A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | CH | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
| North Melbourne Football Club | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Names | ||||
| Full name | North Melbourne Football Club[1] | |||
| Former name(s) | Hotham Football Club (1877–1887) Kangaroos Football Club (1999–2007) | |||
| Nickname(s) | Kangaroos, Kangas, Roos, North, Shinboners, | |||
| Motto | Victoria Amat Curam (Victory Demands Dedication) | |||
| 2023 season | ||||
| Home-and-away season | 17th | |||
| Leading goalkicker | Nick Larkey (71 goals) | |||
| Syd Barker Medal | Harry Sheezel | |||
| Club details | ||||
| Founded | 1869 | |||
| Colours | Royal Blue White | |||
| Competition | AFL: Senior men AFLW: Senior women VFL: Reserves men VFLW: Reserves women | |||
| Coach | AFL: Alastair Clarkson (Senior Coach) AFLW: Darren Crocker VFL: Leigh Adams VFLW: Cheyne Webster | |||
| Captain(s) | AFL: Luke McDonald and Jy Simpkin AFLW: Emma Kearney VFL: Flynn Appleby VFLW: Nikki Wallace | |||
| Premierships | VFL/AFL (4)Reserves/VFL (7)VFA (6) | |||
| Ground(s) | AFL: Marvel Stadium (56,347) & Blundstone Arena (19,500) AFLW/VFL/VFLW: Arden Street Oval (4,000) | |||
| Former ground(s) | MCG (1984–2005)
Arden Street Oval (1968–1983) Coburg City Oval (1967) Arden Street Oval (1925–1966) | |||
| Training ground(s) | Arden Street | |||
| Uniforms | ||||
| ||||
| Other information | ||||
| Official website | nmfc.com.au | |||
The North Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Kangaroos, is a professional Australian rules football club. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Kangaroos also field a reserves men's team in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and women's team in the VFLW.
Founded in the suburb of North Melbourne in 1869 and based at the Arden Street Oval, it is the 4th oldest club in the competition and one of the oldest surviving clubs in the world. Its original home at Arden Street continues to serve as its headquarters, training facilities and home ground for its women's side. The club's senior men's team plays its home matches at Marvel Stadium in the Docklands area of Melbourne, Victoria, as well as Blundstone Arena in Hobart, Tasmania which is also used by the women's team as a secondary home ground.
The club's mascot is a grey kangaroo wearing the club uniform, and its use dates from the mid-20th century. The club is also unofficially known as "The Shinboners", a term which dates to its 19th-century abattoir-worker origins. The club's motto is victoria amat curam, Latin for "victory demands dedication". Aside from their representation in the AFL, the Kangaroos also field teams in the competitions AFL Women's, VFL Women's and Victorian Football League competitions.
The club has won four AFL premierships, the most recent in 1999.
Club history
In two aspects North Melbourne stands second to none. One is the loyalty of its supporters. The other is the determination to carry on, despite its disadvantages. In the face of adversity, which might well have broken the spirit of most men, we find that from the earliest days there were always enthusiasts to fight for North Melbourne.
— The Australasian, 15 June 1940.
Formative years
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (April 2024) |
The exact date of founding is not known. The club believes that there were early attempts at formation dating back as far as 1864.[2] An 1865 newspaper article mentions a match between North Melbourne and the South Yarra Football Club.[3][4] Whether there was continuity between this team and today's club or not, there are no further mentions appear in the mainstream media until 1869.
It is generally believed to have been founded in North Melbourne in 1869 by local cricketers desiring to keep fit over the winter months, however its involvement in the season 1868/1869 implies that it had been formed at the lastest the previous year.[5] There is little evidence to support any connection to the North Melbourne Cricket Club except that the two clubs shared some players.[5] Interestingly, while the borough was originally named Hotham, the club didn't identify with that name until later and went by the name of North Melbourne Football Club for much of its early history. One thought is that the club was connected to the St Mary's Church of England Cricket Club, now the St Mary's Anglican Church North Melbourne, whose colours – blue and white – are reflected in the club's colours today.[6] The association between the St Mary's Church of England Cricket Club and the establishment of the North Melbourne Football Club is believed to have been an informal gathering to play some competitive sport.[citation needed] Information on the club's first ever match is limited, but it is known that it took place in Royal Park.[citation needed] James Henry Gardiner is often cited as a founder of the club, though he heavily promoted it in its early years in his role in the local council there is no documented evidence of his role in its formation.[5]
One of the earliest newspaper mentions of it was on 14 August 1869 when it was scheduled to play against Messrs. Walker, May, and Co. at Princes Bridge in what is now central Melbourne.[7] The article mentions that the two teams had already played an earlier match, though it does not say when it does names the team was captained by Fuhrhop, presumably Harry Fuhrhop. Fuhrhop was a Carlton United cricketer who would go on to later captain the football team between 1870 and its 1877 VFA team and, according to historian Gerard Dowling (1973), was a pivotal figure in the early establishment of the club.[2] Other early newspaper reports include the 24th September 1870 against Carlton United at Royal Park (which the paper noted was the second meeting of the season between the two clubs)[8] and 1st October 1870 against East Brunswick.[9]
Royal Park served as the club's home ground until 1882.[5]
Regular premiership matches of Australian Football commenced in Victoria in 1870. Although North Melbourne was a part of this,[citation needed] it was classed as a "junior club". The words junior and senior at the time were not used to distinguish underage side but rather the playing quality and strength of the side. The Australasian noted them as being "one of the best of many junior clubs"[10] meaning it the club was considered respectable but far from being regarded a powerhouse as such it would rarely if ever compete against the more notable clubs of the time such as Melbourne, University, Carlton or Geelong and as such was not invited to compete in the Challenge Cup.
The club continued to develop, graduating to senior ranks in 1874, finishing 4th. Along with the promotion, the club adopted its first uniform of blue and white horizontal stripes.[11]
In 1876, North Melbourne disbanded, and many of its player and members joined Albert-park,[12] giving the club such a strong North Melbourne character that many described it as "Albert-park cum North Melbourne". In 1877, the club was re-established as a stand-alone entity, under the name Hotham Football Club and moved to the Hotham Cricket Ground (now Arden Street Oval).[13]
Association years
Football took a giant step forward in 1877, with the formation of Victoria's first colonial football league, the VFA. Hotham were prime movers in establishing this league and were afforded a place in light of their previous contributions to Australian Football.[citation needed]
The 1880s marked the emergence of the modern identity we now associate with North today. In 1882, the club amalgamated with the Hotham Cricket Club and moved into the North Melbourne Recreation Reserve (Arden St Oval), which remains the home of the club today. The joint venture was aimed at affecting improvements at the Hotham Cricket Ground, which was the name of the Reserve at the time. Four years later the club adopted the traditional uniform of blue and white vertical stripes at the insistence of the VFA, who wanted a visible contrast between Geelong's and Hotham's uniforms. The third significant development occurred in 1888 with the club returning to its original name of the North Melbourne Football Club. This followed the name of the local area reverting from Hotham to North Melbourne.
The 1880s saw the club develop a penchant for inter-colonial travel with trips to Tasmania (1881/1887) and South Australia (1889). Hotham also found itself well represented at the first ever inter-colonial representative game in 1879 with four players from the club gaining selection for Victoria.
Disregarded by the VFL
The VFA grew to 13 senior clubs in the 1890s. Led by Geelong and Essendon, the largest clubs of the VFA formed their own breakaway league, the Victorian Football League (VFL), in 1896. Despite finishing 6th in 1896, North Melbourne was not invited to the breakaway competition. The main reasons for being excluded were:
- North had not won a premiership yet, and thus was not considered a powerful club
- The industrialisation of the locality had drained the club's income streams
- The club had a strong reputation for hooliganism from their fans
- There was a lot of bad blood between Collingwood and North following a torrid engagement in the previous season
- Essendon felt threatened by the proximity of North Melbourne
- A court case against the North Melbourne Cricket Club had damaged the Football Club's status
North continued on in the depleted VFA, emerging as a powerhouse, finishing 2nd in 1897, 1898 and 1899. In 1903, after 34 years of competing, the club won its first premiership, defeating Richmond in the final. The club became back to back premiers in 1904 after Richmond forfeited the grand final due to the appointment of an umpire whose performance when the two teams met earlier in the year was severely criticised by Richmond players and officials.[14]
North merged with fellow VFA football club West Melbourne in 1907, which at the time had lost its home ground. The joint venture saw a chance of promotion, and the club applied for admission to the more prestigious VFL in 1908, but Richmond and University were admitted instead. North was kicked out of the VFA during the 1907/08 offseason as a result of applying to join the VFL,[15] before the local community reestablished the North Melbourne Football Club under a new committee, successfully enabling the club to play in the VFA in the 1908 season.[16]
"The Invincibles"
The reformation of the club necessitated a massive cleanout of the team, leaving only two players remaining from the previous season. The 1910 season was marked by one of the most sensational transfers in Victorian football history, when Andy Curran masterminded the clearance of Carlton's famed "Big Four" of 'Mallee' Johnson, Fred Jinks, Charlie Hammond and Frank 'Silver' Caine to North Melbourne. These signings secured the Northerners' third premiership in 1910.
The 1912 finals series was one of the most amazing ever, with the semi-final having to be played three times, after North and Brunswick drew twice. North was eventually victorious and moved on to the final, but lost the game by a mere four points with the last kick of the day.
The next few years were punctuated by "The Invincibles". In the Northerners' most illustrious period ever, the club went undefeated from 1914 to 1919, collecting premierships in 1914, 1915 and 1918 – the competition was in recess in 1916 and 1917 due to World War I. As well as this, the club won the championship in both 1915 and 1918 for finishing on top of the ladder, and accounted for VFL side St Kilda comfortably. During this period the club won 58 consecutive matches including 49 successive premiership matches, a record that has remained unmatched in Association or League history since.
Despite being rejected from the VFL in both 1896 and 1907, North persisted in trying to gain admission into the League. On 30 June 1921, North told its players it would disband and try to gain entry to the VFL by the 'back-door'. Essendon League Football Club had lost its playing ground at East Melbourne and had decided to acquire the North Melbourne Recreation Reserve as a new playing ground. North accepted their proposal in the idea that the clubs would amalgamate. All of North's players were urged to join the Essendon League Club to help facilitate the amalgamation. The amalgamation was foiled when some members of the VFA launched a successful legal challenge.[17] As a result, the Essendon League Club moved instead to the Essendon Oval, replacing the ground's original occupants, Essendon Association.
North was now without a playing team and the Essendon Association Club was now without a ground, so as a matter of convenience the two clubs amalgamated so they could compete in the 1922 season. As it had after the merger with West Melbourne, North once again managed to avert its destruction. During this Period, North's main rivals were Footscray, Meeting them in three Grand Finals.
Entering the VFL
After three attempts, 29 years of waiting and numerous other applications to enter the VFL, finally North was rewarded for its persistence with admittance to the League in 1925, along with Footscray and Hawthorn. Even then, the opportunity was almost lost as the League delegates debated into the early hours of the morning on which clubs should be invited to join the intake. It was only after much deliberation that North Melbourne's name was eventually substituted for Prahran's making North "the lucky side" of the invitees that included Footscray and Hawthorn. North Melbourne was forced to change its uniform to avoid a clash when it joined the VFL.
North Melbourne struggled for most of its first twenty-five years in the VFL, with one of few bright notes being Sel Murray winning the VFL Leading Goalkicker Medal in 1941 with 88 goals. By the late 1940s, North Melbourne had developed a strong list and significant supporter base. In 1949 North secured the VFL Minor Premiership, finishing top of the ladder at the end of the home-and-away season with 14 wins and 5 losses. They failed to make the Grand Final that year (eventually won by Essendon), but in 1950 they did reach the final, but were defeated by Essendon. It was in this year that the club adopted the "Kangaroos" mascot.[18]
In February 1965, North Melbourne moved its playing and training base from the Arden Street Oval to Coburg Oval, signing a seven-year lease with the City of Coburg[19] after initially negotiating long-term leases for up to 40 years.[20] The club came to an arrangement to merge with the VFA's Coburg Football Club, whom it was displacing from the ground;[21] fourteen Coburg committeemen joined the North Melbourne committee, but the merger was never completed after Coburg established a rival committee which remained loyal to the VFA.[22] The lease at Coburg lasted only eight months; the Coburg council was hesitant to build a new grandstand without the security of a long-term lease, and neither party made the returns they expected, so it was terminated by mutual agreement in September 1965 and North Melbourne returned to the Arden Street Oval.[23][24]
Onfield, the 1950s and 1960s were lean years for North Melbourne, though the club did secure two consecutive Night Premierships in 1965 and 1966. Allen Aylett was a brilliant player in the late 1950s and early 1960s (and captain between 1961 and 1964), as was Noel Teasdale, who lost the Brownlow Medal on a countback in 1965 (he was later awarded a retrospective medal when the counting system was amended).
Golden era
In the late 1960s, under the leadership of Allen Aylett, North Melbourne began its climb to supremacy. As part of a major recruitment drive North secured the services of several big-name stars, including Barry Davis from Essendon, Doug Wade from Geelong, John Rantall from South Melbourne, and Barry Cable from Perth. In a major coup, the great Ron Barassi was appointed coach in 1973. Barrassi reversed the club's playing fortunes, taking a struggling team that was once regarded as the traditional cellar dwellers of the competition through to a golden era of success that transformed North Melbourne into one of the powerhouses of the VFL. Barassi took North to a Grand Final (losing to Richmond by 41 points) in 1974 and brought success in his 1975 and 1977 seasons. North made five consecutive Grand Finals from 1974 to 1978[25]: 209 and defeated Norwood in the 1975 national championship and thus declared Champions of Australia.
| 1975 VFL Grand Final | G | B | Total |
 Hawthorn |
9 | 13 | 67 |
 North Melbourne |
19 | 8 | 122 |
| Venue: Melbourne Cricket Ground | Crowd: 110,551[26] | ||
In 1973 and 1974, North's wingman Keith Greig (recruited from Brunswick Football Club, Victoria) won consecutive Brownlow Medals; forward Malcolm Blight (recruited from Woodville Football Club, South Australia) then won the award in 1978. Doug Wade (recruited from Geelong Football Club, Geelong) won the Coleman Medal in 1974 with his 103 goals for the season.
| 1977 VFL Grand Final | G | B | Total |
| North Melbourne |
21 | 25 | 151 |
 Collingwood |
19 | 10 | 124 |
| Venue: Melbourne Cricket Ground | Crowd: 98,491[25]: 670 | ||
Barassi remained team coach until 1980, but only a Night Premiership in that year resulted in him leaving Arden Street. North then entered another period of decline, though Malcolm Blight kicked 103 goals to take out the Coleman medal in 1982, and another Brownlow win came through the talented Ross Glendinning in 1983. In that year, North Melbourne won a third Minor Premiership with 16 wins and 6 losses for the season, but they failed to make the Grand Final.
Team of the 1990s
Despite the tough, disciplined coaching of the legendary John Kennedy, the 1980s and early 1990s were mostly lean years for the Kangaroos. However, the rebuilding of the club was taking place. The Krakouer brothers (Jim and Phil) brought a spark into the side and lifted many hopes for North supporters and the excitement to the general football public.[citation needed] The innovative idea of night games was instigated by the club and meeting the challenges, the club survived. One major highlight was the recruitment of forward John Longmire in 1989, who topped the club goalkicking over five consecutive seasons (1990–1994) and won the Coleman medal in 1990 with 98 goals. At the beginning of the 1993 season, in a dramatic and controversial move,[according to whom?] the board of the club sacked coach and long-time player Wayne Schimmelbusch, and appointed Denis Pagan in his place. Results were immediate, as North reached the finals for the first time in nearly a decade.
Pagan was instrumental in appointing young centre half-forward Wayne Carey as the club's youngest-ever captain. Carey had been recruited at the same time as Longmire, but had taken longer to develop as a player. Over the next nine seasons, Carey came to be regarded as the standout player in the league and was known as 'the King'.[27]
| 1996 AFL Grand Final | G | B | Total |
| North Melbourne |
19 | 17 | 131 |
 Sydney Swans |
13 | 10 | 88 |
| Venue: Melbourne Cricket Ground | Crowd: 93,102[25] | ||
| 1995 AFL Ansett Australia Cup Final | G | B | Total |
| North Melbourne |
14 | 9 | 93 |
 Adelaide |
8 | 15 | 63 |
| Venue: Waverley Park | Crowd: 49,393 | ||
North Melbourne became a powerhouse through the 1990s under Pagan and Carey, and finished in the top four, making the preliminary finals or better, in every season from 1994 until 2000. After being eliminated in the preliminary finals in 1994 and 1995, North went on to defeat the Sydney Swans in the 1996 Grand Final to take out the club's third premiership, and the gold centenary AFL cup; Glenn Archer won the Norm Smith Medal. The club was again eliminated in the preliminary final in 1997. In 1998, as the club won both the pre-season Ansett Cup and topped the ladder with 16 wins and 6 losses, but went on to lose the 1998 Grand Final to Adelaide, not helped by an inaccurate goalkicking performance of 8.22 (70) to Adelaide's 15.15 (105). In 1999, the Kangaroos finished the regular season in second position on the ladder, and went on to defeat Carlton in the Grand Final, winning the club's fourth VFL/AFL premiership; former Sydney midfielder Shannon Grant taking out the Norm Smith Medal. The club was eliminated in the preliminary finals in 2000 against Melbourne.