NORTH Melbourne won't be deterred in its bid to land a rival midfield star in the wake of its near-miss with West Coast free agent Andrew Gaff.
The Roos jostled their way in front of five other Victorian clubs circling Gaff to be the Eagle's clear-cut preference if he chose to return to his home state.
They came similarly close to luring Dustin Martin and Josh Kelly to Arden St last year too.
But a near-miss is still a miss in the cut-throat AFL, so the predictable response of many will be that North's inability to land a big fish has again been exposed.
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North's missed targets recently have included Adam Treloar, Dan Hannebery, Isaac Heeney and Jordan De Goey.
Of all the players mentioned above, only Treloar left to go to a rival club.
Although Gaff was the Roos' undoubted No.1 target this year, the pending acquisition of Jared Polec will help ease their disappointment, while Aaron Hall also shapes as a handy midfield acquisition.
It's also understood North has a 'Plan B' that will be activated now.
They have for some time been eyeing another opposition midfielder in the event they missed out on Gaff.
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But with so little time left before the NAB AFL Trade Period ends on October 17, and with their 2018 first-round pick already committed to Port Adelaide in the Polec trade, the Roos realise they have their work cut out for them.
If this late bid fails, North won't fret. It will simply load up again next year.
Its No.1 target then will be GWS star Kelly.
Even if the Roos had landed Gaff, they had been at pains to ensure they retained enough salary cap space to make a serious bid for Kelly when he came out of contract in 2019.
Now they have retained the $8 million or so they had set aside for Gaff over the next seven years, North can prepare an offer for Kelly that would make him the AFL's highest-paid player.
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Winning Kelly's signature, however, won't be easy.
Most other Victorian clubs will be just as keen to lure him home, while the Giants will fight tooth and nail to keep him.
As much as Greater Western Sydney's preparedness to consider trades for Dylan Shiel, Rory Lobb, Will Setterfield and Jeremy Finlayson is about easing its salary cap squeeze, it's also designed to create the room it needs to re-sign the host of star Giants coming out of contract at the end of next season. Kelly, Stephen Coniglio and Nick Haynes head that list.
Not that any of this will deter North.
It's not about to lower its sights on the back of missing Gaff. It's not about to die wondering.
