North Melbourne champions set to boycott centenary celebrations because of AFLW premiers' inclusion

7NEWS

4 days ago

An awkward off-field impasse is threatening to sour North Melbourne's centenary celebrations next week.
The Kangaroos are facing the prospect of having a number of their former legends boycott the event, which will be held next Thursday night against the Western Bulldogs, because they don't think it's appropriate to include the club's inaugural AFLW premiership as part of it.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: North Melbourne greats set to boycott centenary celebration.
North Melbourne will recognise their first AFL (VFL at the time) and AFLW premierships, among other highlights from its first 100 years, at a special function before the Bulldogs game, as well as in an on-ground ceremony. All six of the club's 300-gamers will be recognised at ground level.
Conveniently, the milestone aligns with 50 years since that first VFL flag in 1975.
But members of that side, including Sam Kekovich and John Burns, have already declined invitations because they do not want to share the spotlight with the women.
'I continue to be horrified by this story, OK?' Caroline Wilson said on Tuesday night's episode of The Agenda Setters.
'And a couple of them have already named and shamed themselves, and one of them of course is Sam Kekovich, who I think has said he won't be going. I think John Burns has thrown his hat into the ring as well.
'But as I suspected, this is largely about gender and about the club's decision to not only celebrate their first AFL (then VFL) premiership, which happened 50 years ago, but also to celebrate their inaugural AFLW premiership in the same room, which happened last year.'
Australian Football Hall of Fame Legend Malcolm Blight, who won two premierships and played 178 games for the Roos, said he's unsure if he would have included the women.
'I suppose if you're sitting on the board or executive of North Melbourne, you probably think, oh, well, they're part of the club now and they're going to be part of it going forward,' he told SEN on Tuesday.
'So would I have made that decision? I don't know. I didn't have to go through the mechanics of it.
'But I just think it was interesting that the focus was on 50 years and 100 years and there's a lot of players probably not going who played more than a role rather than in a premiership.'
Firing back at Blight, one of the game's icons, Wilson said: 'Come on, Malcolm. I mean, all the former players have been invited, not all of them into that one special function,' before airing more of Blight's comments from the same interview.
'Suddenly they've got a Thursday night game playing the Bulldogs and they've changed everything,' Blight added.
'So, you know, we're all getting a bit older and a lot of them had holidays and it became from a dinner to a stand up with the pies and pasties and sausage rolls. ('You're kidding?' his co-host said) No, no, apparently that's right. And so a few of the lads just are not buying into it.'
The celebration was initially slated for North's Round 20 game against Geelong, but was moved when the floating fixture confirmed that the Roos had the opportunity to use a prime-time slot on free-to-air television.
'Now, I feel really sorry for North Melbourne,' Wilson went on.
'Are they going to put out a press release denying that they're serving pies and pasties? Of course they're not serving pies and pasties, Malcolm. It's a buffet with quality food and good sandwiches and, yeah, probably pies at half-time like you get in the Long Room and the Committee Room at the MCG.
'This is pathetic. The reason they changed the date is because Channel 7 decided to televise this game on a Thursday night prime time against the Western Bulldogs. So they brought the game forward because the Geelong game where they were going to have the celebration is on Fox Footy.
'This is nothing against Fox's coverage, but they don't have long lead-ins. It would have been a three or four minute lead-in. So they couldn't have had all the on-ground celebrations as, Luke (Hodge), you enjoyed at Hawthorne's 100th about a month or two months ago.
'So that's one thing. But several players, other players, members of that 1975 team have called the club and, look, I've been asked not to name them. One of them has agreed to go. And the other one isn't going because he says they've changed the date and it doesn't suit him or something.'
Wilson wouldn't name the players who had declined the updated invite, but exploded at how 'petty' they were for doing so.
'I've been asked by the club not to do it (name them). And I only know this because the club has told me who they are,' she said.
'But they have both suggested the club would have done a lot better to have a separate function for the women and raise more money.
'It's not a fundraiser! It's a celebration. I cannot believe how petty they are being.'
Attempting to play the devil's advocate for a moment, Kane Cornes asked: 'Do you think in any way this is watering down the achievement, and it's been a long time, to celebrate them both together? I'm asking you the question, if you can see their point of view.'
'If it was a 50-year celebration, but it's not. It's a centenary celebration,' Wilson said.
'So they're also celebrating in a separate room, because they can't all fit in the same room. In a separate room, I think (AFLW coach and former AFL player) Darren Crocker is hosting the one in the other room. It's all the players from the other premiership teams.
'And by the way, I read Eugene Arocca and I think a couple of others, Ben Armafio (both former CEOs), saying they hadn't been invited and all these CEOs hadn't been asked.
'They were asked as part of their ongoing membership as former club officials. They were invited. It is true that Geoff Walsh, really a legendary official at the club, as both footy boss and CEO ... wasn't asked, and that was an oversight. He should have been asked. That has been rectified today.
'And I understand Geoff Walsh has spoken with the club chairwoman, Sonja Hood, and that he's coming, he's rapt to be going, blah, blah, blah.
'But all I'm saying is it's not just about the 50 years. It's about all the premierships, specifically the inaugural premierships. Why not celebrate your future as well as your past?
'Why wouldn't you celebrate two inaugural premierships, why not rub shoulders with the future as well as the past? They are not diluting the 1975 team. They're putting them in a function being hosted by the president, the chairwoman Sonja Hood, and the women, the inaugural women's premiership team is there too.
'The AFL should be celebrating this and so should North Melbourne. I just think it's really churlish and all that stuff about changing the date, you can understand, once it became a Seven game and they could get double the people watching it and film all the celebrations on the ground, how wonderful is that going to be.
'Party pies and sausage rolls, seriously.'