East Perth star Tom North reflects on incredible journey from Fremantle Dockers delisting to Royals star

For East Perth star Tom North, his football journey is a matter of perspective. The disappointment of being delisted by Fremantle after three seasons without a debut could’ve exiled him from the game he loves, and for a time, the 26-year-old admits it did. He fell out of love with AFL so much, representing his boyhood club Carlton in the VFL in search of a second chance at the AFL dream felt like going through the motions. And until a call from an old Fremantle friend in the Northern Territory and a brush with Eddie Betts, North may have given up altogether. Reflecting on his incredible journey with The West Australian, North said he looked back on his career to date and realised it had brought him to the place he was meant to be, pushing the Royals towards their first flag in more than two decades alongside close mates. “Honestly, I haven’t given it any thought, getting back to AFL,” he said. “I’ve built my life here now, and I’m enjoying it a lot. If the opportunity happens, it happens; if it doesn’t, I’m content with what’s going on at the moment, and I’m enjoying East Perth. “It’s an amazing experience getting drafted, and to be honest, I felt on top of the world. “It didn’t go the way I wanted it to go, obviously not playing any games or still playing AFL now, but it was an amazing experience to be able to be a part of the AFL and get to play and train with some of the best players in the world.” North said his delisting at the end of 2019 forced him to look at what footy did for him and what he wanted out of continuing to play the game. “I probably realised I always took footy very seriously, but I maybe didn’t take it as seriously as some of the other guys at the top level, and even after getting delisted, I used footy as my release from what I’m doing outside of footy,” he said. “In the past, I’ve been caught up in the mindset. I’ve failed at AFL level, and maybe I wasn’t good enough, and even maybe when I’ve played some VFL or WAFL, when I wasn’t at my best, maybe I’m not good enough. “But I just think it’s something every footballer does is being pretty hard on themselves, but when you look back on it, in the grand scheme of things, you’ve got to be proud of all of those little accomplishments. “I think now, it’s only sort of taken me the last couple years to really get back to enjoying football and just not treating it too seriously. “I feel now it’s back to playing in a good team with good mates. That’s what I do it for.” The flame was rekindled in the unlikeliest of places, Nightcliff Football Club in the Northern Territory Football League, after a call from 17-game former Docker and close friend Ryan Nyhuis. “It took going up to Darwin to play with my mate Ryan Nyhuis, who was at Freo (with me), to get that love back,” North said. “It’s sort of a tale of two halves that season. You go up there in the first half of the year before Christmas, and you’re playing against maybe some lesser opposition. “It’s just a bit of fun and it’s hot and sweaty, but then the second half of the season rolling into finals, you’ve got blokes coming from VFL, WAFL, SANFL all trying to stack up to win a flag. You end up playing some of the better teams you’ll play against. “We played a game against Palmerston, and Eddie Betts played, which was pretty cool, being a Carlton fan. I think I went up and shook his hand and said ‘massive fan’ at the end of the game. I think we won by 50 points, actually, so I got bragging rights. “We actually went out straight sets in the finals, but it was an awesome experience, and I pretty much came back from that hungry to get back into it.” So when another pair of close friends, Scott Jones and Mitch Crowden, came calling with the chance for North to return to WA, it was an “easy” decision. “I was like ‘yep, let’s get the band back together’ and have a crack,” he said. “I kind of felt like my whole adult life was here from being drafted here, and I found that spark for football again, so I wanted to chase it while I was still young.” The trio helped power East Perth to the 2024 decider, where they were halted by a stacked Peel Thunder. But after a year of playing wherever he was needed, North was pulled aside for a quiet word from Crowden, who had decided to return to Victoria. “Mitch was a big driver for me, and he just said ‘I’m going home,’ but he was just like ‘I want you to take that next step, ’” North revealed. “He was a big believer in my ability and just said ‘take the keys’ basically.” North has taken the mantle with aplomb, averaging 29 disposals a game, the fifth most in the competition this season and putting his name into Sandover Medal calculations as East Perth pushes towards another finals bid.