North Melbourne CEO Ben Amarfio admits that while he’s disappointed with North Melbourne’s poor start to the season, he’s not surprised by it.
The Kangaroos have been on the receiving end of a few drubbings this year, currently occupying 17th position on the ladder, saved only by the COVID crisis at West Coast.
Speaking on Sportsday, Amarfio concedes that whilst the poor showings aren’t good enough, it’s expected considering the Roos are a developing side that is in the early stages of a rebuild.
Drawing comparisons to previous clubs that have undergone a rebuild, Amarfio says it's “typical” that North Melbourne will spend some time down the bottom of the ladder.
“I’ve got to say, while we’re disappointed that we’ve had a couple of back-to-back poor showings of late and we obviously want to reduce that, we don’t want to be losing by more than 40 points each week, that’s a given,” he said.
“But we’re not overly surprised by the position we’re in, in terms of being at the bottom of ladder for one year and eight games into a rebuild, we’ve studied other successful rebuilds – Brisbane, Melbourne and others, it’s typical that clubs will spend three or four years at the bottom of the ladder.
“We went into this, eyes wide open that we were going to be suffering some pain for three or four years. As I said, we’re one year and eight games into that process – that doesn’t surprise us.”
Since beating the Eagles in Round 2, their last six defeats have come at an average of 62.5 points, an area Amarfio and the Roos are focusing on fixing.
“What we’re trying to fix, are these one quarter blow outs where we’re getting a run of goals kicked against us and having some decent margins kicked against which isn’t great, so that’s the area of focus for us that we need to fix,” he added.
The Roos face a difficult run in the coming weeks, clashing with Port Adelaide and Melbourne before taking on St Kilda in Round 11.