North have a new coach.

North Melbourne have announced today the appointment of the new senior coach, Brad Scott.
Brad Scott will take over in 2010 with Crocker remaining in charge to the end of this season.
I do not remember Brad Scott playing for Brisbane in their premiership 2001 and 2003 sides. In fact I can’t say I remember him at all.
Saying that, is credentials look great. Currently mid-field coach of Collingwood (and how bloody good is that mid field with the likes of Swan, Pendlebury, Beams, Wellingham and so on) before that he was their development coach. In his playing days, he was a hard nut and renown for his fierceness at the ball.

If he can bring across the fierceness to the Roos, and develop a strong mid field, I can not wait.
Now all we need is a forward line.

*EDIT* I do remember Scott from his playing days finally. And yes he was a hard ball defender. If he can bring with him the hardness and commitment back to the Roos, (specially the tackling!) I will be excited to see where North will be in 2 seasons.

Dream Team. Round 20, The Semis!

What a match last week! With gaps all over the field, Dal Santo pulling out last minute, captain Bartel playing crap and both ruckman failing..not to mention Franklin!
So what was the outcome?
Lucky for me, Dodgey Fellas also had gaps in the field including their captain!And the VC was SJohnson who had a shocker!
Kneejerkers win by 13 points!
Hell yeah!…..then this weeks team line ups were released….
Hell no!
I have more holes than swiss cheese in my backline again. No Grimes, Geary, Post and Petrenko is an emergency!
What does this mean for this weekends semi final against the Indefatigables?
Well I do have a lot of guns back in the side but 1-2 doughnuts in the back are going to hurt. And with out of form Franklin, SJohnson and unpredictable Russell, I am not overly confident.

DEF: Gilbert, McMahon, Hodge, Drummond, Houlihan and possible Petrenko
MID: Bartel, Dal Santo (vc), Lockyer, Griffen, CCornes, Beams
RUC: McIntosh, Sandilands
FWD: Riewoldt, SJohnson, Didak, Pavlich, Franklin, DThomas, MBrown

Gadget, I hope your Geelong players fail miserably…cept Bartel and SJohnson of course.

No sir. I don’t like it.

As soon as the retirement of Dean Laidley was annouced and North Melbourne were on the hunt for a new coach, I had one name for the Roos to chase. John “Horse” Longmire.
But of course North mucked around with the Nathan Buckley option and now it is too late.

SYDNEY Swans coaching co-ordinator John Longmire says he had no hesitation in accepting a two-year agreement to replace Paul Roos as senior coach, despite the lure of a return to North Melbourne.

That’s right, Longmire has signed up for a 2 year deal at the Swans to start in 2011 after Paul Roos leaves at the end of 2010.
This, for me, is very disappointing as I thought Longmire would have brought discipline, hard work and real heart back to the Roos.
I think Crocker is a great choice as a caretaker coach but I am not comfortable about him being the long term coach. But who does the signing of both Buckley and Longmire leave?
Apparently there are 3 left: Darren Crocker (North caretaker), Damien Hardwick (Hawks assistant) and Brad Scott (Magpies).

Dream Team round 18…

It is the final round of Dream Team before the finals begins and my place is no where near locked in.
I play the I Love Footy team with only 3 losses to their name. The battle for the 6th to 8th position is tight, where only percentage is keeping most teams apart.
If I pull off the win this week, I am into the finals. If I lose this week, it comes down to percentage. With 2 teams vying for the top 8 playing ‘bye’ teams it will be close.
Therefore it is all or nothing for me and my last 2 trades are being used. OUT Higgins who has performed greatly throughout the season, only to get himself injured for 3 weeks, and OUT for PBurgoyne who really has got worse throughout the season. So who comes in?
IN: The Hawks are playing so much better, almost to their Grand final win level so in comes Hodge to bring some run into the backline. IN: To add some selfishness and style to the forwards, here comes Didak which makes my team a little heavy with Collingwood players but it should give me a great score.
Now the problem is, my most consistent defender, Gilbert, is being rested with back soreness and this hurts. This leaves a doughnut in my backline with the only players able to fill it have both been listed as emergencies only. Crap.
The line up:
BACK: McMahon, Hodge, Grimes, Drummond, Houlihan, Post with Geary or Petrenko hopefully filling the gap.
MID: Dal Santo, Lockyer, Bartel(VC), Griffen, CCornes, Beams
RUCK: Sandilands, McIntosh
FWD: Didak, Franklin, Riewoldt(C), Russell, DThomas, SJohnson, Pavlich
Yep, that is it. Hopefully this will give me a score of at least 1924 plus captain which is 200 more than I Love Footy’s average but they do have the Ablett factor.
Oh well, here goes.

What’s that Skip? How good was that Pie?

Well. As if the North Melbourne Kangaroos can’t confuse people enough, they go and win against the 3rd place Collingwood Magpies
And what a win!? A quiet 1st half to by the Shinboners which gave Collingwood a 13 point lead at the major break.
And then the 3rd quarter started and so did North Melbourne!
I have not seen Firrito play a better game…and of course that was the 1st time I have benched him in my Dream Team (of which he outscored 6 of the 7 players). Petrie once again played a MVP game and would have earned the full 3 points for the Brownlow.

This game had it all for me, beat Collingwood AGAIN!, get back into the Eight and signs of some consistency.
Bout bloody time North…..but now of course you will probably be beaten by Melbourne this week because you are expected to win.

North Melbourne 17.12. 144
Collingwood 14.12. 96