The List Manager: Jon Ralph examines North Melbourne’s current list, its future and everything in between
The Kangaroos might be the worst side of the decade, but they did produce one of the most intoxicating bits of play in 2024, which is where their fans can find the light in their rebuild.
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One of footy’s most intoxicating periods of play this year came from footy’s worst side of the past decade. North Melbourne not only lost the first 11 games of the year, they didn’t get within 26 points of a rival with 10 of those 11 defeats by six goals and six by more than 50 points. Eventually they beat fellow strugglers Richmond and West Coast and beat Gold Coast by four points at Marvel Stadium. But it was a glorious 27-minute patch where North Melbourne reeled off eight straight goals against Collingwood where this list finally showed its true potential.
George Wardlaw and Harry Sheezel were everywhere, the ball movement off half back was intoxicating and the players started to believe in Alastair Clarkson’s brand.
Of course, the game ended in an agonising one-point loss as Bailey Scott was denied a 50m penalty.
But the real question is reproducing that level of football is 20 or 60 games away.
The rebuild is taking forever. The Roos haven’t played finals since losing an elimination final by 62 points in 2016. Since then Hawks have played finals (in 2016 and 2018), rebuilt entirely and are now a premiership force.
No one needs to tell the Roos fans it’s been too long between drinks.
As Alastair Clarkson said late this season, it’s time to make a meaningful step jump up the ladder.
It is what made the three-victory season so disappointing.
Having assembled a list with strong levels of talent, it is time for Clarkson and co. to climb out of the bottom four and start the business of being a competitive football side again.
TRADE PERIOD RATING: 7/10
In 2023 Luke Parker and Caleb Daniel both finished fourth in their club best and fairest awards, with Daniel winning the best clubman at Whitten Oval.
Both are another year older but if you had said at the end of last year they would be North Melbourne-bound in 2025 it would be a Roos coup.
In 2024 the premiership pair struggled for impact based only on opportunity rather than form.
Parker showed in the Grand Final what he is capable of and when Daniel played half back he was as good as he has ever been.
So for North Melbourne to land them both in this trade period should be a feather in the club’s cap.
List bosses are all about net gains.
In other words, judge them on their trade period instead of individual deals.
Having prioritised premiership experience and leadership, the Roos gave up pick 25 (for Daniel), pick 44 (for Parker and Jacob Konstanty) and pick 67 (for Jack Darling).
Konstanty is a tackling machine who fills a very specific role as a pressuring forward at a club that has very few of those types.
The club hopes to follow a similar model to the Demons build, where the club brought in elite trainer Daniel Cross, got a best-and-fairest out of Bernie Vince after giving up 23 for the Adelaide mid, and got vast experience and on-field coaching when Jordan Lewis crossed from the Hawks.
Parker should eke out another 50 great games as well as make his teammates walk tall.
The Roos still have the No. 2 draft pick and having taken a welter of top 30 selections these past three years have every right to give up draft capital for experienced types.
LIST HOLES
In 2024 the Roos found a ruckman (Tristan Xerri), a medium forward (Paul Curtis, 30 goals), and a big imposing key position swingman (Charlie Comben).
That is no small feat given Xerri is only 25 and Comben is 23.
The midfield should at some stage be absolutely elite – Sheezel, Wardlaw, Luke Davies-Uniacke, Jy Simpkin, Luke Parker, with McKercher to end up there as quickly as next season.
Tom Powell had a sneaky good year to finish fifth in the best-and-fairest, and Will Phillips at least showed he has tagging potential in an 11-game season.
The clear deficiency is a second key forward to play alongside Larkey in a year where Toby Pink and Brynn Teakle tried to hold up an end as Callum Coleman-Jones tore an achilles that needed more recent surgery.
There is more than one remedy to their problem.
The Roos could pick brilliant 193cm swingman Alix Tauru with No. 2 in the draft and push Comben forward.
They could push back in the order and take 195cm key forward Harry Armstrong somewhere in the top 12 picks while also securing another early pick.
They can hope second-year 200cm ruckman Wil Dawson can develop his craft as a key forward even though he played in defence and likely has a future there in his first season at Arden Street.
Then there is No. 4 draft pick Zane Duursma, who showed flashes of brilliance but tired in his first season and at 190cm is more of a third tall.
The club’s No. 20 pick of last year is Taylor Goad, a 207cm unicorn who is the fastest player on the list but will need time after being eased into VFL football as a centre half back who has scope to play ruck or forward.
Daniel slots in alongside Bailey Scott and should release Colby McKercher to the midfield, with last year’s pick 23 Riley Hardiman likely to get some chances on the wing.
The club will keep backing Luke McDonald as a running defender after he improved off zero pre-season, while the Zac Fisher experiment as the defensive quarterback brought mixed results.
And Parker helps up forward for a team that got 29 goals from the re-signed Cam Zurhaar but only 15 from Eddie Ford, with Jaidyn Stephenson (eight goals) now retired.
DRAFT STRATEGY
The Roos are open to all options – trading backwards from pick two or trading some of next year’s full draft hand to get a second early pick in the upcoming draft.
The current draft hand is pick 2 and 62, which isn’t going to wash.
North Melbourne would ideally like to take three draft picks in this draft, so they will have to get busy on draft night. And while it is a huge risk to trade a future first-rounder after finishing bottom two five years in a row, the Roos know clubs are interested and are open to discussions.
This is the draft to go tall with a very early pick given the options available in Tauru and Armstrong. But Richmond doesn’t seem obsessed with giving up multiple top-12 picks for the Roos pick 2, so North Melbourne might have to hand over its future first rounder or future second-rounder to get a second early pick even if it uses pick 2 as part of that deal.
AFL PLAYER RATINGS
In 2024 Tristan Xerri was 12th, Luke Davies-Uniacke 19th, Harry Sheezel 20th, Tom Powell 84th. Sheezel can be a top-five player in 2025 given a full season in the midfield.
PREMIERSHIP WINDOW
Baby steps for this side. For every Colby McKercher or Harry Sheezel there are drafts where the Roos didn’t quite nail their lines.
In 2020 the club took Phillips (pick 2), before Powell (pick 13) and have just delisted pick 36 Charlie Lazzaro.
In 2021 the Roos took Jason Horne-Francis (pick 1), then exciting half back Josh Goater (pick 22) whose 2024 season came to an early end after an achilles tear.
Finally the critical mass of exciting kids are developing – McKercher, George Wardlaw, Sheezel, Comben, with Duursma, Goad, Dawson, Hardiman and Curtis only scratching the surface of their talent.
Surrounding them with even more experience will at least give them a chance to shine and give us a better understanding of how far this list is from success.
SALARY CAP
If the Roos aren’t $5 million under the salary cap it’s hard to see who they are paying. Put it another way – if they lose free agent Luke Davies-Uniacke it won’t be through money issues.
The Roos will have paid up to get Parker and Daniel to the club and have given Larkey, Sheezel and Simpkin lucrative extensions.
But there is a talent deficit on this list, which has lucrative contracts for Aidan Corr and Callum Coleman-Jones expiring next year and Jaidyn Stephenson having retired.
If the Roos start the season well LDU will sign a mega-contract at well over a million bucks a year and hopefully Wardlaw will sign on past 2026 on a similar deal to Sheezel’s contract.
LDU will be a fascinating test of the premium free agency market given he will sign a deal starting in 2026, only a year before the current CBA expires.
As a brilliant explosive, goalkicking midfielder who only turns 26 in June, he could easily earn $1.6 million or more a year at the Roos or somewhere else.
That might seem high but Dustin Martin and Jeremy McGovern signed deals worth $1.4 million in 2017 and 2018.
TRADE TARGETS
The Roos need elite small forwards and another tall but as Clarkson has said, free agents don’t want to come and they have to pay overs for those they bring in.
So if the Roos can finally make a step jump – win eight games – they will at least show they have a bright enough future to pay normal prices for trades.
The Roos at least have salary cap room – would they throw the sink at a Leek Aleer type and promise opportunities and a big fat pay rise on a hugely talented intercept defender?
That is the kind of play they will need to make to get someone across the line.
TRADE BAIT
Luke Davies-Uniacke told the Herald Sun he had every intention of re-signing late in the year even as he hits free agency in 2025. Even if he wants to depart the Roos would be mad not to match a deal for the wildly talented breakaway mid. But what is more important than the cash – and there will be plenty of it in the Roos offer and rival bids – is North Melbourne making a bright start to the year. If they can show quick improvement he will stay.
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