- North Melbourne is battling in the 2024 AFL season
- Sit bottom of the AFL ladder without a single win
- Social media team slammed over optimistic post
The winless North Melbourne Kangaroos have come under fire for a strange social media post that celebrates the club’s ‘success’ in what’s been an awful season so far.
The rebuilding Roos have had no luck in their 2024 campaign, sitting bottom of the table after 10 rounds and seven games out of the top eight once percentage has been factored in.
That hasn’t stopped the club’s social media team from finding a positive angle and publishing a post using statistics found using the most rose-tinted of glasses.
The post points out that North Melbourne is the only club that hasn’t had a goalless quarter so far this season.
Carlton, Essendon, Port Adelaide, St Kilda, Sydney and the Western Bulldogs all share second place with one goalless quarter each.
The West Coast Eagles have the most, with five terms recorded with no majors kicked.
The post also points out that it is the first time in VFL/AFL history that a side has managed to kick a goal in every quarter played and still sit last on the ladder.
The optimistic post by the North Melbourne Kangaroos social media team has divided fans
The Kangaroos are in full rebuild mode and are the only team left winless after 10 rounds
North supporters are still showing up in force despite the horror results this season
The original North Melbourne post was shared by NBL marketing and communications manager Heath O’Loughlin, who previously worked as the general manager of North Melbourne’s digital, media and communications operations.
‘Of all people, I get the need to find some positives – but surely this isn’t it?’ he asked.
Many North fans agreed, saying the post was clutching at straws.
‘I can appreciate the task of a media team to keep the posts ticking and also be on the pulse of the fans, but I think this one is a bit pathetic given our state,’ one fan posted.
‘We are the best club at celebrating players b’days, debuts, and all other sorts of peripheral nonsense,’ posted another.
‘If there was a ladder for selecting players that make the same mistakes over and over again, and continually get selected from now until the end of time, we’d also be on top of that,’ suggested another.
However the Kangaroos’ social media team had plenty of supporters as well, with many fans saying they had to find ways to say something positive about the club.
‘Junk stats, have to admit the North media team has a bloody tough job,’ one fan fired back.
‘Why are we acting like Clarko [coach Alastair Clarkson] or [club president Sonja] Hood are running the social media lol It’s just some media guy having a bit of fun, like every other teams socials as well,’ another supporter wrote.
‘Negativity Heath is not helpful. We know where the club is at so posting negative thoughts for all to see will not change the status quo,’ read another post.
Alastair Clarkson has called for North Melbourne supporters to keep the faith as the young roster builds into a competitive outfit
It comes after coach Alastair Clarkson said he hopes the struggling club’s fans are seeing positives in his team’s development despite a 40-point loss to Essendon compounding their woes.
‘As long as our fans are seeing our boys are having a go and there’s some progress there,’ Clarkson said.
‘We hate losing games of footy but we know it’s just part of the journey for us at the current time.
‘We’ll just keep chipping away and hopefully both the players and our fans are the same in terms of just seeing little things along the way.
‘You think it might be tough being winless at this point of the year but we’ve got another 13 games and that’s just great for our footy club that these players get exposure to this level of footy and how they can get better.
‘[It will help them] understand the standard they need to get to to be competitive in this league.’
