We’re not sure whether Brad Scott was saying the right thing now that he is a Kangaroo and not a Magpie, but it was interesting to hear him declare the facilities at North Melbourne’s just-opened Arden Street facility as being better than those at the Lexus Centre.

Collingwood’s paradise by the Yarra was supposed to be the AFL training facility by which all other AFL training facilities were judged when it opened in 2004, with all sorts of bells, whistles and gadgets.

Yet now it is just another facility, and it even has its shortcomings, such as the several hundred metre hike between the building and the ground the Magpies train on.

Whether or not North’s facility really is better than Collingwood’s is something only a few boffins in the field of sports science would probably know. But the fact that such comparisons can even be made shows what a level playing field AFL clubs operate under and that to stand still is to be left behind.

There was a time when Essendon’s set-up at Windy Hill was considered to be the best in the business. But now the Bombers are looking at a massive revamp of their traditional home that includes an entirely new training facility and extending the ground so that its dimensions match those of the MCG.

The Bombers and Richmond are two clubs whose summer training regimen is compromised after all these years because they have to share their training facility with a cricket club.

Of course, North Melbourne’s belated move into the 21st century fundamentally changes the nature of the long-time battling club. Former coach Dean Laidley did his best to shed the ‘Shinboner’ image, but as long as the Kangaroos were based in such a modest (and some would say dilapidated) facility, it was conveniently easy to draw back on the club’s underprivileged roots every time the Kangaroos pulled off one of their trademark backs-to-the-wall wins.

There are those who believe the club is trying too hard too quickly to shed its working-class image, but it is plain to see that the Kangas are trying hard to reinvent themselves as brash, young and innovative and they have a president, chief executive and new coach who clearly fit that mould.

The challenge for us in the footy media is to go a whole season – and then more – without invoking ‘Shinboner Spirit’ somewhere in our copy and our broadcasts.

I don’t fancy our chances.