Former Collingwood president Eddie McGuire isn't in favour of North Melbourne selling off games to Western Australia.
McGuire took to the airwaves on Wednesday to voice his displeasure with North's decision to sign a three-year deal to play games in Perth, the first of which took place last Saturday in Bunbury at Hands Oval against West Coast.
Instead, McGuire thinks the AFL and its teams should be focusing more on the market in the Northern Territory, with the Kangaroos potentially rebranding to encompass their fans in the top end with a name change.
“The Gold Coast Suns should play more games in the Nothern Territory,” McGuire started off by saying on his podcast with Jimmy Bartel.
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“Or, dare I say it, North should be the North Kangaroos. Wouldn’t that be a perfect emblem for a team. That doesn't mean North doesn’t play in Melbourne, but I don’t know why we’re playing in Bunbury.”
Eddie McGuire has questioned why North Melbourne is playing games in Bunbury instead of the Northern Territory or far north Queensland.
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A crowd upwards of 15,000 turned up to watch last week’s game between North and West Coast, and although the Eagles drew a stack of support, North fans still turned up in droves, at least according to ruckman Tristan Xerri.
Still, McGuire doubled down on the AFL missing an opportunity to deliver more footy to the fans up north, stating that the rest of the country is pretty much set with Tasmania entering the competition in 2028.
“If we have Tasmania, Canberra serviced properly, Sydney Swans in Sydney, GWS playing more games out in that region. Gold Coast is just going to grow exponentially; Brisbane is now a mainstay in the competition. We’ve got that top end, the central cost of NSW and the Northern Territory that we need to do something with,” McGuire added.
North Melbourne is set to play another home game on Saturday night at Optus Stadium against Fremantle before traveling back to their other second home in Hobart in Round 23 to host Richmond.