Former North Melbourne captain Andrew Swallow would not have been opposed to moving the Kangaroos up to the Gold Coast.
Prior to the Suns entering the competition, the AFL were looking at a number of options for a team on the Gold Coast, and the Roos were on the shortlist to relocate.
Swallow told SEN on Sunday he would have enjoyed a move up north, but accepts why the club fought hard to keep themselves at Arden Street.
“We obviously came up and played games there for a few years and we really loved it,” Swallow told SEN’s This is Your Sporting Life.
“I remember talking to a lot players at that stage and everyone who was in their first or second year was really keen to go up to the Gold Coast with that warm weather.
“I didn’t really have any attachment to Melbourne at that stage so I would’ve been very happy to move, but the guys who’ve been around for a long time obviously have family and friends and didn’t want to move.”
Swallow said the move almost went through, although James Brayshaw - the club president at the time - was a major reason it didn't happen.
“It probably would’ve happened, but James Brayshaw and the guys he put together really took a stand,” Swallow said.
“Otherwise we would’ve been up there.”
Swallow credits Brayshaw with getting the club to the position it's in now, after overseeing a major overhaul of the club and it's facilities.
“I think the work that James and the guys that he put around the club at that stage did have gotten the club to where it is at this stage,” Swallow said.
“At the start of my career we had horrendous facilities, old portables that I think burnt down at one stage and you had homeless people sleeping in the carpark so it was pretty tough, but you sort of just didn’t know any different.”
