Coach Alastair Clarkson - NMFC Senior Coach - Coaching & Football Discussion

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It's fascinating seeing Sheezel and Wardlaw come to our club in awe of the coach, as opposed to that brat last year who arrived with no respect for anyone on the coaching panel or within the football department.
Somehow I'm not seeing any of our first years refusing to take an ice bath if asked by Clarko or Viney
 
Ralphy gave a few of our players a bit of a write-up.

The 15 players under Victoria’s new AFL coaches with the most upside​

Brad Scott, Ross Lyon and Alastair Clarkson start afresh on Monday. These are the 15 players at Essendon, St Kilda and North Melbourne who could make their lives easier.

Jon Ralph

If Brad Scott could extract Peter Wright-style improvement from five of his Essendon teammates this year the Bombers would play finals.
If Alastair Clarkson could get Callum Coleman-Jones to realise his talent any concerns over handing over the rights to No.1 overall pick Aaron Cadman would quickly drift away.
On Monday morning the tenures of Brad Scott, Alastair Clarkson and Ross Lyon all begin at their respective football clubs.
The experienced trio have had their boots on the ground for a few weeks but this is go-time _ a four-week pre-Christmas sprint to upskill playing groups that everyone would concede have underperformed in recent years.
So who are the top 15 players across those three clubs with the most room for improvement?
Some haven’t reached their potential, some are just babies in football terms but have so much to give.
How do these three coaches crack the code with a list of players who vary from overall No.1 picks to summer rookies to the kind of taggers that Ross Lyon has always found room for in his side.
Who are the players who can make their new coaches' lives so much easier?

Who are the players who can make their new coaches' lives so much easier?

1. Tarryn Thomas (North Melbourne)
The beauty of Clarkson’s relationship with Thomas is that it is a perfectly clean slate.
He doesn’t have to relitigate what happened in 2022 and the reasons behind it.
He just has to find what motivates Thomas _ winning, stardom, team success, fame, fortune _ and tap into it to turn him back into the player he was at the end of 2021.
Last year was a disaster amid trade rumours as he suffered an early internal injury, starved of opportunity at half forward, looked disinterested in a game where it was later revealed he was mourning his grandmother’s death then played only one senior game after round 12.
Thomas has the perfect mid-forward blend _ hard as a cat’s head, silky, a strong overhead mark, a lovely kick for goal.
He caps off a Roos midfield that includes Ben Cunnington, Jy Simpkin and Luke Davies Uniacke but he needs to want it.
Is [PLAYERCARD]Tarryn Thomas[/PLAYERCARD] the missing link for Clarko and the Roos? Picture: AFL Photos/Getty Images


4. Jaidyn Stephenson (North Melbourne)

There is a train of thought that Stephenson just caught lightning in a bottle in that Rising Star year and has been on a steady irreversible slide since then.

Avoiding accidents fooling around doing tricks on a bike in his backyard this summer would be a good start under Clarkson’s new regime.

He will never be Glenn Archer as a physical shirk-no-issue beast.

He will never be Robert Harvey for sheer consistency.

But at his best he has significant endurance, the capacity to win the footy at will and the skills to hit teammates in stride.

Can Clarkson find the alchemy to find the exact position for him, to engender in him the belief to put his body on the line when required, to extract from him enough meaningful cameos each season to become a Roos fan favourite?

7. Hunter Clark (St Kilda)

Make no mistake, St Kilda weren’t keen to keep Hunter Clark at all costs.

They just didn’t get a good enough draft pick from the Roos to consider a deal at trade time.

How many times will Ross Lyon use that as fuel to needle or cajole him across the summer?

Did St Kilda not believe he worked hard enough at his craft? That he had maxed out his talent?

Because his best is exceptional as a ball-hunting mid capable of sidestepping out of traffic where few others can find space.

St Kilda was frank in the trade period about their reality _ they just don’t have enough good players to compete for a flag.

So Clark can be part of the solution by driving his new assistant coaches Robert Harvey and Lenny Hayes absolutely insane, demanding they help him become another in the long line of great St Kilda mids.

Or he can be at another club this time next year.

9. Callum Coleman-Jones (North Melbourne)

With any kind of delivery that resembles the competition average Nick Larkey will continue his emergence as an AFL star.

And Cam Zurhaar once more endured a miserable first month of the season then roared home with a 30-plus goal year.

So there is a chance for ex-Richmond tall Coleman-Jones to emerge as the third tall in Clarkson’s forward line as a David Hale-style ruck who kicks 15-plus goals a year.

We rarely saw it in his first year for the Roos _ he played 10 games for five goals and 101 hit-outs _ but at just 23 he has so much time as an AFL ruckman to realise his potential.

13. Tom Powell (North Melbourne)

North Melbourne will hasten slowly with No.3 overall draft pick Will Phillips to ensure he fully recovers from his case of glandular fever, so let’s cut him some slack.

In the meantime don’t sleep on No.14 Tom Powell to rediscover his place in those Emerging Star lists.

His best in his debut year was off the charts _ 23 touches against eventual premiers Melbourne, 25 against Fremantle _ as a well-rounded inside mid.

Last year as everyone at the Roos went backwards he still played 18 games but averaged only 14.6 touches and 56 ranking points.

There are many mouths to feed in the Roos midfield but look for Powell to thrive in Clarkson’s system after a confusing, calamitous year at Arden St in 2022.
 

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Ralphy gave a few of our players a bit of a write-up.

The 15 players under Victoria’s new AFL coaches with the most upside​

Brad Scott, Ross Lyon and Alastair Clarkson start afresh on Monday. These are the 15 players at Essendon, St Kilda and North Melbourne who could make their lives easier.

Jon Ralph

If Brad Scott could extract Peter Wright-style improvement from five of his Essendon teammates this year the Bombers would play finals.
If Alastair Clarkson could get Callum Coleman-Jones to realise his talent any concerns over handing over the rights to No.1 overall pick Aaron Cadman would quickly drift away.
On Monday morning the tenures of Brad Scott, Alastair Clarkson and Ross Lyon all begin at their respective football clubs.
The experienced trio have had their boots on the ground for a few weeks but this is go-time _ a four-week pre-Christmas sprint to upskill playing groups that everyone would concede have underperformed in recent years.
So who are the top 15 players across those three clubs with the most room for improvement?
Some haven’t reached their potential, some are just babies in football terms but have so much to give.
How do these three coaches crack the code with a list of players who vary from overall No.1 picks to summer rookies to the kind of taggers that Ross Lyon has always found room for in his side.
Who are the players who can make their new coaches' lives so much easier?' lives so much easier?

Who are the players who can make their new coaches' lives so much easier?

1. Tarryn Thomas (North Melbourne)
The beauty of Clarkson’s relationship with Thomas is that it is a perfectly clean slate.
He doesn’t have to relitigate what happened in 2022 and the reasons behind it.
He just has to find what motivates Thomas _ winning, stardom, team success, fame, fortune _ and tap into it to turn him back into the player he was at the end of 2021.
Last year was a disaster amid trade rumours as he suffered an early internal injury, starved of opportunity at half forward, looked disinterested in a game where it was later revealed he was mourning his grandmother’s death then played only one senior game after round 12.
Thomas has the perfect mid-forward blend _ hard as a cat’s head, silky, a strong overhead mark, a lovely kick for goal.
He caps off a Roos midfield that includes Ben Cunnington, Jy Simpkin and Luke Davies Uniacke but he needs to want it.
Is Tarryn Thomas the missing link for Clarko and the Roos? Picture: AFL Photos/Getty Images


4. Jaidyn Stephenson (North Melbourne)

There is a train of thought that Stephenson just caught lightning in a bottle in that Rising Star year and has been on a steady irreversible slide since then.

Avoiding accidents fooling around doing tricks on a bike in his backyard this summer would be a good start under Clarkson’s new regime.

He will never be Glenn Archer as a physical shirk-no-issue beast.

He will never be Robert Harvey for sheer consistency.

But at his best he has significant endurance, the capacity to win the footy at will and the skills to hit teammates in stride.

Can Clarkson find the alchemy to find the exact position for him, to engender in him the belief to put his body on the line when required, to extract from him enough meaningful cameos each season to become a Roos fan favourite?

7. Hunter Clark (St Kilda)

Make no mistake, St Kilda weren’t keen to keep Hunter Clark at all costs.

They just didn’t get a good enough draft pick from the Roos to consider a deal at trade time.

How many times will Ross Lyon use that as fuel to needle or cajole him across the summer?

Did St Kilda not believe he worked hard enough at his craft? That he had maxed out his talent?

Because his best is exceptional as a ball-hunting mid capable of sidestepping out of traffic where few others can find space.

St Kilda was frank in the trade period about their reality _ they just don’t have enough good players to compete for a flag.

So Clark can be part of the solution by driving his new assistant coaches Robert Harvey and Lenny Hayes absolutely insane, demanding they help him become another in the long line of great St Kilda mids.

Or he can be at another club this time next year.

9. Callum Coleman-Jones (North Melbourne)

With any kind of delivery that resembles the competition average Nick Larkey will continue his emergence as an AFL star.

And Cam Zurhaar once more endured a miserable first month of the season then roared home with a 30-plus goal year.

So there is a chance for ex-Richmond tall Coleman-Jones to emerge as the third tall in Clarkson’s forward line as a David Hale-style ruck who kicks 15-plus goals a year.

We rarely saw it in his first year for the Roos _ he played 10 games for five goals and 101 hit-outs _ but at just 23 he has so much time as an AFL ruckman to realise his potential.

13. Tom Powell (North Melbourne)

North Melbourne will hasten slowly with No.3 overall draft pick Will Phillips to ensure he fully recovers from his case of glandular fever, so let’s cut him some slack.

In the meantime don’t sleep on No.14 Tom Powell to rediscover his place in those Emerging Star lists.

His best in his debut year was off the charts _ 23 touches against eventual premiers Melbourne, 25 against Fremantle _ as a well-rounded inside mid.

Last year as everyone at the Roos went backwards he still played 18 games but averaged only 14.6 touches and 56 ranking points.

There are many mouths to feed in the Roos midfield but look for Powell to thrive in Clarkson’s system after a confusing, calamitous year at Arden St in 2022.
Decent write up from Ralphy.
 

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Coach Alastair Clarkson - NMFC Senior Coach - Coaching & Football Discussion

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