North Shore captain Jacob Sammut and key figures open up on pre-season, and send strong message to doubters
North Shore isn’t sugar coating what has been a difficult pre-season. But key figures are emphatic they will be competing in 2025, and believe they remain an attractive destination. Here’s why.
The rumour mill has gone into overdrive about North Shore this pre-season as people across Geelong question the Seagulls’ future.
A letter uncovered by this masthead on Thursday revealed AFL Barwon told North Shore it was planning to proceed with the 2025 football season without them due to their low numbers.
But when you ask key figures at the Seagulls whether they will be fielding senior and reserves sides in 2025, and they are emphatic.
“Definitely,” North Shore captain Jacob Sammut said.
“We absolutely will,” Seagulls co-vice-president Greg Dennis said. “We have got numbers rolling in by the day, we have got numbers in the 40s and push that onto the 60s and make a good old North Shore go of it for 2025.”
“I don’t know how many more people we have to say to that we’ll be having two teams,” former president Dale Purcell said. “How strong they are, that’s a different matter, but we keep hearing these rumours.”
Sammut bleeds for the club he has played at since Auskick. — in fact, last week he filled in for new coach Mark Hounslow who was at a funeral.
And the combative Seagull has been met with constant questions.
“It’s definitely frustrating. I mean, whether you’re on a job site and someone pulls you aside and says, ‘what’s going on with North Shore? I hear you are folding and this stuff’, it’s just all speculation and rumours,” Sammut said.
“It’s no rumour that our numbers haven’t been great, we’ve had a few people leave this year, but just (people are saying) that we’re folding, and that’s not happening.
“The club isn’t going under. We’re coming up to our 100th year in two years time, 2027, will be our 100th year and that’s gonna be a really great celebration for us. Hopefully we start winning a fair few games from then on.”
One thing which isn’t hearsay is the club’s plight this pre-season after losing a handful of players over the off-season.
“No rumour about it, it’s been hard. The numbers aren’t as great as they should be, but, there’s multiple reasons for that,” Sammut said.
“We’ve got people playing cricket, other blokes with their work commitments, working away, plumbing licenses, other people trying to further their careers. It’s not all footy as we know, football comes second when it comes to your family and your work. So the numbers are a little bit on the lower side partly because of that.
“We’ve had over 40 blokes train, just depends on the night. Some people train Tuesday, some people train Wednesday, some people train Monday, it just changes up. But we’ve got enough to field our two teams and we’ll be happy to go out there and play.”
Perhaps the most disappointing part of those is clubs in the region have attempted to take advantage of the Seagulls’ situation.
Rather than lend a hand to North Shore in its time of need, clubs across the region have used their vulnerable position to try and give themselves a leg up.
“Other clubs contacting not only myself, but other players as well, trying to poach us. And there’s no clear decision, there was no clear decision saying that we’re not playing or anything,” Sammut said.
“So it’s a bit frustrating copping all them calls all the time. But I guess that’s just what happens when the rumours start coming out.”
Purcell feels it isn’t in the spirit of local footy.
“I would have thought bigger clubs, stronger clubs, would have reached out and kind of said, ‘Oh, if you’re looking for a few, we’ve got a few extras’, instead of coming after us,” Purcell said.
“I thought community footy was better than that, but obviously some clubs have got their own agenda, and it’s all about their success and not about football in Geelong area – what it should be.”
THE PITCH
Sammut has been out there asking anyone who will listen to join North Shore.
“I try my hardest to get everyone here, whether if I see them or I’m messaging him, I’m messaging countless people,” Sammut chuckled.
While some may be put off by the scoreboard, North Shore offers footballers to chance for extra responsibility in one of the best country footy competitions.
Kobe Annand is case in point. The ruckman joined the Seagulls in 2022 from Ocean Grove and all it took was one season – where the Seagulls finished 10th – for him to get onto the VFL radar.
He has played 32 games over the past two seasons with Werribee and signed with SANFL club Central District last October.
Sammut implores anyone who wants to test themselves in a high standard of football to choose North Shore.
“Do they want to play GFL football? Really that’s my biggest pitch to them. You can come here, if you’re half decent at football, you’re going to be playing senior football. And if not, if you’re getting left out in the reserves, why not come here where you’re going to get a game?” Sammut said.
“Not only that, we’ve got the gym, which is also very enticing for people that want to actually dedicate and become a good senior footballer in the GFL.
“It’s not just about Tuesday, Thursday, it’s about what you’re doing the after-hours as well, with your gym and your running and your diet and everything. We’ve got lots of people around the club that can help in all those areas.”
From the outside looking in, potential suitors might suspect that the club would be down in the dumps after years of on-field pain.
But the culture and passion is the big thing that keeps Sammut coming back – something you can sense from being down at Windsor Park.
“The love that I have for it and the people have for me here. It’s second to none, I couldn’t imagine playing anywhere else,” Sammut said.
“And not only that, it’s also more fulfilling to be a part of something like at the moment,” Sammut said. At the moment we are starting from not a great place right now, where we’re down towards the bottom of the ladder, and we’re being a part of the climb.
“Instead of joining a team that’s already thereabouts, I enjoy the toughness of it and the competitiveness to be a part of something great, not join something great.”
ATTEMPTED RECRUITING DRIVE
North Shore’s registration figures were described by AFL Barwon in their letter to the Seagulls as, “not at, or even approaching, the required numbers to field two competitive sides.”
It certainly isn’t for lack of trying.
Last week the Seagulls had five walk-ups from Horsham and a couple from Anakie at training.
Dennis, who stepped aside this week, has been key to the attempted recruiting drive.
But their delicate position at the bottom of the GFNL club championship table – with a brutal opening month of the season ahead – has been another challenge along with the rumours.
North Shore could be relegated to the Bellarine in 2026, but promotion from the BFNL is non-mandatory and the current club championship top-two in Geelong Amateur and Torquay have shown a reluctance to join the GFNL.
“Everyone around town has been talking us down. The league have talked us down, they’ve given us the absolute worst draw of all time,” Dennis said.
“I’ve had, people that I’ve gone to recruit, and they’ve said, ‘Oh, what about this, where you’re going to get relegated next year?’
“I said, ‘Well, we’re actually not going to get relegated next year if, if the Bellarine don’t want to come up’.”
There is no sugar-coating where they sit. But the Seagulls skipper encouraged anyone looking for a new club to look beyond the scoreboard.
“I think it really just shows true character for the blokes that have been here for a long time,” Sammut said.
“Not only that, they’re trying to do their best to recruit players and whatnot, but it’s just hard to recruit when people just jump online and look at the scoreboard.
“When if they actually just came down to training and trained for two, three weeks, they would say what a great environment it is here, and that will probably be more enticing for them to stay at the club.”
Originally published as North Shore captain Jacob Sammut and key figures open up on pre-season, and send strong message to doubters
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