I thought they were onto something when they tapped into the off contract Rugby league players market a few years back when Matt Lodge played a couple of reserve grade games for them.
Seriously it is a very sad state of affairs at Norths which I think could even get worse before it gets better.
I had stepped in to help manage the ressies that night at Norths when Matt Lodge played as the normal manager was unavailable. Had walked past him going gees he looked familiar then saw his name scribbled on the paper team list. Fox Sports turning up and all that attention scared him off, he was actually quite a nice bloke and suprised me, had a couple of beers with him post game and was going to run out in prems that weekend whilst he was off contract, just wanted to play footy to keep fit and not worry about anything but the fun in it.
I think the only way it gets worse for them is if the club folds. Aside from that, I can't really see it improving either, just stuck in this perpetual losing streak.
I don't know how old many on this forum are, but Norths 1st and 2nd grade have been getting cricket scores put on them since at least the early 2000s and it hasn't stopped. In fact, their 2nd grade was getting easily 70-90pts scored against them for a fair chunk of that period and they actually seem to have improved (or other clubs 2nd grade depth has dropped off).
The club had a good run in the lower grades during the 2010s for a while. They managed to lure a number of ex-1st graders from a few clubs to play in their 3rd/4th grade teams with the promise of lower membership fees and the ability to pretty much run their own sides. I think they won a few premierships in that period, but once that was over, all of those players returned to their old clubs again.
Theres always alot of bashing of the old Norths, as someone who had previously been involved with the grades there it didn’t come as a shock when their 4th grade was pulled out as the past few years the lower grades numbers have been declining rapidly and to be honest you’d end up having players who are 5th grade quality at best going into 3rd grade and even going up into 2nds.
From my understanding knowing a few of the guys who played in it, there was a few issues years ago when they were having some success in the lower grades and the club supposedly gave those guys zero mention/consideration and it burned alot of life long club players.
Club needs a mentality switch, which I think they are trying to implement but have tried for quite a few years without much luck, the academy they have set up is a good start in trying to secure those young juniors/colts long term but that will only help in the prems scene long term, once their colts reach grades age generally they stop playing footy rather than go into the grades unless they are a 1/2’s prospect, and players with injuries would rather walk away than return in a lower grade.
Put it this way, in 3rd grade, from what I’ve seen there is less than 10 players who played in the last 4 years in either 3rd/4th grade. Writing was on the wall last year when Norths had to forfiet a 3rd grade game vs Brothers which is usually a game you have no issues at least getting a few weeklies in to play.
Its a bit of a tough cycle there, you need to get better results to keep players/attract better players, but need better players to get better results.
