Dear members and supporters,
Saturday’s game against Adelaide summed up a lot of our season – some really promising signs, a lot to walk away feeling positive about, but we couldn’t get the win.
The last couple of weeks have been a heartening finish to the season. It was important – crucial even – that after a competitive and positive middle part of the year, we finished our campaign with a solid springboard into 2026.
But let’s not jump ahead just yet. Season 2025, five wins and a draw. It’s an improvement, but there is still so much work to do. Footy is about wins and losses. We want more wins, and for those big losses to be a thing of the past.
In a nod to my mid-season letter, I’ll ask the same question: have we made progress? On some metrics, yes. We’ve been in games longer this season. And the patch of three wins and a draw from six outings mid-season gave us all a glimpse of what the future will look like.
Across the year, this has meant we’ve been able to watch games with greater optimism and hope. Hope that we could turn those close three-quarter time margins into wins, that we could win next week, that when cohesion and experience tip in our favour we’ll be really good.
We had 10 debutants this year – seven played their first AFL game and three represented North Melbourne for the first time. Across the year we routinely fielded the youngest team of the round. Throughout that, coaches gained a clearer understanding of where our future stars are best played and gave all of us as supporters a glimpse of the talent they are working with.
Critically, our players showed confidence in what we’re building – among them Luke Davies-Uniacke, Tristan Xerri and Colby McKercher – when they committed their long-term futures to our club.
A couple of our first- and second-year players gave us some ‘wow!’ moments – Finn O’Sullivan earned a Rising Star nomination and Riley Hardeman was unlucky to miss out. Cooper Trembath was a late-season find. And it’s hard to believe Colby McKercher just completed only his second season. And Harry Sheezel and George Wardlaw their third.
But with progress, comes expectation. We expected more wins this year. I don’t want that to detract from the progress – but I don’t want to pretend the progress is enough. It’s not.
As a club, we’ve written and spoken a lot about stability – it’s the cornerstone of success for every good club, every good business. In footy, stability isn’t built in six months, one or two years. It comes from making more good decisions than bad, finding the best people to do their jobs and helping them to flourish. Stability doesn’t mean we stand still – it means careful and considered change, and continual improvement.
So, in that vein, we’ll now put the off-season to good use. We’ll look to inject some more muscle into our coaching and football support group, we’ll continue to develop and grow our current players, we’ll explore every avenue to add depth to our playing list. We’ll build on the strong culture and environment that’s been established, and we’ll demand more in every facet of our program.
Before I finish, a note on the AFLW program. It was great to see so many of you at Arden Street on Sunday for the unfurling of the Premiership flag, and a great victory over Port Adelaide.
Our reigning premiers didn’t get there by accident. It took time, work, and a slow and steady cultural build. Their success has been forged on sound decisions and calculated risks – exactly the same way we’ll develop our AFL team.
We saw the fruits of that hard work last season and this new season has opened in promising fashion.
To coach Darren Crocker, general manager of women’s football Erin Lorenzini, new skipper Jas Garner and the entire AFLW program, well wishes on a new season. We love that you’re the standard-setter in W and we love how you turn up every single day.
See you at the footy and ‘Go Roos!’
Sonja.
