When you think about kangaroos you usually consider their bounding ability. Jumping and covering the ground with seemingly effortless ease. In contrast to this the North Melbourne Kangaroos are the worst performing AFL team currently going around. Watching this blue and white vertically striped footy team is a tough ask in 2021. Young players in a club, which is rebuilding from a very low base. David Noble is their new coach, and he will have to draw on every millilitre of nobility in his blood to go the distance with this crop of players. How low can a kangaroo go? Simultaneously, the USA is making noises about banning the importation of kangaroo products. This is a trade worth $200 million to Australia and has provoked an angry reaction from those involved in the industry. How low can a kangaroo go?
Spending Time in the Wilderness
Now, I am not having a go at North Melbourne per se or those who make their living killing kangaroos. All AFL teams go through the cyclical phases of success and rebuilding their list. Spending time in the wilderness is not a unique or exclusive experience for this club or any club. However, when I think of the sterling job that Brad Scott did over a decade at the helm of this perennially struggling club, I wonder at their recent freefall trajectory. There have been historical highpoints with Ron Barassi and Dennis Pagan as coaches of superstar teams. Wayne Carey was the greatest centre half forward of the twentieth century in this writer’s view. Barry Cable was a star during his time with the Kangaroos, as were Ross Glendinning, the Krakouer brothers, Wayne Schimmelbush, David Dench, Glen Archer, Brent Harvey, and many more. I feel for the current members and fans of the North Melbourne football club, as they watch their team really struggle at the start of the 2021 season. Does the iconic kangaroo deserve to become a protected species?
Kangaroo: Pest or Icon?
Many claim that the kangaroo is a pest and needs culling to keep on top of the problem. Animal rights groups dispute this and accuse those in the business of killing Roos for flesh, fur, and skin of exaggerating numbers to suit their argument. If you have ever spent some time with these gentle creatures, you can understand why certain people would like to see them protected from Roo shooters. Is the North Melbourne footy club, also, a pest, which needs culling from the AFL? The Shinboners have struggled to attract enough members and money over the years to put paid to rumours about their likely demise. They have fought off mergers and relocations to exist in a footy purgatory, neither absolutely dead nor alive. Is the kangaroo a pest or an iconic symbol of Australia?