Luke Hodge suspects several North Melbourne veterans would be frustrated by the club’s admission that they’re about to embark on a full blow rebuild.
In the aftermath of their 57-point loss to Melbourne on Sunday night, coach Rhyce Shaw spoke openly about where the club is at and his plans for the remainder of the season.
"I think with six games to go, we're going to find out a lot about our players and our list," Shaw told reporters.
"We're at that stage now – it's just the reality of it. I don't think I'm saying anything that's going to be a shock to anyone now, but, in saying that, I don't give up.”
Hodge said while injury has cruelled their season so far, a clear shift in direction for the club would be particularly disappointing for veteran duo Todd Goldstein and Shaun Higgins, who are both contracted until the end of 2022 and 2021 respectively.
“I guess you’ve got to throw Ben Brown in there as well,” Hodge said on SEN’s Whateley.
“They were looking to sign him on a big-money three-year deal and he was holding out for a fourth year and that obviously turned his way through form and his knee (injury).
“As a senior player, if you’re sitting there with your club and they’re saying ‘we’re going to have a tilt (at the flag)’ and they do have some really good young players.
“I’m looking at their injury list, and I know every club has them, but they’ve got 10 blokes out who I would have in their starting 18. We’ve hardly seen Jack Ziebell and Ben Cunnington this year as well.
“Normally coaches always say that when they get their main players back, they’ll be competitive again but they’ve seen something in their play that they’re not liking and I think it would be frustrating for the older guys like Todd Goldstein and Shaun Higgins who have re-signed long term.
“To play football you want to play in Grand Final’s and have success and Goldstein has stuck with the club so long and he extended thinking they were going to have another tilt at it so is (Goldstein) sitting here now saying ‘should I have gone to Geelong after they threw some money and an opportunity to play finals’.”
Hodge said it was possible that if the right deal came up during the upcoming trade period, North Melbourne could look to free up salary cap space and move both Goldstein and Higgins on.
“What we have seen is contracts (aren’t worth much),” he said.
“If both parties decide they want to go and play somewhere else, if North decide they want some high draft picks – and those two will pull in some quality picks even though they’re a little bit older – it might be good for both parties to look somewhere else.
“They could get a chance to play in a flag and North Melbourne in return would get some salary cap space where they could go look to poach a younger guy as well as some draft picks.”
North Melbourne has won just three games this season, with their only win since Round 2 coming against the bottom-placed Crows in Round 9.
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