AFL club North Melbourne's greatest players boycott anniversary celebration 'because they don't want to share the spotlight with the women's team'

Daily Mail​

6 hours ago

A group of North Melbourne Football Club legends are reportedly planning to boycott the club's 100-year celebration next month because they don't want to share the limelight with the team's AFLW premiers.
The milestone event, which will commemorate club's centenary and the Kangaroos ' premiership win in 1975, has been organised to take place next month, but several greats are not pleased with the arrangements.
Kangaroos premiership icons including Sam Kekovich and John Burns are boycotting the event because it is now also celebrating last year's AFLW premiers, according to reports.
'I continue to be horrified by this story, OK?' journalist Caroline Wilson said on Seven's The Agenda Setters program on Tuesday night.
'A couple of them [the Kangaroos greats] 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.'
Wilson's take was backed up by another report on Fox Sports' AFL 360 program on Tuesday night.
'My understanding is a really big slice of that frustration surrounds the fact that they have to share that event with the AFLW premiers of last year,' panel member and journalist Jon Ralph said.
'I personally think it's ridiculous,' host Lauren Wood said.
'The reality of this is, it's actually not a premiership reunion. It's a centenary event that was the first VFL premiership that the club won, this was the first AFLW premiership that the club won.
'The club poured huge amounts of time, effort and money into developing this women's football program.
'This is a sign to the future of this football club, and the reality is that AFLW is now part of the football club.'
North Melbourne legend Malcolm Blight had a different take on why a few of his former teammates won't show up at the match against the Western Bulldogs.
'Well, I've heard plenty, of course,' Blight said on SEN.
'It was originally gazetted for Round 20 when they play Geelong, which was the first team they played against in 1925. That sounded lovely.
'But suddenly they've got a Thursday night game playing the Bulldogs, and they've changed everything.
'You know, we're all getting a bit older, and a lot of them had holidays booked.
'It went from a dinner to a (cocktail event) stand-up with pies, pasties and sausage rolls. Apparently, that's right.
'So a few of the lads just are not buying into it.'
Last week it was reported that players were snubbing the event because they would be standing up at the venue instead of sitting down at a gala dinner.
'About eight to 10 [players] are not going to turn up because it's a stand-up function at a bar,' 3AW's Ross Stevenson reported.
Top footy journalist Caroline Wilson confirmed the rumour on Channel Seven's The Agenda Setters program.
'I think this is a bit churlish,' said Wilson.
'They're also celebrating their first AFLW flag, so there's going to be a lot of people at this function.
'There isn't enough room for everyone to sit down. There will be people going in, people going out, stuff going on on the ground.