Kangaroos to fight for a slice of Good Friday football, if it eventuates.
NORTH Melbourne concedes there will be stiff competition to be part of Good Friday football if it gets the go-ahead next season, but insists it will fight to be part of the showcase game it first broached with the League 25 years ago.
North chairman James Brayshaw told members at the club's annual general meeting on Wednesday night that the Roos were hopeful that Andrew Demetriou's departure as AFL CEO at the end of 2014 meant the League would reverse its longstanding refusal to schedule a game on Good Friday.
"I think Andrew coming out of the role and potentially Gill McLachlan coming in will be good because Andrew has stated publicly that under his watch there won't be any football on Good Friday," Brayshaw said.
"I'm not sure that whoever replaces him will be quite as strong on that. And what we do is regularly canvass the AFL to say if and when (it happens) we need to be at the absolute front of the queue because it was well before this (North) administration that the charge was begun 25 years ago."
Brayshaw said North had put a detailed proposal to the AFL five or six years ago to play on Good Friday against Carlton at 4pm, with the winning coach and captain to go on the Channel Seven telethon after the game and present a $100,000 cheque to the Good Friday Appeal.
But the chairman acknowledged other clubs were keen to be involved in any Good Friday game and said North had to keep reminding the AFL "that we were there first."
North chief executive Carl Dilena said the Roos had even been approached by a club that had tried to undermine its commitment to partner with Carlton on Good Friday.
"There is another club sniffing around the outside, who has approached us and approached Carlton, saying, 'Wouldn't it be good to team up with us instead?'" Dilena said.
"They've given the same message to both of us and shot themselves in the foot because we talk to each other."
When the AFL released its 2014 fixture last October, McLachlan said Good Friday football was a "50-50" chance from 2015.
Meanwhile, Brayshaw and directors Mark Brayshaw and Ben Buckley were re-elected unopposed on Wednesday night.
Brayshaw's new three-year term will be the third and final one he can serve under the terms of North's constitution, meaning his reign as chairman will finish in 2017.
The chairman's successor will likely come from North's existing board, with Buckley, a former AFL executive and ex-Football Federation Australia CEO, and fellow director Brady Scanlon, the son of former AFL commissioner Peter Scanlon, likely candidates.
The club also successfully passed a motion to amend its constitution so that the club can now only relocate outside Victoria by obtaining 75 per cent of the member vote at an annual general meeting.
Brayshaw said the Roos remained keen to play games at Ballarat, but suggested that prospect was some way off with the Roos still unable to obtain the necessary government funding required to redevelop Eureka Stadium.