BCA is the current "shorts sponsor" of the North Melbourne Football Team. They have printed a "magic moment" in the Football Record for most of the season. These highlight some of the most memorable matches in the history of the North Melbourne Football Club.
Round 22:
1974 was shaping up as a "fairytale" year for North Melbourne. Doug Wade had topped the League's goalkicking, Keith
Greig had won the Brownlow and 113,839 fans had come to the MCG on the last Saturday in September - many thinking that
North's dream of its first Premiership may be about to come to fruition. It wasn't to be, Richmond running out victors by 41
points - North's magic moment having to wait for another 12 months.
Round 21:
Few will have forgotten the dramatic last moments of the 1994 Preliminary Final when the remarkable Gary Ablett kicked
truly after the sire to snatch victory from North Melbourne and give Geelong a Grand Final berth.
The only other time North has met Geelong in a Preliminary Final was back in 1950, when North Melbourne came from
seven goals down to steamroll the Cats. The win gave North its first-ever appearance in a Grand Final.
Round 19:
Whilst North Melbourne's best winning record is against newcomers to the competition, Fremantle (with a 2-nil win/loss
record), the next best is against the Brisbane Bears. In 15 encounters with the Bears, we have on won 11 occasions,
including 7 wins in a row between 1990 and 1993. North's most impressive win, by a record margin of 94 points, came in
1989.
Round 18:
September 27, 1975, will long be remembered at North Melbourne, for it was on that day that all the years of
disappointment and frustration ended for the Kangaroos and they ran away with their first League premiership, defeating
Hawthorn 19.8 (22) to 9.13 (67) in front of 110,551 people. It was certainly North's finest moment.
Round 17:
North Melbourne and Melbourne have met on 125 occasions and the Demons hold the upper hand with 73 victories to the
Kangaroo's 51, with one drawn match. However, North's longest winning run against any team is 16 victories on the trot
against Melbourne from 1976 - the year following the Club's first premiership - through to 1984. It was the era of Cable,
Greig, Schimmelbusch, Blight, Dench and Glendinning - all football immortals for the Kangaroos.
Round 16:
Stan Alves is not the only North Melbourne Grand Final player to have coached St Kilda. AFL Hall of Fame member,
former North Captain and three-time Best & Fairest winner, Les Foote - a member of North's 1950 Grand Final team - also
coached the Saints in 1954 and 1955.
Round 15:
After trailing by 27 points at three-quarter time in the 1977 Grand Final, it appeared that North Melbourne would have to
wait a little longer to add to their VFL premiership tally. However, the North team staged a remarkable comeback in the
final quarter and managed to provide only the second drawn Grand Final in league history. North completed the fairytale the
following week by comfortably defeating Collingwood in the rematch to record their second ever VFL Premiership.
Round 14:
In Round 10, 1976, North Melbourne made a miraculous comeback against Carlton where one particular player kicked three
goals in time-on in the last quarter, including one sensational 70-metre goal after the final siren to steal the game. His name
was Malcolm Blight - one of North's all-time greats and this year honoured as a member of the AFL Hall of Fame.
Round 12:
North's first Grand Final appearance in the League was in 1950 - 25 years after being admitted to the VFL. In front of
87,601 supporters, North met Essendon in that game, with some of the all-time greats taking the field - opposing Captains
North's Les Foote and Essendon's Dick Reynolds, and the two great full forwards of their era Jock Spencer and the great
John Coleman. After a tough game, North went down by 36 points and it was to be another 25 years before North would win
their first flag.