North Melbourne Football Club
The North Melbourne Football Club is an Australian Football -Verein in Melbourne , Victoria , who in the Australian Football League plays (AFL). The team competes under the nickname "Kangaroos" in blue and white striped jerseys. The club, founded in 1869, is one of the most traditional in Australian football. The Kangaroos play their home games at Docklands Stadium .
history
Although this was one of the first clubs for Australian football at all, the Kangaroos were denied admission to the newly formed Victorian Football League (VFL) in 1897 . This happened not least at the instigation of the Essendon Bombers , who recruited their fans from the same areas as North Melbourne and feared the local competition. This was the reason for the rivalry between the two clubs that has continued to this day. In 1925, after long negotiations , the Kangaroos were finally accepted into the VFL, but their supporters waited in vain for decades to come. It was not until the 1970s that the blue and whites rose to a top team after the engagement of star coach Ron Barassi and some top players such as Barry Davis and Doug Wade. From 1974 to 1978, the club reached the Grand Final five times in a row , winning their first VFL championship titles in 1975 and 1977. After Ron Barassi's resignation in 1980, the company fell back into mediocrity. In the 1990s, coach Dennis Pagan and Captain Wayne Carey entered a second "golden era". In 1996 and 1999 North Melbourne won their third and fourth AFL championships against the Sydney Swans and Carlton Blues, respectively . The new millennium began with a few setbacks, in addition to team infighting and resignations of Pagan and Carey were several players of Kangaroos in the 2002 Bali bombings injured, some seriously. From a sporting point of view, North Melbourne has shown solid performances in recent years, in 2014 and 2015 they even reached the Preliminary Final . Of reaching the Grand Final waiting Kangaroos but since 1999 no avail.
Fans
The closeness between fans and team is called Shinbon Spirit . The “archenemy” of the kangaroos are, for historical reasons, the Essendon Bombers , but there has also been an intense rivalry with the Hawthorn Hawks since the 1970s.
successes
- Championships (4): 1975, 1977, 1995, 1999
- McClelland Trophy (4): 1976, 1978, 1983, 1998