Editing North Melbourne Football Club (section)

==Club symbols and identity==

[[File:North Melbourne cheer squad.jpg|thumb|350px|North Melbourne cheer squad in 2017]]

===Name and mascot===
The club was widely known as the "Shinboners" for much of its early history. The origins of the nickname is believed to come from the areas abattoirs, where a number of the players worked.<ref name="nmfc.com.au">{{cite web | url=https://www.nmfc.com.au/club/history | title=Official AFL Website of the North Melbourne Football Club }}</ref> By 1926, the club was known as the "Blue Birds", but this nickname did not last.{{citation needed|date=August 2018}} It was Phonse Tobin, North president from 1953 to 1956, who oversaw the club adopting the kangaroo emblem in 1954; Tobin found the image of a shinbone unsavoury and wanted the club to have a mascot it could show with pride. In selecting a new name, he wanted something characteristically Australian and was inspired by a large kangaroo he saw on display outside a city store.<ref name="Heraldsun.com.au">{{cite web | title=Subscribe to the Herald Sun for exclusive stories | website=Heraldsun.com.au | url=https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/what-your-footy-team-was-once-called-and-how-it-got-its-name/news-story/ebc68823888ac0000580d313422aca4c | access-date=4 May 2019}}</ref><ref name="Watson 2011 p. 23">{{cite book | last=Watson | first=T. | title=Malcolm Blight | publisher=Hardie Grant Books | series=EBL ebooks online | year=2011 | isbn=978-1-74273-663-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5pU9mmDQRwYC&pg=PT23 | access-date=4 May 2019 | page=23}}</ref>

The official name of the club is North Melbourne, but the club has gone under several other aliases over the years. The club was founded as the "North Melbourne Football Club", but changed to "North Melbourne cum Albert Park" after merging with Albert Park in 1876.<ref name="Hotham History Project">{{cite web | title=The North Melbourne Football Club, The Shinboners' | website=Hotham History Project | url=https://www.hothamhistory.org.au/the-north-melbourne-football-club-the-shinboners/ | access-date=4 May 2019}}</ref> Following the reformation of the club in 1877, it was known as the "Hotham Football Club" but later took the name "North Melbourne" again in 1888. In 1998 the club proposed changing its name to the "Northern Kangaroos", but it was rejected by the AFL. From 1999 to 2007, the club traded without much success as "The Kangaroos" in a bid to increase its appeal nationally; this decision was reversed at the end of 2007 when the club again reverted to the name "North Melbourne".<ref name="Navaratnam 2016">{{cite web | last=Navaratnam | first=Dinny | title=Members force change to North's kangaroo logo | website=afl.com.au | date=4 November 2016 | url=https://www.afl.com.au/news/2016-11-04/north-melbourne-unveils-new-fierce-roo-logo | access-date=4 May 2019}}</ref>

===Club song===
"Join in the Chorus" is the official anthem of the North Melbourne Football Club. It is sung to the tune of a Scottish folk song from around 1911, "A Wee Deoch an Doris".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/sheetmusic/n/n12/n1267/ |title=Wee deoch-an-doris [Historic American Sheet Music] |work=duke.edu}}</ref>

The song is generally sung, in accordance to common football tradition, after a victory. It is also played before every match.

"Join in the Chorus" is believed to be the oldest club anthem of any AFL club and has been associated with North from its early VFA days. The preamble of the song originates from a score of a theatre musical called ''Australia: Heart to Heart and Hand to Hand'', written by Toso Taylor in the 1890s in pre-federation Australia.<ref name="H2H">{{Cite web|url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-164059153/view|title=Australia or Heart to heart and hand to hand [music]|website=Trove}}</ref> The second verse is unknown in origin and was presumably added later by members of the club when the song was chosen. The chorus was appropriated from a song written and performed by Scottish musician [[Harry Lauder]]. The recording currently used by the club was performed by the Fable Singers in April 1972 and only includes the choruses.<ref>[http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/afl-tunes-to-remember-20100723-10nyh.html AFL Tunes to Remember], ''The Age'', 23 July 2010.</ref>

The song has a strong Victorian heritage and has been traditionally sung by the Victorian State Football and Victorian Cricket teams respectively. The lyrics have occasionally been changed, including updating the year in the song (e.g. "North Melbourne will be premiers in 1993"), or to remove the words "North Melbourne" during the period when the club was competing only as the  Kangaroos. Following 1993, the players would sing after a win, the last line as "North Melbourne will be premiers just you wait and see." instead of "..is the team that plays to win for you and me."

For the 2015 premiership season, [[You Am I]]'s lead singer, [[Tim Rogers (musician)|Tim Rogers]], a North Melbourne supporter, announced that he would assist in an updated version of the song including the two verses. This version is only played at North home games as the team runs onto the ground.

==="Shinboner spirit"===
{{More citations needed|section|date=August 2018}}
{{blockquote|At clubs with bigger memberships, their supporters only touch their colours, but at North we have the Shinboner spirit. North people can touch that spirit – they are the real Shinboners, they are the club.|Ron Joseph}}

North Melbourne has a proud history as a working-class, inner-city club.<ref name="nmfc.com.au"/> Reflecting the suburb of North Melbourne's lower socio-economic status in the 19th and early 20th century, the team has always been one of the smaller and less wealthy clubs, relying on the mateship and grit of its players and membership to succeed.

'Shinboner spirit' refers to North's reputation of fighting against the odds and not asking for hand-outs. North's fans like to compare this to the (generally richer) clubs like Essendon and Carlton, which through their wealthier patronage and corresponding improved player catchments and ability to pay players more, were generally more successful in the pre–salary cap era.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-719023400 | title=The football solution: How Richmond's premiership can save Australia }}</ref> The term persists to the modern day despite North Melbourne having switched its official nickname from the Shinboners to the Kangaroos in the 1950s.

Because it relates to the club's original nickname, Shinboner spirit is often associated with the complete history of the club. In 2005, to celebrate the club's 80th anniversary of senior competition in the VFL and the 30th anniversary of its first VFL premiership, the Kangaroos held a "Shinboner Spirit" gala event attended by almost the entire surviving players.{{citation needed|date=August 2018}} In the awards ceremony, the key Shinboners of the past 80 years were acknowledged, and [[Glenn Archer]] was named the "Shinboner of the Century".

===Guernsey===
The North Melbourne Football Club has a long history of wearing various designs in the colours of royal blue and white.

Most of the club's earliest jumpers were long-sleeved and not the sleeveless design common today.{{citation needed|date=August 2018}} In their early years the club sported a hooped design when they took to the field.{{citation needed|date=August 2018}} This changed at the behest of the VFA in 1884 who insisted that Hotham change their jumpers to vertical stripes to provide a visible contrast between Hotham and Geelong.{{citation needed|date=August 2018}}

After 1884 the vertical top was worn more often, usually in the lace-up design in the gallery below.<ref name="Vamplew Australian Society for Sports History 1994 p. 310">{{cite book |last=Vamplew |first=W. |author2=Australian Society for Sports History |title=The Oxford Companion to Australian Sport |publisher=Oxford University Press |series=Oxford Companions Series |year=1994 |isbn=978-0-19-553568-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WotYAAAAYAAJ |access-date=4 May 2019 |page=310 |quote=North Melbourne Football Club had a chequered history in its early years and although one of the founding members of the VFA in 1877 ... The club has also gone through several changes of uniform; the blue-and-white vertical stripes of today were first used in 1885. North won its first VFA premierships in 1903-4 and then added another four in quick succession (1910, 1914-15, 1918) to be one of the ...}}</ref>

After the merger with West Melbourne, North used a composite jumper that incorporated West Melbourne's red sash for the 1908 season.{{citation needed|date=August 2018}} The merger was in reality, a takeover.{{citation needed|date=August 2018}} The red sash was a token gesture and was removed the following season.{{citation needed|date=August 2018}}

In the early 1920s North experimented with an NMFC monogram design, following League clubs like Carlton and South Melbourne.{{citation needed|date=August 2018}}

Upon promotion to the VFL in 1925, North Melbourne was forced to abandon its royal blue and white striped jumper as it was deemed the jumper design clashed with other clubs.{{citation needed|date=August 2018}} During this period a jumper with a V design was used for several years, before the club returned to using its striped jumper combination of royal blue and white which has been used continuously since 1932.<ref>{{Cite web |title=North Melbourne Home Jumpers |url=https://footyjumpers.com/kangarooshome.htm |access-date=June 4, 2024 |website=footyjumpers.com}}</ref>

For 86 seasons, until 2016, the blue stripes were centred, the guernsey had a blue collar and cuffs, and black numbers. Until the 1970s, the numbers were attached to a white panel, while since this point, the top half of the back of the guernsey has been made white to accommodate larger numbers. 

Between 2011 and 2016, North Melbourne wore an inverted version of their guernsey, which was predominantly blue with white numbers, as an alternate uniform. In 2017, this was made the club's home jumper and the traditional version was reserved for clashes. However, this was reversed when the club signed a sponsorship deal with German sporting brand [[Puma (brand)|Puma]], effective from the 2022 season. This saw a return of the traditional guernsey, as well as hooped socks, unused as part of the home uniform since the 1960s. The black player numbers would return in 2023.

In the 1990s, many AFL clubs began to produce alternate uniforms, known in Australian football as 'clash' guernseys.{{citation needed|date=March 2023}} At Arden Street, this meant the introduction of the 'Bounding Roo'. Coinciding with a change in marketing by which the club sought to identify more with the ''Kangaroos'' image, this design included a blue chest with thin stripes extending downwards, onto a large kangaroo. The kangaroo was taken from the club's logo, in which it is represented bounding rightward. The guernsey is thus known as the 'Bounding Roo'. Given its association with the club's golden era in the late 1990s, the guernsey is popular among NMFC supporters today.{{citation needed|date=March 2023}} It was used in 2016 to celebrate 20 years since the club's third premiership, and in 2019, North's 150th anniversary.

===Uniform evolution===
Changes in the North Melbourne uniform through the years:<ref>[http://www.nmfc.com.au/club/history/jumper-history Jumper history] on NMFC website</ref><ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.footyjumpers.com/1932.htm| title = Season by season jumpers}}</ref>

'''Initial years & VFA:'''
{|
|{{Australian rules football kit box
|pattern_b= _thinwhitehoops|pattern_so= _hoops_white|body= 013B9F|shorts= 002D62|socks= 013B9F|title= 1874–85}}
|{{Australian rules football kit box
|pattern_b= _whitestripeslaceup|pattern_so= _hoops_white|body= 013B9F|shorts= 002D62|socks= 013B9F|title= 1886–1907}}
|{{Australian rules football kit box
|pattern_b= _whitetopredsash|pattern_so= _whitetop|body= 061A33 |shorts= 002D62|socks= 061A33|title= 1908}}
|{{Australian rules football kit box
|pattern_b= _upper_white1|pattern_so= _whitetop|body= 061A33 |shorts= 002D62|socks= 061A33|title= 1909}}
|{{Australian rules football kit box
|pattern_b= _nm|pattern_so= _whitetop|body= 061A33 |shorts= |socks= 061A33|title= 1910,12,14,15}}
|{{Australian rules football kit box
|pattern_b= _offsetwhitestripes|pattern_so=_hoops_white|body= 013B9F|shorts= 002D62|socks=013B9F|title= 1911,13,18,21}}
|{{Australian rules football kit box
|pattern_b= _nmfc1922h|pattern_so=|body= 061A33|shorts=1E1E1E|socks=061A33|title= 1922–24}}
|}
'''VFL/AFL:'''
{|
|{{Australian rules football kit box
|pattern_b= _sharpwhiteV|pattern_so=_whitetop|body= 133B9F|shorts=1E1E1E|socks=133B9F|title= 1925–1932}}
|{{Australian rules football kit box
| pattern_b=_3stripesonwhite| pattern_sh =| pattern_so= _hoops_white|body= 133B9F|shorts= 1E1E1E|socks=133B9F|title= 1933–1970}}
|{{Australian rules football kit box
| pattern_b=_3stripesonwhite| pattern_sh =| pattern_so =| body= 133B9F| shorts = 1E1E1E| socks=133B9F|title= 1971–1974}}
|{{Australian rules football kit box
| pattern_b=_3stripesonwhite| pattern_sh=| pattern_so =| body= 133B9F| shorts= 133B9F|socks= 133B9F|title= 1974–2015}}
|{{Australian rules football kit box
|pattern_b= _3whitestripes|pattern_so=|body= 133B9F|shorts= 133B9F|socks=133B9F|title= 2016–2021}}
|{{Australian rules football kit box
|pattern_b=_3stripesonwhite| pattern_sh=| pattern_so= _hoops_white|body= 133B9F|shorts= 133B9F|socks=133B9F|title= 2022– }}
|}
'''Significant alternate uniforms:'''
{|
|{{Australian rules football kit box
|pattern_b= _nmfcboundingroo|pattern_so=|body= white|shorts=white|socks=000099|title= 1995–2002, 2016, 2019}}
|}

===Logo===
{{More citations needed section|date=August 2018}}
North Melbourne has experienced 7 logo changes since its introduction, with 5 of them featuring a bounding kangaroo behind a shield of blue and white stripes. In 2016, North Melbourne introduced a new logo that featured a much fiercer-looking kangaroo—with its head only—sitting on top of the words 'North Melbourne' inside a shield. The change was generally welcomed. The new kangaroo looks slightly to the right, indicating that it is looking into the future.