NEWLY installed North Melbourne boss Eugene Arocca has declared that the days of the "travelling Kangaroos" are over, and that beyond 2008 the club's future lies in Melbourne alone.

In his first extensive interview since taking on the toughest job in football, Arocca told The Age he had been shocked by the morale of the North staff upon arriving at the club and said that the "destructive relationship" between the club's members and shareholders "consumes me daily".

Arocca's plan has been endorsed by AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou, who said the competition would support the club and attempt to schedule an attractive package of Telstra Dome games, given that North would no longer receive $1.2 million for the now-abandoned three-game package on the Gold Coast in 2009.

The Kangaroos recently signed a new major sponsorship deal with Vodafone worth close to $1 million and are on the verge of sealing a six-figure shorts sponsor, but remain streets behind the wealthier Victorian clubs.

The former Collingwood second-in-command has already begun negotiating a full handover of shares to hand the club back to the members and has unofficially asked the AFL for a package of at least 10 home games at Telstra Dome in 2009. Arocca said his toughest task had been retrenching four members of the North Melbourne administration last week.

The changing of the guard, along with last week's sackings, prompted Kangaroos chairman James Brayshaw to summon every member of the club — except the playing list — to a special call-to-arms meeting at Arden Street three days ago.

"James explained that we were all in this together and that I was in charge and the buck stopped with me," explained Arocca. "For two months between November and January James had been running around being interim CEO, but he'd been too busy to actually pull everyone together.

"The consistent theme when I got here was that: 'We've been smashed for the last three months.' The club had been pulled from pillar to post on the Gold Coast thing and that had placed morale at an all-time low because it consumed the club all year."

Arocca met influential Kangaroos shareholder Peter de Rauch before deciding to take the North Melbourne job, and is understood to have told de Rauch he would not join the club if it remained in the grip of its shareholders.

De Rauch, instrumental in preventing the Gold Coast relocation, agreed to hand back his shares, as did Bob Ansett and former director John Magowan — meaning that 58% of the complicated shareholding is now controlled by the new board. Influential former player Kerry Good and a small group that also includes another former director, Mark Dawson, have to date resisted but are expected to meet club chiefs in the coming weeks.

"I feel uncomfortable working for a club that has two-thirds of its board controlled by shareholders and the AFL has made it clear they will not continue to support us under this structure beyond 2009. That is not being critical of the shareholders. In one sense they saved the club," Arocca said.

"But I think they have outlived their usefulness. I came in here as a cleanskin but what I did know was that the current structure was distracting and a destructive relationship between two parties. I don't believe our members or supporters have felt ownership of North Melbourne for the past five years."

Declaring the club had exhausted every available market outside Victoria, with Hawthorn capturing Tasmania, Arocca said North's journey back into the community would come via Arden Street but include forays into regions such as Dandenong, where Shinboner of the Century Glenn Archer had his roots.