Australian football Hall of Famer Terry Wallace has two theories surrounding North Melbourne and why they’re struggling early in the season.
The Roos are 0-3 heading into this weekend’s clash with Adelaide and Wallace believes coach Brad Scott needs to find different ways to motivate the group.
“I’ve got two little theories on North,” he told SEN Afternoons.
“Last year I think they played the us against the world card and I thought that gave them a real steely resolve about them, that’s a hard card to play more than once and I just don’t think that their resolve is what it was last year.”
Wallace also believes the massive turnover of players at the Kangaroos means they’ll take a bit of time to all get in sync as a unit.
“The other side of it is, they’ve changed so much of their side so there’s a bit of a disconnect there at the moment,” he said.
“You’ve got Jasper Pittard, Dom Tyson, Jared Polec, Aaron Hall, Tom Campbell – there’s five coming in from that side, then you’re playing Bailey Scott and Tarryn Thomas for the first time, Luke Davies-Uniacke and Ben McKay have slotted into the side.
“That’s nine players different to where it was not that long ago so that connection might take a bit of time with that team.
“The only other part of that is when you bring in nine, it leaves you with a lot of blokes like Nathan Hrovat, Cameron Zurhaar, Sam Wright, Jed Anderson, Nick Larkey, Mason Wood, all sitting on the sidelines, how the harmony goes there will be a really interesting challenge for Brad Scott as well.
“They were guys who thought they were the future of North Melbourne and all of a sudden they’ve been sidelined for nine blokes coming into the line-up.
“There’s a little bit of a disconnect with so many coming in and a little bit of harmony might have been impacted by that.”
