New North Melbourne captain Nick Larkey is bullish his side is ready to begin making serious inroads up the AFL ladder in 2026.
The Kangaroos have finished in the bottom four every season of the 2020s so far, and haven’t played finals since finishing eighth in 2016.
Larkey has played 134 games for the Kangaroos since joining the club at the end of 2016 and is yet to play in a final.
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However, after multiple years under coach Alastair Clarkson and a number of top draft picks maturing in the system, he feels the time has come for the Kangaroos to make a “quantum leap”.
“Talk about taking a big leap. Instead of these incremental improvements we’ve had … we improved last year, we all know that internally, although our ladder spot didn’t suggest a big leap, we know we improved incrementally,” Larkey told 3AW’s WWOS.
“But we want to improve drastically and make a quantum leap in 2026, is the aim.
“So at the end of 2026 look at the year and go ‘yes we clearly made big improvements’ rather than just more small little wins here and there.
“It comes down to every action you do at the club. Whether it’s your training and going to another level or your professionalism, the buy-in to off-field stuff, your relationships.
“Everything we do has to have a real intent and focus to pour everything into it.
“You’ve got to make everything count. That doesn’t guarantee anything, but it’ll give us the best chance possible to climb the ladder.
“The main thing I’ve really noticed this pre-season is a lot of guys looking more like men and I mean our young guys looking more like men and AFL bodies than under 18s guys who are trying to find their feet at the level.”
Speaking candidly, Larkey believes the time for making excuses regarding the inexperienced nature of the young list is over.
“In my opinion, we have got enough pieces there and enough talent on the list to be performing better than we have been,” he said.
“And I know we’ve been really young and you can say we’re finding our feet, but I look at our list and I look at our players and the quality we’ve got and it indicates to me that we should trend up the ladder, just because you look at other teams and where they’re at as well.
“In order to do that, you’ve got to double down on everything you can to try and work your way up.
“The tweaks we’ve made to our game plan – not huge tweaks just subtle tweaks both offensively and defensively, will tailor better to the list of players we’ve got than the style we’ve been playing in the past.”
Larkey looks to Hawthorn and how they jumped from a similar list profile across 2022 and 2023, to ultimately spike up the ladder in 2024.
“These sort of diamonds in the rough, I remember playing Hawthorn a couple of years ago when we were both down the bottom of the ladder, they were about 0-5, I looked at their list and thought ‘it doesn’t look that great’ and all of a sudden they go on this big run and played in a prelim,” he said.
“And then at the end of the season you look at their list and go ‘wow it looks like there’s stars everywhere’ because they had these hidden gems who had been on the list working away and came to fruition and find their feet at the level and all of a sudden the list goes from average looking to one that’s one of the better ones in the comp.
“We can do something similar from what I’ve seen. It’s just a matter of executing.”
Larkey replaces Jy Simpkin as North Melbourne captain going into 2026.
Simpkin stood down after attempting to leave the club in the trade period. The contracted midfielder ended up staying after a deal between North and Collingwood failed to eventuate.
Larkey says it came down to him and 21-year-old rising star Harry Sheezel for the vacated position.
“The biggest honour was just getting voted into the leadership group four years ago and when that happened I was quite young and I didn’t necessarily see myself as a leader, but it’s a huge honour because it’s voted by your peers and your teammates, who you want the most respect from out of anyone at the football club,” he said.
“That’s the most humbling part of it, but I’ve been lucky to be under a couple of great captains who have led through some really tough times in North history and have been in the leadership group for a while.
“So when the spot opened up I think it was either going to be me or Harry Sheezel, it could have fallen either way I suppose, but I’m sure it’ll go to Sheezel at some stage in the future given the player he is.
“I’m just really honoured and humbled to be able to take on the role.”
Larkey becomes the ninth player to captain the Kangaroos since 2000, a list that includes the likes of Wayne Carey, Adam Simpson, Brent Harvey, Anthony Stevens and Jack Ziebell.
