Powerhouse North and Bulldogs not how the AFL planned it

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This is not how the AFL saw it unfolding. Not how the commission bosses wanted it to either. They had very different plans for the “leaping, jumping, flying game”.The commission had wanted to kill off the Bulldogs in 1989 by announcing a merger with Fitzroy. A lawyer called Peter Gordon rallied the troops and raised money to force the AFL to back off.


Fitzroy were not so lucky despite the attempts of a desperate Lions president Dyson Hore-Lacy. Fitzroy were merged with the Brisbane Bears and, in what was an amazing anatomical and biological transformation, became the Brisbane Lions.


North Melbourne, who had in principle agreed to merge with Fitzroy, was overruled by the commission and the other league clubs. Nearly 20 years later, in 2007, the AFL offered North $100 million to move to the Gold Coast. As extraordinary as that sum of money is, it was an offer not too good to refuse.


New president James Brayshaw led the resistance and somehow the club cobbled together enough money and community support to stay put. There was a promise of five white knights but somewhere along the way they went off on to some other crusade and were never sighted.


But Brayshaw has done remarkably, first along with chief executive Eugene Arocca and now with Carl Dilena. They might not have gone to the Gold Coast but they do play three games in Hobart. Still, they remain a Melbourne-based club so the supporters are content.


On Friday the two clubs the AFL wanted effectively to disappear play each other in the prime viewing Friday night slot at Docklands. North are undefeated after five rounds, the Bulldogs have lost one game — to Hawthorn, the league heavyweights — by just three points.


To understand the significance of this achievement consider this: in seasons 2013 and 2014 Hawthorn spent a combined $45.3m on their football department as they won the first two legs of their hat-trick of premierships. In the same period, the Bulldogs spent just $35.5m and North not much more at $37.5m. In those two years the Bulldogs finished 15th and 14th. North finished 10th and sixth. But no club spent more than Fremantle’s $47.8m, which gave the club third and fourth spot.


Money might not be everything, but it gives you a very good crack at a premiership. The emergence of the Bulldogs and North is marked by stability at the top. Gordon moved in to stop the Footscray-Fitzroy merger in 1989 and remained president until 1997 when he handed over to David Smorgon, who handed the job back to Gordon but not until 2013.


In Gordon’s first stint at the top the Bulldogs made one preliminary final, under Smorgon the club reached five and last year under Gordon the club made the elimination finals.


Brayshaw has led North since 2008 and he soon had Brad Scott as his coach. Since 2010, Scott has taken his team into three finals series, including two preliminary finals. Both clubs have and continue to receive financial assistance from the league, but it is only appropriate. The competitive balance fund has been in place in some form or other but the present one in place this season shapes as the most effective.


Gordon has worked hard to shape the club to be effective in the modern market, just as Smorgon had. Under Gordon, revenue is up $30m to $42m and debt down from $11.5m to close to $9m. Membership is 33,500 and climbing, bringing in an extra $1-$1.5m in revenue already.


That is not to say the Bulldogs have been untroubled. At the end of the 2014 season club captain Ryan Griffen headed for the Giants, coach Brendan McCartney, with seasons left on his contract, resigned. Chief executive Simon Garlick snatched his time soon after. When Gordon went on radio to reassure supporters, he was confronted with: “To lose a captain is careless, to lose a coach as well surely is incompetent.”


But Gordon acted quickly. He hijacked the Giants big forward Tom Boyd, the No 1 pick in the 2014 draft, on a contract worth $7m over seven years. But the smartest appointment made by Gordon’s team came with the replacement of McCartney. A panel led by former Bulldog champion Luke Darcy and using John Worsfold as a consultant recommended Luke Beveridge.


A former Bulldog player, he had roles on coaching panels at Collingwood and Hawthorn and was about to become director of coaching at St Kilda before he won the job to take over from McCartney. The timing was perfect. Some on the Bulldog list had been rasped raw under a tough McCartney regime. Beveridge impressed Gordon with his “emotional intelligence”.


And he remembers Beveridge’s first meeting with the club’s recruiters. “He didn’t say much for about an hour as Jason McCartney (list manager) went through the draft. When they came to Caleb Daniel (168cm short) Beveridge asked where would he be if he were a couple of inches taller. Jason said he would be a top-10 pick. Luke said put an asterisk against his name,” Gordon said yesterday.

The Bulldogs picked Daniel with their third-round pick at 46. While he will miss Friday night’s game because of injury, the helmeted Daniel is quite a brilliant player whose audacity and skill make him one of those footballers who builds an important bridge between fans and the club.


Defender Matt Suckling will also miss Friday’s game as an ankle injury could see him out for as much as a month. Suckling is just another defender missing for the Bulldogs. Already out for the season are Bob Murphy and Jason Johannisen, who has shredded his hamstring.


These might be seen as setbacks for the Bulldogs and North Melbourne. But when the AFL has spent the best part of three decades trying to kill you off by merger or relocation, or both like poor old Fitzroy, these are mere flesh wounds.


Like the immortal Jack Dyer might have once said: “These teams, they are now big-time football operators.”


Right again, Jack.

Interesting reading. I'm pumped for Friday night. Go Dogs!

Since when has JJ been done for the year?

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Originally Posted by Eastdog

Interesting reading. I'm pumped for Friday night. Go Dogs!

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#bringiton