North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson has stated there are "always hits and misses" when it comes to draft and trade recruiting, responding to questions on the club's position to enter the off-season without their first-round pick for 2025.
The Kangaroos traded their opening selection for this year - currently Pick 2 - to Richmond in exchange for Pick 27 and the Tigers' 2025 second-round selection - currently Pick 21 - in a live deal during the intake last November.
North Melbourne selected Shepparton tall Matt Whitlock to conclude last year's first round, having had the Murray Bushrangers talent "around the mark" of a top 10 prospect in last year Sarah draft, and were seeking trade deals as early as Pick 8 during the 2024 count.
Whitlock could have been among the top handful of prospects for this year's draft, which North Melbourne won't be partaking in on night one currently.
The club's 2025 campaign hasn't quite gone to plan, with North Melbourne suffering their 14th defeat of the year on Saturday night - a 101-point loss at the hands of Geelong.
Still looking to improve their list, the Roos will be limited in their ability to do so over the off-season due to their eye-catching handshake with the Tigers.
Quizzed on the outcome of the deal, Clarkson said the 'roll of the dice' doesn't always pay off, but sometimes it can uncover diamonds in the rough, like Roos spearhead Nick Larkley back in 2016.
"We'll just keep working our way through that," Clarkson said of the draft play following his side's loss at Marvel Stadium.
"We rated young Whitlock really, really highly, so our list management team made a call on that last year.
"It's just horses for courses. There's not a club in the competition that gets it right all the time.
"Everyone would applaud our list management team for getting Nick Larkey, right? Pick 75. Where'd he come from? You know what I mean? You get some right.
"But there's always hits and misses. That's the game that you play. You roll the dice, and we'll see where that rolls with us."
The Roos sit three wins ahead of West Coast and look set to avoid a wooden spoon finish, but they'll need at least one more victory against one of St Kilda, GWS, Richmond or Adelaide to leap up the ladder.
Clarkson said the positives that the club have found this year haven't only come from the wins column, with the Roos growing their game in other facets inside their four walls.
"Everyone will look at win-loss. And even if it is just win-loss, we have been making some progress," the four-time premiership coach claimed.
"We've had three performances that were well below our best, which were the Carlton game Round 6 here, the Hawthorn game about a month ago down in Tassie, and tonight.
"Outside of that, we've been much more competitive than what we were last year, winning more quarters and being in more games at three-quarter time than we had last year.
"They're some of the measurements that we use. The progress of some of our players, like Xerri and Curtis at different stages this year have been spoken about as All-Australian players.
"We continue to look at small wins within the walls of our footy club, knowing full well we need to get better.
"I don't think there's anyone here that predicted North Melbourne were going to be making finals. We know it's a long, hard road for us, but we're up for the challenge. Some of these experiences we go through will just harden us up in the long journey we're on."
North Melbourne will return to Marvel Stadium next Sunday to face the Saints, with trips to Canberra and Tasmania to follow.
