North Melbourne Kangaroos

AFL great calls for “total rebuild” at North Melbourne

“Forget the godfather offers to Andrew Gaff and to Jordan De Goey and to Isaac Heeney.” 💥

Published by

Ben Cotton

Former Port Adelaide great Kane Cornes believes North Melbourne must bite the bullet and conduct a "total rebuild" of their list.

The Kangaroos are reeling from a fifth-straight loss on the weekend at the hands of Richmond in a 54-point smashing.

After opening the season with consecutive wins, Rhyce Shaw's side now sits 17th on the ladder at 2-5

To make matters worse, skipper Jack Ziebell suffered a hamstring setback on the weekend that will likely sideline him for multiple weeks.

Speaking on SEN’s Whateley, Cornes questioned the Roos' list management strategy in recent years and called for drastic changes.

“They need a total rebuild and they’ve been a little bit delusional with the way that they’ve rebuilt this squad and with the players they’ve brought into to try and paper over some cracks,” Cornes said.

“So Jasper Pittard, Jared Polec, Dom Tyson and Aaron Hall and the players you know of at the expense of investing (in the draft and in younger players).

“They've finished around mid-table for the last eight years means that they have never had that access to multiple first-round draft picks and being able to rebuild which is what they need.

“Forget the godfather offers to Andrew Gaff and to Jordan De Goey and to Isaac Heeney and what you’ve done in the past – that’s not the method to get North Melbourne where they need to go.

“The method is to do basically what Adelaide is doing. So Adelaide is a year ahead of what North Melbourne needs to do.

“There needs to be a complete rebuild at North and they need to forget the delusion of trying to recruit players to that club and invest through the draft and rebuild that footy club.”

SEN's Gerard Whateley also took aim at the club, declaring that they are now suffering the consequences for several poor decisions.

“North Melbourne started the season with two wins. They were two wins that spoke of unity and purpose and mission and it felt like they had harnessed the intangibles that might be so decisive in this season,” he said.

“But what we’ve learned on week on week on week on week on week is they’re just ordinary.

“Their talent level is low and their depth is non existent and they were pathetic on Saturday night. This is a bottom-out performance.

“This goes back to their conversation with Brad Scott, who told them they could scrounge away in mid-table for eternity or they could bite the bullet and amass draft picks by bottoming out with their on-field performance, which is now happening anyway, but also by trading players with currency.

“The backdrop to their performance now is they re-signed Todd Goldstein and they re-signed Shaun Higgins when they had currency and they had suitors and there were draft picks to be had. They could have been in that position, but they chose not to be.

“The only way to justify that is to be making finals and suddenly they’re a mile from it. Being mid-table ordinary is a disaster.”

The Roos will look to end their losing streak when they face Carlton at the Gabba on Saturday at 1.05pm AEST.

Published by

Ben Cotton

4 years ago