Dual premiership player Anthony Stevens has urged North Melbourne’s players not to get ahead of themselves with talk of finals following their recent run of form.
The former club captain says keeping it simple on the field will hold the side in good stead now and well into the future.
“In the end, it all comes back to playing basic footy and not getting ahead of yourself. Denis (Pagan) always used to tell us to just do the one per centers like beat your man, tackle, chase, keep the pressure up in the midfield, spoil when you need to. If everyone does that, it’ll go a long way to getting the team over the line,” he told kangaroos.com.au.
“You look to finals because that’s the ultimate goal and that’s what we play footy for - that’s what the supporters expect. But as a player, there’s only one way you can get there and that’s through performing consistently. If you’re not performing the basics right and not giving it your best shot, you may never get there.”
The Roos have been one of the hottest sides in the AFL in recent weeks with big wins against top eight teams like Adelaide and St Kilda.
Stevens says Saturday’s match against West Coast is another opportunity for the club’s younger players to shine, but reminds supporters not to expect too much from them, too soon.
“As a past player, I get a lot of thrills seeing these young kids running around and playing the way they have in the past few weeks for us. But I expect that there are going to be weeks when they all gel together and then times when things just don’t go their way.
“With young kids and even with us in the early 90s, we didn’t just jump in and start winning games every week, it takes time and it’s not easy to get your mind right to actually perform week in week out over a long period of time. Eventually these young kids we’ve got at North will get that right with the more games they play.”
Part of the Kangaroos’ powerhouse team of the 90s, Stevens says it was a while before things began to click under Pagan despite having such players as Wayne Carey, Glenn Archer, John Longmire, Corey McKernan, Mick Martyn and Brett Allison in the locker room.
“We weren’t that successful at the start of the 90s and it wasn’t until about 1993 that we started to play some consistent footy and put it all together and get an understanding of how we needed to perform.
“Individually you learned how to play the game and we were all about 23, 24, or 25-years old before that started to happen. We’re now talking about guys like Jack Ziebell, Shaun Atley and Ryan Bastinac who are in their teens and early 20s. We have to give them time to develop and learn.
“Even in the 90s when we were playing we’d have three games in a row where we’d get smashed by sides and then we’d pull our fingers out of our bums and win just about every game for the rest of the year.”
A regular visitor to Aegis Park and a frequent spectator at games, Stevens also believes maturity and the amount of games played can’t be valued highly enough.
“It’s not surprising with regards to their form this year given the young list we have coming through. Losing Brady Rawlings with his experience in the backline is pretty huge and young guys are always going to have their high and lows and supporters have to be patient with regards to that.
“I watched the Gold Coast game and thought they were pretty ordinary but then the last two weeks have been amazing.
“The problem is, they just don’t have the experience to pull themselves out of a surge like they copped against the Hawks and I’m a big believer that 90 per cent of footy is in the mind.”
Stevens knows only too well how challenging it is for players to pull themselves out of a form slump and believes only persistence and dedication will result in a form turnaround.
“I remember coming back from my neck injury and my performance was shocking and I just went back to the basics and played on my man and beat him and I was playing on in-form guys at the time. They started taking me to the ball and I grew in confidence that way.
“Our boys can’t afford to drop their bundle when things don’t go their way, they just have to stick at it and things will turn. I think they’re already shaping as a pretty tough and resilient group.”
