Brent 'Boomer' Harvey trains with Shaun Higgins (left) and Lindsay Thomas after learning he is to be delisted. Credit:Michael Dodge No one is untouchable – maybe other than future captain Jack Ziebell, Todd Goldstein and Robbie Tarrant. The Roos must be aggressive in reinvigorating their list, which means almost everyone becomes tradeable if a suitable deal can be reached. Clearly they'll have some room in the salary cap and their first target should be more class in the midfield. Ziebell, Andrew Swallow and Ben Cunnington are all solid contributors, but they're all similar.

Drew Petrie keeps up appearances at North training on Wednesday after the news broke. Credit:Michael Dodge The scary thing is the Roos will still be heavily reliant on the outside run of Daniel Wells, Jarrad Waite's work up forward and Scott Thompson in defence. By this time next year, they could also be retiring. But while North clearly need more youth, there's still too much talent on the list to simply bottom out so I don't think it's a complete rebuild. In the past decade they've generally been around the mark in terms of finals and I don't see why that can't be the case if they get things right. But that's where North is different to Hawthorn, who this week re-signed veterans Luke Hodge, Josh Gibson and Shaun Burgoyne. The Hawks have won the past three premierships and are genuinely challenging for another.

While North Melbourne hasn't tasted the ultimate success, recent seasons aren't necessarily a failure. I've always thought it takes a bit of luck to win a premiership. Coach Brad Scott signed a contract last year, taking him through until the end of 2018 and I think he deserves that time to coach a new group. The recruiting decisions of recent seasons don't just fall on his shoulders, but his entire list management team. They've made preliminary finals from outside the top four in the past two seasons, and did it from eighth last year.

The Roos have been close, but not quite there, so you can understand how they've gone about their recruiting in getting those more senior guys like Waite, Nick Dal Santo and Shaun Higgins. When they won a club record nine games to start this season, it was looking like the decision to "top up" their list was being justified. But they've been tested in the second half of the season by a tough draw and a number of injuries, which perhaps highlights their lack of depth and the need to act. Dal Santo said earlier in the week that many of the senior guys at Arden Street were in the dark about their futures. It's a difficult juggling act for the club as they've been focused on cementing their spot in the eight, but clearly those honest conversations needed to be had before the finals began.

Dal Santo has been a great acquisition since he moved from St Kilda at the end of 2013 and has always been a silky smooth ball-user. But he's now become more of a link player, so is holding up the development of a younger teammate. Is it easier to make calls on guys who have arrived from other clubs? Probably. But Waite has survived for now. The former Blue was in career-best form earlier in the season, before being let down by his body. When fit, he obviously has the talent, but can Waite withstand another year of AFL football? While that is a question for the Kangaroos' medicos, if they think he can play 18 games next year then he's worth the risk. Petrie and Firrito have clearly been great leaders and marvellous servants for the club.

Petrie has shown over the past few weeks what you can do if you really apply yourself and it's a credit to him that what he gives to the team is much more than kicks, marks and handballs. But his form hasn't been great for patches this year and it is time to give someone like Mason Wood more ownership of the Roos' forward-line alongside Ben Brown. That leaves Harvey. If he was 23 and having the year he's had, we'd be saying, "Geez this young kid goes all right, he's got a future". Given he's probably top six in the Kangaroos' best and fairest, the fact he'll be 39 next year shouldn't really come into the equation. But as we found out on Wednesday, the club must come first and often there's little room for sentiment in the quest for a premiership.