Editing North Melbourne Football Club (section)

===Entering the VFL===
[[File:Performance Chart AFL NME.svg|thumb|Chart of yearly ladder positions for North Melbourne in [[Australian Football League|VFL/AFL]]]]
[[File:Gasometer North Melbourne 1928.jpg|left|thumb|North Melbourne and Arden St Oval after admission to the VFL. c. 1928]]
After three attempts, 29 years of waiting and numerous other applications to enter the VFL, finally North was rewarded for its persistence with admittance to the League in 1925, along with Footscray and [[Hawthorn Football Club|Hawthorn]]. Even then, the opportunity was almost lost as the League delegates debated into the early hours of the morning on which clubs should be invited to join the intake. It was only after much deliberation that North Melbourne's name was eventually substituted for [[Prahran FC|Prahran's]] making North "the lucky side" of the invitees that included Footscray and Hawthorn. North Melbourne was forced to change its uniform to avoid a clash when it joined the VFL.

North Melbourne struggled for most of its first twenty-five years in the [[Australian Football League|VFL]], with one of few bright notes being [[Sel Murray]] winning the [[VFL/AFL|VFL]] [[Leading Goalkicker Medal]] in 1941 with 88 goals. By the late 1940s, North Melbourne had developed a strong list and significant supporter base. In 1949 North secured the VFL Minor Premiership, finishing top of the ladder at the end of the home-and-away season with 14 wins and 5 losses. They failed to make the Grand Final that year (eventually won by [[Essendon Football Club|Essendon]]), but in 1950 they did reach the final, but were defeated by Essendon. It was in this year that the club adopted the "Kangaroos" mascot.<ref>Gerard Dowling, "North Melbourne Football Club", in Andrew Brown-May and [[Shurlee Swain]], ''The Encyclopedia of Melbourne'', Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 2005, p.511.</ref>

In February 1965, North Melbourne [[1965 VFA season#North Melbourne's move to Coburg Oval|moved its playing and training base]] from the Arden Street Oval to [[Coburg City Oval|Coburg Oval]], signing a seven-year lease with the [[City of Coburg]]<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=The Sun News-Pictorial |location=Melbourne, VIC |page=51 |date=30 March 1965 |title=North gets lease}}</ref> after initially negotiating long-term leases for up to 40 years.<ref name="sun3nov">{{cite news |newspaper=The Sun News-Pictorial |location=Melbourne, VIC |page=34 |date=3 November 1964 |title=North can have a new oval}}</ref> The club came to an arrangement to merge with the VFA's [[Coburg Football Club]], whom it was displacing from the ground;<ref name="sun9dec">{{cite news |newspaper=The Sun News-Pictorial |location=Melbourne, VIC |pages=63–64 |author=Scot Palmer |date=9 December 1964 |title=Coburg, North merger}}</ref> fourteen Coburg committeemen joined the North Melbourne committee, but the merger was never completed after Coburg established a rival committee which remained loyal to the VFA.<ref name="sun6feb">{{cite news |newspaper=The Sun News-Pictorial |location=Melbourne, VIC |page=56 |date=6 February 1965 |title=Coburg to stay in Association}}</ref> The lease at Coburg lasted only eight months; the Coburg council was hesitant to build a new grandstand without the security of a long-term lease, and neither party made the returns they expected, so it was terminated by mutual agreement in September 1965 and North Melbourne returned to the Arden Street Oval.<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=The Sun News-Pictorial |location=Melbourne, VIC |page=51 |date=28 September 1965 |title=Coburg to drop stand?}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |newspaper=The Sun News-Pictorial |location=Melbourne, VIC |page=52 |date=29 September 1965 |title=North to quit Coburg}}</ref>

On field, the 1950s and 1960s were lean years for North Melbourne, though the club did secure two consecutive Night Premierships in 1965 and 1966. [[Allen Aylett]] was a brilliant player in the late 1950s and early 1960s (and captain between 1961 and 1964), as was [[Noel Teasdale]], who lost the [[Brownlow Medal]] on a countback in 1965 (he was later awarded a retrospective medal when the counting system was amended).