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Why Roos fans should be positive about 2025, and the player that needs a career-best season
Nic Negrepontis • November 11th, 2024 10:27 pm
Cam Mooney has outlined reasons why North Melbourne fans should be excited heading into 2025.
It has been a tough half-decade for the Roos, with the team stuck in perpetual rebuild mode, slowly building a young list under coach Alastair Clarkson.
Mooney believes the club’s veteran trade-period additions coupled with another year of development will go a long way.
“It’s another year under one of the best coaches of all time. I think he’s still one of the great coaches,” he told *SEN Breakfast.*
“It’s a young list that’s going to improve year after year. I still think Luke Parker has a lot of footy left in him, Caleb Daniel still has plenty of footy off the half-back flank.
“From their half-back line they turn the ball over a lot and it goes back over their heads. So having someone like Daniel who can use the ball, that will help a lot.
“Then you throw in Jack Darling. His best football is behind him, but what he does is he gives Nick Larkey, who has been crying out for help, some support.
“He’s still smart enough and his body is holding up well enough.
“The defender absolutely still has to respect him. Jack Darling is absolutely still good enough to make sure that he gets respected as a forward.
“He’s not going to kick you 50 goals, but he’ll help out Larkey.”
Mooney believes as the Roos improve, so will Cam Zurhaar, whose role as a low-disposal impact forward greatly relies on the team around him being competitive.
“Cam Zurhaar is the one for me in that forward line. Now, it’s hard when you’re playing as a hybrid forward in a team that hasn’t been going well, but he’s the man who just needs to produce his best season of football,” Mooney said.
“I’m a huge Zurhaar fan, but he needs his best season of football. At the moment he hasn’t quite hit the heights he could’ve been, but again it’s a tough role in a team that hasn’t been playing well.”
As far as a pass mark for 2025 goes, Mooney doesn’t believe the Roos should be judged on a specific amount of wins, more the general improvement of their key younger players.
“It’s really tough for supporters because you want to see wins, but wins right now are irrelevant. It’s about watching this group grow,” he said.
“That to me is the pass mark. Watching this group come together, play 40-50 games together. That’s when you get good.
“Out at Geelong we were hopeless and Bomber Thompson just kept giving us games and all of a sudden we get to 50-60 games together and bang, it explodes.”
The Roos haven’t made things easier for themselves, selling two home games to Western Australia for 2025, 2026 and 2027, replacing two of their Hobart games.
It has been a tough half-decade for the Roos, with the team stuck in perpetual rebuild mode, slowly building a young list under coach Alastair Clarkson.
Mooney believes the club’s veteran trade-period additions coupled with another year of development will go a long way.
“It’s another year under one of the best coaches of all time. I think he’s still one of the great coaches,” he told *SEN Breakfast.*
“It’s a young list that’s going to improve year after year. I still think Luke Parker has a lot of footy left in him, Caleb Daniel still has plenty of footy off the half-back flank.
“From their half-back line they turn the ball over a lot and it goes back over their heads. So having someone like Daniel who can use the ball, that will help a lot.
“Then you throw in Jack Darling. His best football is behind him, but what he does is he gives Nick Larkey, who has been crying out for help, some support.
“He’s still smart enough and his body is holding up well enough.
“The defender absolutely still has to respect him. Jack Darling is absolutely still good enough to make sure that he gets respected as a forward.
“He’s not going to kick you 50 goals, but he’ll help out Larkey.”
Mooney believes as the Roos improve, so will Cam Zurhaar, whose role as a low-disposal impact forward greatly relies on the team around him being competitive.
“Cam Zurhaar is the one for me in that forward line. Now, it’s hard when you’re playing as a hybrid forward in a team that hasn’t been going well, but he’s the man who just needs to produce his best season of football,” Mooney said.
“I’m a huge Zurhaar fan, but he needs his best season of football. At the moment he hasn’t quite hit the heights he could’ve been, but again it’s a tough role in a team that hasn’t been playing well.”
As far as a pass mark for 2025 goes, Mooney doesn’t believe the Roos should be judged on a specific amount of wins, more the general improvement of their key younger players.
“It’s really tough for supporters because you want to see wins, but wins right now are irrelevant. It’s about watching this group grow,” he said.
“That to me is the pass mark. Watching this group come together, play 40-50 games together. That’s when you get good.
“Out at Geelong we were hopeless and Bomber Thompson just kept giving us games and all of a sudden we get to 50-60 games together and bang, it explodes.”
The Roos haven’t made things easier for themselves, selling two home games to Western Australia for 2025, 2026 and 2027, replacing two of their Hobart games.
