Four-time Power best and fairest winner Kane Cornes believes North Melbourne mightn’t win another game until mid-July as he raised concerns over the club’s young talent.
After tight wins over West Coast and Fremantle in the first two rounds, Alastair Clarkson’s Kangaroos have dropped their past four games, including big losses to Brisbane (-75 points) and Gold Coast (-43) in the past fortnight.
The Roos face a tough run ahead of their mid-season bye, with games against Melbourne, St Kilda, Port Adelaide, Sydney, Collingwood and Essendon across the next six rounds.
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“How concerned should we be about North Melbourne?” Cornes asked on SEN Breakfast on Monday morning.
“I can’t see a win for them maybe until Round 18 when they take on Hawthorn. Perhaps they upset someone else along the way with that, but on the surface they won’t start favourite until a game against Hawthorn perhaps.”
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The Kangaroos, prior to Clarkson’s arrival, had undergone a significant list facelift, leading to them being among the three youngest lists in the competition in both 2021 and 2022. They’ve had 10 picks inside the top 40 selections in the past three drafts.
North this year has the sixth-youngest list in the AFL, but Cornes said he had concerns over the talent of the playing group.
“I watched Hawthorn play against Adelaide – and they’re starting from further back than what North Melbourne are in terms of their list rebuild – and you look at some of their youngsters and go: ‘There’s a few there that you like and there’s a few injuries they’ve got out,’” he said.
“I watch North Melbourne play and (Harry) Sheezel is great, he’ll be a star. (George) Wardlaw I’ve seen clips of in the VFL and looks excellent and (is held in) high regard.
“Then what? Then who are we excited about as a North Melbourne footy club in terms of young players coming through? I don’t see much there.”
Eight-time All-Australian Nathan Buckley said North’s list “was always going to be an issue” in the short-term, but stressed the club has a long-term focus.
“They lost to West Coast and Fremantle in the first couple of rounds and neither of those sides are going to be a force,” Buckley told SEN Breakfast.
“North’s structure looked really good early and they’ve got enough experience in there. There’s some older players that have been around the block a few times and ‘Clarko’ has invested in them to come in and to support the youth that are going to come through over the next couple of years.
“But he is situated it as a long-term play – and it was always going to be a long-term play – but potentially they just haven’t looked as organised on-field, which is a concern given his experience and how they started in the first couple weeks.”
Cornes added: “They concede so many uncontested marks, so the method that he’s got them playing, there has to be questions as well.”
