Now that North's 1997 campaign is over ,its time to look to next year, who will be playing for us next season, who wont...how can North Melbourne improve to reclaim our rightful place atop the AFL Ladder. THe biggest change that might occur is playing home games out of Tasmania. North CEO Greg Millar said that the club whats to play two home games outside of Victoria, either in Tassy or on a Monday night in Sydney.
Mark Stevens who played 5 senior games this year for a total of 21 has been traded to Adelaide in exchange for centre-half back Jason McCartney. McCartney has struggled to get into the Adelaide side but will be able to provide a tall option for centre half back. An area which North has been deficient in since the retirement of Ian Fairly. North Melbourne has also traded Stuart Anderson (god the girls will be heartbroken) to Fremantle in exchange for rover Winston Abraham. Abraham has been out of form recently but at his best is one of the games most exciting players and will add much needed pace to our midfield.
It will be interesting to see what happens to Brett Allison now, he requested to be traded to the Swans to be with his wife but Sydney didn’t want him and he will now have to fly back and forward between his wife and the club. Chris Langford did it fairly successfully but its going to be hard and his game may suffer. Kent Kingsley lead the reserves goal kicking this year with 49 and looks to be a good prospect. North does need to find some young blood and it has been a bit of a worry that the young players who have been so successful at reserve level have not been able to establish them selves in the senior team. Danny Stevens played a number of games this year before being dropped , hopefully he can play 16 or so games next year. Scott Welsh also has big wraps on him, but he had only been able to manage one senior game in each of the two years he’s been at the club.
North Melbourne used its first selection (14th) in this years national draft to select the youngest player in
the draft pool 16 year old Shannon Watt. Watt is the was expected to go higher in the draft but
was still available come North’s turn because the teams higher up went for 18 yo's instead of taking
a 17 year old. Watt is a tall (193cm) ruckmen from the North Ballarat Rebels and impressed at
draft camp being among the top 10 in speed and jump testing. Watt was also an all Australian at
under 16 level. North decided to go for Watt instead of 17 yo Nick Stevens (brother of Danny)
who ended up being taken by Port Adelaide with the 26th selection in the draft. Nick wanted to
join his brother at North and probably would have if Watt hadn’t been available at 14 but now has
to leave Victoria’s greatest suburb (Greensborough) to fly to Adelaide, he said in an interview after
the draft that he would still like to play with his brother at North one day. North’s second pick was
at number 27 and we went for another Stevens, 18yo Bradley Stephens, Stephens is a 186cm
Back Flanker from the Murray Bushrangers. Our second choice in the second round was at
number 30 and it was used to select 18yo Paul McMahon from the Bendigo Pioneers. McMahon
is a very pacey rover. North’s third round 46th selection was used to pick up Joshua Robertson a
left footed midfielder from the Murray Bushrangers. North’s final pick (62) was used to promote
Dion Miles from the Supp list. Miles played a great year in the reserves winning the best and fairest
award in that team. Miles is probably the only one of the four who has a chance of playing senior football in 1998 so the new kids wont have much of an impact next season.
1998, Looking to the Future 
Matthew Armstrong, Paul Wynd, Sam McFarlane, Wade Kingsley, Julian Kirzner have all been delisted and wont be at the club next season. It surprised me that Laidley didn’t give it away too, but more players will have to go to make way for the March draftees so maybe he will be one of the ones to go. Laidley has been a great player for North in the years since we got him from the Eagles but he struggled badly last year and played most of the year in the twos. It looks as if ages is catching up with the junkyard dog. Darren Crocker has been offer a one-year deal to play on next season, and will play as long as he thinks his injury prone body can stand another year and he get though preseason training ok. Mark Roberts will also play on for another year, North’s oldest player is still a valuable asset to the team, his versatility is important.
The biggest change in the team however is the loss of vice-captain Wayne Schwass, Schwass was traded to the Swans for up and coming star Shannon Grant. Schwass is one of the true stars of the game and it came as a bit of a shock to me that they would even consider trading him. He is however 29 years old, 9 years Grants senior. Wayne Schwass didn’t have a very good year this year either, in fact he hasn’t played consistently at his best since he broke his arm at the start of 1996. Shannon Grant will hopefully star for North for many years to come, he’s only 20 years old and now that he’s back in Melbourne where he belongs his football can only improve.
The big problem in that regard is that North’s performance on field over the last five years has been so good 6, 3,3,1,3 we haven’t been able to get a good draft pick and get a couple of good kids. North has been very smart in recruiting the older players in Feb Draft but hasn’t been able to get a quality selection in the November draft for a while. Brent Harvey being the only exception and we only got him because he was overlooked by the other clubs because of his size. 
Chris Groom, Evan Hewitt (just for you Sam) and Anthony Mellington could play important parts in North’s season next year as one of them could play Crockers position if he doesn’t go on another year. What all North supporter would like to see however is a fit Corey McKernan and Wayne Carey. Carey should be right be next year if he isn’t already while McKernan will spent the majority of the off season in surgery. He needs a shoulder reconstruction and a partial knee reconstruction, certain hope he’s got private health cover. Matthew Capuano will be back on board next year, hopefully he will still be a good player after recovering from his second knee reconstruction. Simpson and Freeborn also need to take the next step up after having patchy seasons in 97.
