Grand Designs: North Melbourne Are Building An AFL Force

If you don’t believe that North Melbourne is building something special, it’s time to start paying attention.

It’s rare that there can be such positivity around a team that lost a single match by 128 points on their way to a first wooden spoon in 49 years, but under the tutelage of David Noble, it’s clear that something is brewing at Arden Street.

After a 0-8 start to the season with a percentage of 52.66, North Melbourne’s last 14 games demonstrated significant improvement, with 4 wins and a draw, finishing with a percentage of 82.82 during that period of time.

Noble’s men increased their average score from 56.88 points per game to 71.64, while the defence improved significantly as well, reducing their ppg conceded from 108 through the first two months of the season down to 86.5.

With a number of notable absentees at the start of the season, the transformation of the best 22 by season’s end was noticeable, yet it was the style of play and, more specifically, the importance of youth that became evident by season’s end.

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Ben Cunnington remained the club’s most important player in both impact and statistically, and we wish him all the best with his continued cancer battle.

North Melbourne ranked a mediocre 14^th in clearances, metres gained, tackles and intercepts as well as 16^th in inside 50s.

Curiously though, they were ranked 4^th in centre clearances and possessed the best goal assist-to-goal ratio in the competition, with 73.96% of their goals arriving via directly being set up by a teammate.

The Kangaroos had the equal fourth-best disposal efficiency across the AFL and ranked fourth for marks per game, proving to be one of the better uncontested teams in the competition. Indeed, they ranked last for contested possessions, contested marks and marks inside 50.

What makes this list so exciting though is the combination of internal improvement with a coach willing to reward youth with great opportunities.

Tarryn Thomas became one of the league’s most exciting prospects, so damaging was his output across half-forward and in the midfield.

From Round 16 onwards, the third-year player averaged 22.1 disposals, 5.7 marks, 4.4 tackles, 4.4 inside 50s, 3.6 clearances, with 9 goals and 7 goal assists.

In the same period of time, Luke Davies-Uniacke averaged 24.3 disposals, 5.6 clearances, 5.1 marks and 3.9 inside 50s in an impressive flurry to end the season as the second part of North’s on-ball brigade.

It’s easy to forget that Jy Simpkin is just 23 years of age after his breakout season, becoming the youngest Roo since 1990 to win the club's best and fairest. The former Murray Bushranger averaged 26.9 disposals, 5.2 clearances and 4.7 inside 50s per game this season and remained the team's metronomic rock. Meanwhile first-year players Tom Powell and Will Phillips received their varied opportunities alongside him throughout the season.

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Towards the end of the year North Melbourne’s emphasis on clearances without Ben Cunnington was heightened, particularly using the relative veteran in Jed Anderson to act as a battering ram around contests.

Losing the clearance count by just 2 to Geelong while also dominating against Carlton and Richmond, the feeling that the Kangaroos’ midfield was growing into their larger frames was proven statistically, and it helped them stay relevant in games.

The aforementioned statistical breakdown of North Melbourne’s season tells us that the team was generally quite effective once the ball was won and sent to the outside.

This wasn’t a team looking to be damaging transitionally, despite the enormous numbers posted by Jack Ziebell and Aaron Hall off half-back.

Clean ball use and ball retention were vital to get North Melbourne to the centre line in a methodical way once winning back the ball, before the run of Hall could be impactful, and the likes of Jaidyn Stephenson, Curtis Taylor and Tarryn Thomas could even get involved.

Winning the ball out of the centre was crucial too, as the high half-forwards were inevitably midfield rotations in lieu of traditional wingmen, resulting in a lot more time and space as the season wore on to be able to set their teammates up.

Ranked just 14^th for marks inside 50, this was a team purely focused on two halves of the ground and making the most of talent and skill offensively, rather than being able to pinpoint targets.

Nick Larkey and Cam Zurhaar were ranked 25^th and 38^th respectively in the AFL for marks inside 50, with Jaidyn Stephenson next best ranked 86^th. Without the attacking targets, the midfield and half-forwards did most of the work by simply getting numbers around the ball in offence.

As Alastair Clarkson and Chris Fagan did with their respective teams, David Noble adopted an educational approach with a young playing group that already looked far more confident and adaptable in the second-half of 2021.

Defensively, they’ll improve and a lot of the experience in the team is in the back half of the ground to maintain consistency.

But the addition of Callum Coleman-Jones via trade, Hugh Greenwood via free agency, as well as the drafting of Jason Horne-Francis and Josh Goater will showcase just how good this young midfield can be in the future.

In adding a big, contested-marking target, North Melbourne has multiple ways in which they can attack the opposition offensively, and gives their midfield group better opportunities at becoming better attacking threats.

Greenwood is a tackling machine who will likely look to bring in the pressure across half-forward with spurts in the midfield, like Anderson, and protect the classier types that the club is cultivating.

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However the jewel in the Kangaroos’ crown is of course Horne-Francis. The South Australian and number 1 pick will enter the AFL with enormous wraps, bringing along a well-rounded game that has the potential for future stardom.

He’s as classy as he is tough, providing yet another rotational piece that is eerily reminiscent of the great Richmond and Hawthorn teams in modern history.

It means we see more of Stephenson and Taylor on the wing and as targets in attack, and leaves this midfield group having up to 10 options in any iteration of a best 22 David Noble chooses to go with.

There are a number of teams staking a claim to possessing the best young midfield in the competition, but few are batting as deep or versatile as North Melbourne heading into 2022.

If you swept the Kangaroos aside at the start of the season, choosing not to pay much attention to a team struggling at that point of time, that makes sense.

However, they simply can’t be slept on any longer.

Something special is brewing at Arden Street and it’s going to be a heap of fun to watch.

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