K Rock Football | The North Geelong faithful will rightly heap the majority of the praise on the twenty-two players and coach Peter Riccardi if the Magpies can produce one of local football’s great Cinderella stories and win tomorrow’s GDFNL Grand Final.

Victory will complete a transformation that has seen North go from mid-season sackings of coaches in 2022 and 2023, and only avoiding the wooden spoon in the second of those years with a final-round win, to featuring in a grand final for the first time in a decade.

However, Magpies supporters should be seeking out president Darren Vandenberg for a handshake or a hug, because without his persistence, North is unlikely to be in this position.

Even going back three years ago, the Vanders rang me about six times, and I kept knocking him back,” Riccardi told K rock Football’s Beyond the Boundary podcast.

“Then he got me at a weak moment. In saying that, I did watch them play a couple of games (in 2023), and there was a lot to work with.

“So your nucleus is there. But after halftime, they just dropped away. Obviously, the fitness was (an issue), so we had a massive preseason going into 2024.

“And then recruit some young kids. (The) first thing I did when I said yes, I made sure I had three or four kids coming over."

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