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

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most of the team can't execute basic skills under little pressure?
I don't get this.

Every single player on our list, as well as all of the players on every other AFL team's list have to have been playing footy for several years and they got to the draft because they had more talent, better skills, better fitness, speed and/or stamina, greater ability to make quick decisions and probably a whole lot of other traits that stood them out from their junior peers. Most would have been in elite programs, many attended private schools with professional coaches and a fair whack of the others would have been in academies or been part of some other sports program. Not all, but most, surely?

So what happened? How can blokes who are professional sportsmen, being trained and coached in a professional AFL environment making fundamental skill errors and appearing to be below the level of fitness of their opponents?

How can a 19 year old first year player win the club's best and fairest, and he did so in a canter with nobody who follows North in any doubt? And as embarrassing as that ought to have been for every other player on the list, hardly any of them (apart from Xerri) have shown any amount of improvement this year over last. The older blokes especially.
 

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I don't get this.

Every single player on our list, as well as all of the players on every other AFL team's list have to have been playing footy for several years and they got to the draft because they had more talent, better skills, better fitness, speed and/or stamina, greater ability to make quick decisions and probably a whole lot of other traits that stood them out from their junior peers. Most would have been in elite programs, many attended private schools with professional coaches and a fair whack of the others would have been in academies or been part of some other sports program. Not all, but most, surely?

So what happened? How can blokes who are professional sportsmen, being trained and coached in a professional AFL environment making fundamental skill errors and appearing to be below the level of fitness of their opponents?

How can a 19 year old first year player win the club's best and fairest, and he did so in a canter with nobody who follows North in any doubt? And as embarrassing as that ought to have been for every other player on the list, hardly any of them (apart from Xerri) have shown any amount of improvement this year over last. The older blokes especially.

Our lack of fitness gets overlooked bigtime.

There are just no or poor standards all round ,lead by our 2 captains.

The fact the playing group rate them as great examples of leadership,just shows why the joint is so crook currently.

We have just created this loser “rebuilding” excuse rhetoric and I’m sorry, Clarko has been the main spruiker.
 
Last year was obviously a write off because of the whole Hawthorn scandal, but I was expecting far more this year.

The biggest expectation I had wasn’t about wins and losses it was that Clarko would be able to extract a bit more out of our senior players and maybe turn a few of our fringe types into reliable role players. I think the whole coaching crew has failed on both fronts.

Outside of Xerri (massive win) and maybe LDU, none of our mature players have taken their game to another level, they are all still the same B-C-D graders making the same mistakes week in week out. There has been no notable improvement from Corr, Mcdonald, Simpkin, Tucker, Stephenson, Taylor and Zurhaar.

While fringe types like Ford, Phillips, Lazzaro, Stephens, Bergman, Nyuon, are all still fringe players who wouldn’t get a game at other clubs.

Still so much deadwood on the list and no obvious place from where significant improvement is going to come from.

I think unless something drastically changes I can’t foresee us getting out of the bottom 4 next year.
 
I have no doubt that he is the bloke who is going to take us to the promise land, but surely there has to be some questions asked. Our leaders have been underperforming, yet they are untouched sitting in the seniors.

Our mids are generally not good enough to go head to head against the best mids in the game. I don’t understand how the coaching team doesn’t see this, why aren’t we playing a defensive mid? So frustrating
 
While fringe types like Ford, Phillips, Lazzaro, Stephens, Bergman, Nyuon, are all still fringe players who wouldn’t get a game at other clubs.
Mate I don’t think our two captains would get a game at other clubs at the moment. Clarko needs to stop trying to be Mr Nice Guy and drop both of them to the reserves and play the kids for the last game of the year. Set a precedent
 
I have no doubt that he is the bloke who is going to take us to the promise land, but surely there has to be some questions asked. Our leaders have been underperforming, yet they are untouched sitting in the seniors.

Our mids are generally not good enough to go head to head against the best mids in the game. I don’t understand how the coaching team doesn’t see this, why aren’t we playing a defensive mid? So frustrating
I hope u are right mate …
From what I’ve heard this Hawthorn racism saga has really taken a toll with him … stay tuned for a big time announcement this preseason…. He’s done
 
I hope u are right mate …
From what I’ve heard this Hawthorn racism saga has really taken a toll with him … stay tuned for a big time announcement this preseason…. He’s done

From what you’ve heard with your own voice or from the thoughts in your own head?
 

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Clarko has been totally underwhelming. Particularly with his gameday coaching, and bizarre selections week to week. His pressers give me no confidence he is totally invested, and now 2 years into his contract, I’m yet to see any marked improvement.
Not having a crack at the club on this one. He was the ideal man for the job, but he has delivered so much less than I expected. Unfortunately.
But hopefully he is playing the long game and we see significant improvement in 2025. Hopefully. But I wouldn’t be betting on it, that’s for sure.
 
There were strong rumours that Clarko gave the players his most serious bake after last weeks amateur hour ending.

IF that is the case and the players served up that tripe today then Clarko's voice is not resonating with this playing group as he would have expected or was used to at Hawthorn.

The next option for Clarko is to make statements at the selection table - he has one round left so let's see it.
Obviously I’ve got no idea what goes on behind closed doors, but there’s at least the possibility that it resonated too much. There’s a few who look broken.
 
At this stage, I have question marks over Clarko but I’d see 20 players on this list leave before getting rid of him.

He might not get the best out of them. But they’re choosing not to get the best out of themselves. And I think that’s worse. We have a list of pea-hearted flogs.
 
My only gripe with Clarko is he should have, first day in the door, attempt to sort out the team defense as a priority. Maybe he did, but then was out the door and back again and then it’s just been a bit of a scramble to what this shit is.
 
There were strong rumours that Clarko gave the players his most serious bake after last weeks amateur hour ending.

IF that is the case and the players served up that tripe today then Clarko's voice is not resonating with this playing group as he would have expected or was used to at Hawthorn.

The next option for Clarko is to make statements at the selection table - he has one round left so let's see it.

This was my most worrying thing about the loss imo. Clarko and his messaging couldn’t even get a response from the boys. It’s falling on deaf ears. Checked out.

We had to kick down the line, to a contest every time, because no players could be bothered to run off their man or create space. As soon as you look up everyone is just standing around. That would just deflate everyone.

You know that isn’t going to happen.
 
I'm still more let him see out the contract given he's got the youngest and least experienced list in the comp.
But we'd want to see some more wins over the next two years and hopefully some top 6 scalps.
We're still likely to be bottom six the next two years even with 4-10 wins based on current ladder.
I think we're light on for elite talent across the field and that the list is not quite there but maybe it's just too young.

I don't think he's got anywhere near the good ball users he had at the Hawks in their premiership era.
Off the top of the head there's Hodge, Lewis, Roughy, Cyril, Buddy, Duryea, Birchall, Breust, Gibson and Mitchell.
Then looking at our list there's basically only Sheezel, Powell and McKercher. Any others? Hardemann?
And that's before we even get to the athletic profiles of the player's we've drafted the last 10 years.
It's going to take a few years to correct. Even just improving the bottom six of our best 22 would be a good start.
 
Look how much better the polo top that is actually our team colour looked.


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Digressing from the topic at hand, suburbs, the gear Cotton On puts out for the W team looks far better than anything Puma has done.

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Viney was supposed to be brought in to hold his leash. What I'm hearing is it's not working.

When Watt was hired, I thought it was a good hire but my concern was that the responsibility of holding Clarkson accountable from a football perspective lay just on Viney. Watt has a great resume, but if anyone thinks that she is going to be able to control Clarkson, they're being very hopeful.

Hood & Watt have a big offseason. Without the effective guardrails around Clarkson, things are not improving.
 
Viney was supposed to be brought in to hold his leash. What I'm hearing is it's not working.

When Watt was hired, I thought it was a good hire but my concern was that the responsibility of holding Clarkson accountable from a football perspective lay just on Viney. Watt has a great resume, but if anyone thinks that she is going to be able to control Clarkson, they're being very hopeful.

Hood & Watt have a big offseason. Without the effective guardrails around Clarkson, things are not improving.
Can you elaborate on any of that mate?

Hear mixed reports on Watt.
 

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

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