The worth of Kanga Tech to North is not just a matter of the integrity of Ben Brown's hamstrings. In almost every story you have read about the dependence of AFL clubs on pokies, there will have been this throwaway line "except North Melbourne". It was there again this week. Rarely is there more elaboration.

Partly, this is a wariness of being seen as unctuous. "We're not in the business of preaching to other clubs about how to do their business," chief executive Carl Dilena said. Besides, North's virtue was once vice. Ten years ago, the club had a few unproductive machines at Etihad, but was $8.5 million in debt and in no position to invest in more. Instead, they decided to cut costs to the bone and reinvent themselves as a community club, small but resourceful.

Dilena says it had a galvanising effect. "Because we didn't have the luxury of passive revenue," he said, "we had a great incentive. It was a healthy exercise." North was never handicapped on the field, said Dilena, because it could always pay the most that any team can pay, the salary cap. This chimes with stories about richer clubs at a loss about what to do with their pots of money.

The ethical dimension emerged. Pokies might be justified as a pub's business, for instance, but North was a footy club, not-for-profit. Besides, much of North's mission was with the young and disadvantaged. To exploit others less well off for footy club funds would be antithetical.

North won't labour this point, but we will. Anti-gambling group research indicate that 40 per cent of gaming losses are incurred by people who can't afford them. Of 17 pokie venues run by AFL clubs in Melbourne, there are none in Toorak or South Yarra, but two in Caroline Springs, one each for Hawthorn and Collingwood. What are the odds?

North continue to work their patch. The Hobart games are one initiative, paying much more than Etihad, their supposed home. Kanga Tech is another. Now they are making plans to do business - a child-care centre, for instance - in the precinct that will open up around the new Arden Metro station, right at their front door. By one study, with Hawthorn-scale pokies added to their other enterprises, the Roos would be in the top four for revenue. Without them, they are 16th. But their debt is down to around $800,000.

History might be nearly ready to meet the Roos half way. Dilena discerns at last a resolve among AFL clubs to wean themselves off pokies. It won't be easy, but at least the AFL has a shopfront for the cause. There is a model. Pokies are illegal in WA, so the Perth clubs do without, though West Coast has a lavish casino sponsorship.

Then there is the existential question. As a club, North always have been small but willing (think Aylett, Barassi, the 10-year rule, Friday night footy, the Gold Coast resistance). Small forever equated to marginal. North spent the '90s under a death sentence and had to make seven preliminary finals in a row to commute it.

Last year, the Bulldogs struck a moral blow for smaller clubs. The day after the grand final, president Peter Gordon said they all should be seen for what they are, collectively an asset to the community, each unique.

Evidently, North is feeling secure in itself. Dilena said when he arrived at the club, he sensed a reluctance to drop below mid-table when their turn came, for fear of irrelevance, perhaps extinction. No more.

When reboring the list between seasons, the Roos had not expected to fall to 16th, but knew they would be vulnerable to injury. No longer were they measuring the year in terms of wins and losses, said Dilena, but in player development. Ten debutants, plus two from other clubs, had energised them about the future. "It's been really positive in that sense," said Dilena.

Not only that, North still feel that they're in the running for Dustin Martin and/or Josh Kelly. "Except North Melbourne" still aims to be exceptional North Melbourne.

NB sports editor: A feel-good story about the smallest, lowest-profile and bottom-most club in Melbourne in late August. Who would have thought?