North Melbourne has secured its post-Tasmania future after finalising an agreement to play two home Toyota AFL Premiership Season matches in Western Australia from 2025.

From 2026, the club will return two AFL home games to its Melbourne heartland, giving members and supporters the opportunity to attend nine home matches at Marvel Stadium across the season. 

The three-year agreement will see the club play one match at Optus Stadium in Perth and one match at Hands Oval in Bunbury as the home team against West Coast and Fremantle for the next three seasons. 

In 2025, North Melbourne will play West Coast in Bunbury in Round 13 on Sunday, June 8 and Fremantle at Optus Stadium in Round 14 on Saturday, June 14.

The club will start its transition out of Tasmania in 2025, hosting two AFL matches – down from four in 2024 – and two AFLW home games in Tasmania across the year as part of the club’s pre-existing agreement.

North Melbourne’s AFL team will completely exit Tasmania at the end of 2025.

North Melbourne CEO Jennifer Watt said the Western Australia agreement will provide significant benefits to the Kangaroos.  

“This is a great outcome for the club in that we are able to bring two games back to our Melbourne heartland supporters while securing our financial future,” Watt said.

“We thank the AFL, the Western Australian government, Tourism Western Australia, and the Fremantle and West Coast football clubs for helping to bring this package together.

“The club began planning for our post-Tasmania future once Tasmania was granted an AFL licence. Having explored a number of options, this three-year agreement stood alone in delivering multiple benefits to the club, our members and supporters. 

“North Melbourne will always be our forever home, and enhancing our facilities and expanding our footprint within the Arden Precinct will always be at the heart of our long-term strategy. 

“From a financial perspective, this opportunity in Western Australia will go a long way to ensuring we can continue to do that alongside fully funded football departments.

“Underpinning the club’s finances also enables us to refocus and invest in talent identification and fan development in our Next Generation Academies.

“We are a club with a long, proud history of challenging the status quo and we see this opportunity as another significant moment in our history.”

North Melbourne general manager of football Todd Viney reminded supporters that coach Alastair Clarkson was no stranger to coaching teams who thrived while playing in a secondary market.

“Clarko’s great Hawthorn era was built while playing four games in Tasmania so we see no reason why we can’t do the same here at North Melbourne,” Viney said. 

“We have always said that we want to be a team that can win games anywhere, any time and we have shown in the recent past that playing in Perth is a trip we embrace with two wins from our last three visits to Optus Stadium.

“We have a really passionate fan base in Western Australia and we have seen and heard those fans loudly and clearly in recent close matches at Optus Stadium.

“Our players will look forward to having them as home fans from next year onwards.”