Northern Blues vs Essendon

[Lods]

When all is said and done the Northern Blues is a sporting team and everyone plays sport to win, telling any young player that winning isn't important in the grand scheme is a bad message to send in my opinion.

Yep
The "Northern Blues" is a Sporting Team...
But the "Carlton Reserves" is (or would be) a development squad, where they're working on certain aspects of their game and game plans.
If the wins come that's good...but if they don't there is still a point and purpose that the players can concentrate on and gain satisfaction from.