North Melbourne sits as the AFL trade period’s big mystery team, but Saints champion Leigh Montagna believes they simply can’t draw enough more mature-aged talent.
The Kangaroos on Monday officially signed Charlie Spargo as a free agent, but outside of the premiership-winning small forward, the Roos don’t figure to be buyers this October.
That’s a problem given they finished 16th this year with five wins and a draw, finally escaping the bottom two but not showing anywhere near enough growth to convince the footy world they’re on the right track under coach Alastair Clarkson.
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Clarkson’s side traded its 2025 first-round selection to Richmond last year for the chance to draft Matt Whitlock, a tall who can play at either end but managed just two senior games in his debut season.
Their earliest draft picks will thus fall in the 20s, and they haven’t been linked to any other trade targets, meaning they look set to be inactive.
Quizzed on whether that’s the right or wrong approach, dual All-Australian Montagna suggested the Roos simply didn’t have a choice in the matter.
“No, I think they would want to be active. But unfortunately, with where they are at the moment, no one wants to come to them,” he told the Fox Footy Podcast on Monday night.
“And it’s not a great year to stockpile draft picks probably either, so they’re in the predicament where for them it’s more internally — culturally they’ve just got to get better; they’ve got to learn to win.
“They’ve just got to build what they’ve got. They’ve got enough talent at the moment to be better than what they are, and that’s where their focus has got to lie on their pre-season and what they’re doing internally.”
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Probed on why the club seemingly isn’t pursuing a key defender such as Melbourne’s Steven May, who’s been made available, Montagna suggested the Roos had learned from their past ills.
“Maybe they’ve already learnt, though — they did that with Griffin Logue and Aidan Corr, and it’s not really getting the job done,” he said.
“I think maybe put some more faith in Charlie Comben, build around him, Wil Dawson, Matt Whitlock as well — they have drafted some young stocks, so maybe they’re changing tack a little bit and saying ‘well, we’re down the bottom anyway, we’re still a long way off, let’s play these kids and give them chances, rather than just stockpiling some sort of ready-made veteran key defenders’.”
The Kangaroos’ all-conquering women’s side has recorded more wins than the men’s team for the sixth consecutive year despite playing less than half as many games.