How can the team represent the Gold Coast which Joseph says is inevitable, with the name North Melbourne?Joseph's vision to save Kangaroos
By Damian Barrett
January 25, 2007
http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,865 ... 11,00.html
REVERED Australian football identity Ron Joseph says the Kangaroos must relocate to the Gold Coast, providing the North Melbourne name and culture is retained.
Joseph, one of the club's most influential powerbrokers of the past 35 years, said the club's best long-term interests could not be sacrificed for short-term popularity.
He said unless certain issues were addressed, the Kangaroos would face Carlton-type instability. Joseph is saddened at how, just seven seasons after they won a premiership, the Roos compared unfavourably with the historically downtrodden Western Bulldogs.
Joseph's views will come as a massive reality check for the Kangaroos, as he is as significant as any individual to the club's off-field history.
The club this season begins a three-year contract to play 10 matches on the Gold Coast. With AFL backing, it will play those games at Carrara, which needs significant redevelopment.
The AFL has regularly stated it wants a second team based in south-east Queensland by 2015.
"It seems to me there are no alternatives," Joseph said.
"If you are going to compete again, and when I say compete I mean to have a serious chance of winning a premiership, then they need to grab this opportunity, provided they do it with North Melbourne people who know and understand the place and who will keep the identity and culture.
"I mean, if you aren't working towards winning a premiership, then you should get out of the competition anyway.
"They've got three games (at Carrara) this year. Three games will become six, six games will become nine, nine games will become 12 ... I have no doubt about that, and am happy for that to happen provided the North Melbourne identity is kept."
Kangaroos chairman Graham Duff last night refuted Joseph's claims.
"That is just not true. No one would put in the hours I do for it to be true, and I am not interested in Ron's view anyway," Duff said.
"I don't know where we dredge these people up from. He doesn't have anything to do with the club at all.
"He hasn't been around for how long? Twenty years. I am not overly worried by what Ron Joseph has to say."
On the relocation issue, Duff said: "I don't know how many times we need to quote the bleeding obvious. We are up there for three years and whatever happens after that will be decided by the club itself, after the passage of some time.
"Everyone wants to assume the Gold Coast is a forgone conclusion, but it certainly is not with us or the AFL.
"It may well be bleeding obvious that there is no reason for any discussion after three years, either way.
"It could be the biggest failure you've ever seen or it could be a resounding success."
Also interesting comments by Duff with regards relocation. Is he saying that should the games on the Gold Coast be successful, relocation will be the only option. It seems the writing is on the wall. The club is falling apart and the latest membership figures posted on the Kangaroos website don't provide much hope for a future in Melbourne.
http://kangaroos.com.au/
Compare the membership numbers for Kangaroos with the Western Bulldogs
http://westernbulldogs.com.au/
