Final, they will also be the home side wearing blue shorts and the traditional Blue and White Striped uniform. Everyone trained well at Arden Street last night, Chandler played in the senior team in drills up against Freeborn and that is looking the only likely change at this stage
A large number of North Melbourne fans have missed out on Grand Final tickets after the remaining tickets were sold out yesterday morning. 4512 tickets were available to the general members, which was more than I expected actually were snapped up in 40 minutes. In the line I was in at the MCG I would say anyone who came after early Sunday morning would have missed out. The Northern Stand was probably the best of all the outlets so it may have been worse at other venues, the line at Her Majesty's theatre was massive while the AFL outlet at the G only had half the machines as its MCC counterpart making the line much slower moving. As soon at the Crows won it was obvious we would be in trouble as they get twice as many tickets as we do. Thanks must go to the North Melbourne Football Club and Greg Miller in particular for keeping everyone in the lines (MCG outlets anyway don't know about the others e-mail me if you were in them) informed about the number of tickets available and the chances of securing one. We were also feed Kit Kats and Crisps on the Saturday night which was good of them. The line for Pagans Members on the Sunday Morning stretched the length the MCG car park and it took until 4 o'clock to service them all. At least they all got their chance to buy tickets though. The AFL needs to rethink its Grand Final ticket policy to give the members of the competing clubs more of a go. People have been selling tickets in the Paper since the start of the week and certain radio stations are giving away two tickets a week to the Grand Final. Why do these people get priority over out members?
North Melbourne has advanced to the Grand Final for the second time in three years with a comfortable win over the Demons at the MCG. North was jumped early on but stayed in it thanks to some accurate kicking and managed to wear down the demons after quarter time. Melbourne's over rated forward line went the same way as Essendons failing miserably not one of Melbourne's so called gun forwards could manage more then one goal against North's superb back half. North trained at the MCG yesterday for 30 minutes and will have a full session on Tuesday night at Arden Street 
Byron Pickett has won the Norwich Rising star award polling a perfect score of 30 points. Pickett is the first player to get a perfect score and is the first North Melbourne player to win the award. Corey McKernan would have won it but was robbed because he was suspended for tripping with the hand (a no longer reportable offence). Pickett was North Melbourne's 67th pick in last seasons draft and was formally a Port Adelaide Magpie who was over looked by the Power when they formed their inaugural squad. Byron wins a $20,000 investment portfolio from Norwich as well as the trophy. Wayne Jackson was full of praise for the North backman saying "Byron thoroughly deserves the accolades which have
been bestowed upon him throughout an exceptional year
and the ultimate recognition through the winning of the
1998 AFL Norwich Rising Star Award.
"Byron's success can serve as a lesson to all young
players that commitment and perseverance can be richly
rewarded,". Nick Stevens a player North should have drafted came second in the award with 17 votes while Even Hewitt received 2 votes.
North Melbourne has had an easy win over Port Adelaide in Canberra. 12,242 fans packed into Manuka Ovel to see North's victory and maybe even the 1998 Mark of the year taken by Winston Abraham. The Canberra game was a huge success, the game was sold out and generated a lot in interest in the capital. The only problems really were the size of the rooms and the lack of equipment luckily the Canberra sex industry was able come to North's aid and donate a message table or two. If we are going to play more games there though we need to have the capacity of the stadium boosted to at least 25,000 though. 
