Coach Alastair Clarkson III - new NMFC senior coach until at least end 2027 - NMFC board approved AC to start 1/11 amid ongoing HFC racism investigation

[Bren]

Post whole thing pls I cbf registering for the age.

 

[Psicosis]

Post whole thing pls I cbf registering for the age.

Neither

 

[giantroo]

North Melbourne coach reveals how he reached decision to join club​

Alastair Clarkson has gone the full circle in his journey back to Arden Street, but the new Kangaroos coach has revealed his decision was never going to be just an emotional one.

Glenn McFarlane

12 min read
August 27, 2022 - 7:59PM
News Corp Australia Sports Newsroom


Alastair Clarkson wasn’t just screening calls from the media during the “circus” that unfolded around him in recent weeks as he wrestled with the coaching options on offer.

He even dodged calls from some former North Melbourne teammates eager to talk him into choosing the Kangaroos over Greater Western Sydney and Essendon.

As hard as it was to block the calls, he knew he had to resist the temptation to answer.

The four-time premiership coach wanted to ensure he had the clarity to make a rational decision on his future — without any of his old mates tugging at his heart strings.

“Strangely enough, that emotional attachment didn’t become a part of the decision making until we had made the decision,” Clarkson told the Herald Sun.

“When it came time to say, ‘OK, we have a decision to make’, it was purely on what we could do with this football club to return it to challenge for silverware again.

“I deliberately, to the point of almost rudeness, didn’t want to stay connected (during the decision-making process) when Arch (Glenn Archer) was ringing, when Mark Brayshaw was ringing … Anthony Stevens, Craig Sholl, Darren Crocker, Darren Steele and Peter German.

“All these great North Melbourne people, who I had spent an enormous amount of time with on the journey (were calling). I didn’t want them to sway me into making an emotional decision.

“I didn’t want this to be only an emotional link with North Melbourne and to make the wrong decision because of emotion.”

For a variety of reasons, Clarkson chose North Melbourne as his home for at least the next five seasons.

But while he is looking to the future expectantly, knowing he is ready to “roll the sleeves up” and get to work, he can’t help but think back to how the club shaped his life.

“After the decision was made, to actually link back with some of those guys, I was so pleased,” he said. “That’s why I became so emotional last Friday (at the press conference).”

YOUNG ROO

Clarkson was a talented young footballer from Kaniva, in western Victoria, before he joined North Melbourne in the mid-1980s.

He was, by his own admissions, “mischievous”, yet shaped by both his upbringing from his hardworking parents, and a family tragedy that forever changed their lives.

His brother, Andrew, was killed in a single-car accident in 1984.

As Clarkson told the Herald Sun this week: “My brother lost his life … alcohol was involved in his accident and fortunately no one else was with him when he crashed.

“Mum used to always say that as horrific as this was, she was so glad we were the only ones who were traumatised by this and that we hadn’t created trauma for another family.

“As tough as it was to deal with, his passing should have been a real lesson for many people, but especially for his younger brother.
“I was mischievous, not in terms of breaking the law, but about being a bit silly and doing what all young kids do.

“It is sometimes a treacherous path all kids need to navigate from the age of 16 to 18, or even from 18 to 21. You need really good people in your life to steer you in a good direction.”

Clarkson’s arrival at Arden Street coincided with meeting three people who would shape his direction in a personal and professional sense.

Almost 40 years on, he said: “I was at a point in my life where I was really fortunate that three people came into my life within 12 months.

“That was my future wife (Caryn), John Kennedy Sr and Denis Pagan. You cannot help but be significantly influenced by those people.”

Caryn has been his life partner ever since as well as the mother of their three children — daughters Steph and Georgia and son Matthew.

Kennedy, the Kangaroos’ senior coach at the time, and Pagan, the Kangaroos’ under-19s coach and future senior coach, helped provide Clarkson with the discipline that shaped his pathway.

He played 93 games with North Melbourne and 41 with Melbourne before embarking on a coaching career that took in 17 seasons and four premierships at Hawthorn.

Alastair Clarkson says Sonja Hood’s direction weighed heavily on his decision.

SENSE OF COMMUNITY
One of the things that attracted Clarkson to North Melbourne in discussions with president Sonja Hood was the club’s connection to the community at Arden St.

“They have made some really strong steps in the Arden St precinct, with the link to the community and multiculturalism,” Clarkson said.

“What I love about North Melbourne is the diversity and the inclusion, which excites me. Sonja has been the real driver of the whole program.

“It is simple to say that the North Melbourne Football Club needs to stay in North Melbourne because the roots of the club are in Arden St.

“But we’ve got a purpose that is not just football. A lot of us get caught up in the football side of things and we need to address that. It is a key part of my role at the club.

“But we’ve also got to understand that in this society nowadays where everything seems to be focusing on individuals, we are forgetting a little bit about family, a little bit about community and a little bit about team.

“I found the moons aligned really strongly with my values and with the club’s values. It had a lot to do with community and bringing together people from all walks of life, from all different cultures and countries and galvanising them.”

Clarkson’s father was “a 10 pound Pom” who searched for a better life in Australia in the early 1950s.

“His first decade was the Great Depression, his second decade was the Second World War,” he said. “So many people from England or Europe went to either America or Australia, those two promised lands … to start a life for themselves.”

Clarkson’s parents — his dad was a builder and his mother a primary and kindergarten teacher — taught him the importance of education, which led him on a coaching pathway.


WHY HE FEELS FOR RUTTEN
Clarkson stressed it is never one single person who spearheads any club’s fightback, and that’s why he was so uncomfortable with all the talk centred on his future.

He felt awkward, especially for then Essendon coach Ben Rutten, who was left in the dark when the Bombers made a late pitch to Clarkson.
“There is a real discomfort in our game when any one person becomes the central figure,” he said.

“All coaches preach roles, sacrifices, community and team, so I don’t think there would be one coach in the competition who wouldn’t feel comfortable having the sole focus on them.”

Clarkson had “no control” over what Essendon did, but it didn’t stop a sense of unease when Rutten’s tenure at Tullamarine came to an end.

“When there is conjecture and fallout for other people who are implicated in the whole process, like Truck, it is really unfortunate,” he said.

“There is all this ‘the (AFL) Coaches’ Association should have been better, the club should have been better, the industry should have been better or the AFL should have done something’. But what can you really do?

“It is an enormously difficult predicament. There are no easy solutions. We can jump up and down about it. But we have been jumping up and down and trying to avoid it for 20, 30 or 50 years, all the way back to North Smith (in 1965).

“By and large, despite the hardship and adversity, this industry does look after its people.”

Two days after Clarkson was publicly announced as North Melbourne’s new coach, Rutten was sacked as Essendon coach.

Clarkson urged Rutten to keep following his football dream, despite the heartache of losing his job at Essendon.

“I would hope that in overcoming this hiccup in ‘Truck’s’ journey, that he gets back on the bike and gets involved again,” he said.

“He is a good football person. He has got something to offer the game, as long as he looks at this as one small part of his football journey.

“He has had a great playing career and up until the last two weeks, he has had a really good time in coaching. Yes, he has hit a speed hump, but he has served the game well and the game has served him well.

“It’s the same as I experienced at Hawthorn last year. It (his departure) was unsavoury, but I hope I was able to give good service to the club, and I know the Hawthorn Football Club has been great in terms of the journey we’ve been able to have.”

DID HE STAY TOO LONG AT THE HAWKS?

Clarkson made way for new Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell at the end of last season after coming to the realisation the coaching handover devised by president Jeff Kennett wasn’t going to work.

Asked if he had stayed at the club too long after a remarkable 17 seasons, Clarkson said it was always hard to leave when selling a club’s vision.

“When you are selling a vision to people, whether they are draft kids or staff members, it is hard,” he said. “I did have in my mind, and shared it with others, that it was more likely than otherwise that the baton change was going to happen at the end of 2022.”

“When ‘Bucks’ (Nathan Buckley) lost his position at Collingwood, and that meant ‘Mitch’ was a candidate, the club needed to ask themselves, ‘Do we want Sam Mitchell to be in consideration for coaching Hawthorn?, because if you do, you need to address it now.

“I was the one who went to the board with that suggestion. Things got a bit messy from there in terms of where it went from there, whether I would finish up in ’21 or ’22.

“I had to ask what the next challenge was going to be, whether it was inside footy or outside footy, would it be inside coaching or outside coaching?

“I was ready for the next challenge, so was my family, and now we get this great opportunity.”

FIGHTBACK
Clarkson doesn’t officially start in the coaching role until November 1, but he has wasted no time in getting busy.

There have already been some departures from the football department and his long-time friend Todd Viney — who was also a premiership assistant coach at Hawthorn with him in 2008 — has been appointed general manager of football.

There will be more changes to come.

The club will go to the draft with the current No.1 pick on offer — the first time he has had access to that as a coach — as well as the potential for priority draft access.

The Kangaroos are looking to bring in some experienced players, with two of Clarkson’s former players, St Kilda’s Brad Hill, and Hawthorn’s Liam Shiels tipped as possible recruits.

He famously took Hawthorn to Kokoda just weeks into his first pre-season in late 2004 and would love to do something similar to unite the Kangaroos’ playing group.

But the AFL’s contentious soft cap financial squeeze has made that difficult.

“We could do some enormous things for the game in promoting it overseas or getting to various parts of this country,” he said. “But it is much more difficult now with the soft cap.”

“We would like to do something (special) with the club, but we will wait and see.”

Clarkson isn’t expecting a quick bounce, but he is excited by the blank canvas in front of him.

“Collingwood and Carlton have shown that in the space of 12 months clubs can go from turmoil to really strong seasons,” he said. “Now I am not expecting that we are going to be able to bounce as quickly as that because we are on the bottom of the ladder for a reason.

“We have underperformed in so many areas, so our path might be a little longer. But how exciting is it to journey right from the start.
“Our improvement and our growth as a footy club is going to come from the vast majority of the people who are there now.

“What those people need is some sort of clear vision so that they can see this is the purpose of why they come into the building every day to don the blue and white colours and to galvanise a much greater band of people who follow this club.

“We have the privilege to do it day by day on behalf of those 50,000 members we have got and the many more out there who are supporters of this footy club who want us to go back up the ladder.

“That’s a privilege that is not lost on anyone.”

 

[giantroo]

‘What’s required to actually win silverware’: The master and his plan for North Melbourne​

Peter Ryan


On Tuesday, Alastair Clarkson rocked into Arden Street to speak to the North Melbourne players as a group for the first time since being appointed coach.

He was roughly the same height but not as nervous as he had been when he arrived at the club 35 years earlier as a young lad from Kaniva with a healthy ego and plenty of sporting talent to begin what has become a remarkable football journey.

New North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson.Credit:Jason South

Appearing relaxed and healthy in his Golden State Warriors T-shirt after a year spent away from the AFL grindstone, some of it travelling to sporting organisations and events around the world, he relayed part of the message he had delivered. It was one that reminded everyone who was listening that Jason Horne-Francis and Will Phillips’ experiences to date were not unique in the brutal world he had lived within for most of the past 35 years.

“They were probably thinking we’ve been drafted because our last three, four, five years have been pretty good and they’ve been selected in the top three players in the country at our age. And then they get one year or two years into their careers [and think], ‘Geez, this hasn’t gone as smooth as what I thought was going to happen’,” Clarkson said.

“Guess what? Welcome to AFL footy boys.”

How to navigate this tough and complex game is what Clarkson can offer as he embarks on the next stage of his journey with the fire in his belly burning like an old wood heater as he returns to coaching.

No.1 draft pick Jason Horne-Francis was under the spotlight in his debut seasonCredit:Getty

By Wednesday, having only heard his new coach speak once, Horne-Francis revealed that Clarkson had his trust already.

That’s what four flags, 524 games as a player and a coach, a coaching apprenticeship at Central District and time as an assistant coach in the AFL can give the Kangaroos’ new coach.

But what it does not guarantee is that success will be repeated at the club he felt he owed for the way they supported him as a teenager when he was not an easy lad to handle, when he was still dealing with the tragic death of his brother Andrew in a car accident, when he was on the tear in the big smoke.

He met his wife Caryn soon after arriving at the Kangaroos and debuted with a lifelong friend Craig Sholl in 1987 as he matured from a vulnerable teenager into a man of character through the guidance of legendary coach John Kennedy and under-19s coach Denis Pagan.

Clarkson chats with Ben McKay and Callum Coleman-Jones on the day he was announced as North Melbourne’s new coachCredit:Jason South

“Those people, at a vulnerable time of life, actually steered me in the right direction. You just never forget those things. And yeah, you perhaps even feel like you’ve got a debt in essence that they helped you out in a really, really tough time,” Clarkson said.

Despite such emotion, he wanted to avoid letting it affect his decision on where he should return to coaching when the Kangaroos came knocking, the Giants’ circled and Essendon made a late attempt to spoil.

“I was really, really clinical around the decision-making process of just working out that the club was right for me and I was right for the club. I didn’t want emotion to be able to influence my decision-making,” Clarkson said.

The subsequent selection process was rigorous as he looked under the Kangaroos’ bonnet to ensure there was no issue that meant the engine could not be fixed.

It was only after he made his decision that Clarkson let the emotions surrounding his return flood back, giving him a feeling of returning to a place where he was welcome that even surprised him.

“To know how passionate people still are about the footy club and how pleased they are that someone that they know is going to help steer the club back on the right path is really touching,” Clarkson said.

Clarkson knows, however, that all that emotion counts for little if he can’t turn the bottom team into a winning team in his comeback to coaching.

That responsibility lies initially with him and his trusted lieutenant Todd Viney, who joined Clarkson in the coach’s box at Hawthorn when his journey began there in 2005, and was appointed North’s football manager on Thursday with Dan McPherson departing. Quickly, Clarkson hopes, that responsibility will be shared across the football department and the club.

“The real challenge is working out how can you motivate people to understand what their role is in the collective? There’s not going to be any one person that’s going to be the sole reason why that club is going to get their hands on that cup,” Clarkson said.

Once were warriors: Luke Hodge and Alastair Clarkson lift the 2014 premiership cup.Credit:Justin McManus

That’s why his first job is to build relationships to understand people’s roles at the club and their motivation and how he can galvanise them toward one goal: winning what he always calls silverware, but others know as the premiership.

At Hawthorn, he had to be autocratic in his first two years as he and conditioning coach Andrew Russell set and maintained the standards.

Clarkson knew such an approach was vital, but it also had a shelf life, so he hopes that sort of heavy lifting, where required, can be shared at the Kangaroos as it’s taxing on those driving the standards.

“It’s a pressure and a strain that is unsustainable for a long period of time, but we won’t shy away from what the standards are required,” Clarkson said.

“We’re on the bottom of the ladder for a reason and that’s because some of those standards either dropped away or they’ve been accepted far too easily.

“Then you get to a point where that mediocrity just can’t be excused anymore and so then change happens. Instability is created, uncertainty is created, everyone’s going in different ways … and that is the opposite to what’s required to actually win silverware.

“It’s got to become about your teammate, rather than yourself. It’s got to become about your club rather than yourself, and it’s got to become about the game more so than yourself.”

He has been pleasantly surprised at what he has discovered at the Kangaroos and says the 2022 season is not a true reflection of the quality of people at the club and the players. He is optimistic he can galvanise the people within to shoot for a common goal but knows doing that isn’t a simple process either.

‘It’s got to become about your teammate, rather than yourself. It’s got to become about your club rather than yourself, and it’s got to become about the game more so than yourself.’
Alastair Clarkson

“This is also a club, because of the uncertainty, that’s been smacked around the ears a little bit. They’re a little bit sheepish about putting their head up, just in case they get another belting,” Clarkson said.

“We’ve got to get people to take that step forward and be confident in what they’re doing.”

Players such as Horne-Francis, Phillips, Tarryn Thomas and Jaidyn Stephenson symbolise the uncertainty that pervaded North Melbourne’s performances in 2022.

In Clarkson, they will find an ally and teacher with experience in how to bring out their best as he tries to move the club into a space where people want to come to work, inspired by the challenge ahead of them.

North Melbourne players listen to new coach Alastair Clarkson at his first press conference at the club.Credit:Jason South

“It has to be fun to actually try to overcome the significant challenges and hurdles [to forge a career] and some of that is just coming up against a really good opposition every week throughout the footy season as you get on this journey together and overcome obstacles,” Clarkson said.

“And then the other obstacles that come are just the things that happen in your life.”

 

[3051]

I loved reading that article, thanks for sharing.

It's reminded me also that the next time North win a premiership, it would be the first time that I'd seen the complete cycle - from bottom to top. Even though I grew up watching the 90s North, I was too young to even remember 1993, let alone the late 80s/early 90s when that legendary core was in its formative stage.

Whilst the Scott era ended badly, I did enjoy the rebuild post-Laidley, watching young Cunners et al grow up. For that reason, the 2014 and 2015 seasons still glow brightly in my memory, particularly 2014, beating Essendon and then Geelong in nail-biters was just unbelievable. There was a lot of hope in the air.

It would be incredible if this is the start to the long climb to the top.

 

[Sillygit]

I f*cken love him so god damn much

 

[Hearts to hearts]

Glad it wasn’t my money paying for the ad asking him to make an emotional decision.

 

[CURVE]

Two great reads. Thanks GR.

 

[Bren]

I f*cken love him so god damn much

100%

His passion, the way he speaks... it's everything... it's hair on the back of your neck standing up... I wish we had a time machine that could propel us 2 years into the future to truly see and appreciate the Clarko Effect.

 

[the big lebowski]

Yeah but what does Caro have to say about all this?

 

[DarkPhoenix]

Another slap in the face of * to say that emotional ties never came into the decision.

 

[travelli]

I f*cken love him so god damn much

He seems to have mellowed a bit, but at the same time become more intense. He's going to be perfect for us.

 

[berniemccarthy]

He seems to have mellowed a bit, but at the same time become more intense. He's going to be perfect for us.

You would think that his enthusiasm will be infectious.

 

[3051]

You would think that his enthusiasm will be infectious.

His 'aura of authority' is through the roof. He talks, pretty much everyone in the AFL listens.

 

[Shinboner1]

Need him to have a fantastic trade period to really cement that he's here. The list decision's have already been made and now it's upto the club to make it happen.

 

[The Filth Wizard]

I f*cken love him so god damn much

Let's be honest we all hated him but it was pure jealousy.

 

[Sillygit]

Let's be honest we all hated him but it was pure jealousy.

oh i have purged all previous memories, easier that way

 

[Dan]

Let's be honest we all hated him but it was pure jealousy.

Envy from my end.

 

[giantroo]

 

[Frank Thring]

View attachment 1492826View attachment 1492827

Do you sleep mate?

 

[Shermanator]

Do you sleep mate?

Haha, I thought the exact same thing Frank.

Maybe GR is some sort of AI that Google invented and is being test run on our Forum to see if they can sell little GR’s to other Forums all over the world..

 

[Frank Thring]

Haha, I thought the exact same thing Frank.

Maybe GR is some sort of AI that Google invented and is being test run on our Forum to see if they can sell little GR’s to other Forums all over the world..

I'd be buying if that's the case. The guy is a legend.

 

[rickety]

Haha, I thought the exact same thing Frank.

Maybe GR is some sort of AI that Google invented and is being test run on our Forum to see if they can sell little GR’s to other Forums all over the world..

Reckon you're quite close to the pin, GR is AI for Gone Rogue and he's left the Google network to start his own Global Reporting

 

[Prancer]

Sent from my SM-A908B using Tapatalk

Is this cartoon in today’s Herald Sun? My daughter wants to put it up on her wall with her million other North Melbourne posters

 

[kool kangas]

‘What’s required to actually win silverware’: The master and his plan for North Melbourne​

Peter Ryan


On Tuesday, Alastair Clarkson rocked into Arden Street to speak to the North Melbourne players as a group for the first time since being appointed coach.

He was roughly the same height but not as nervous as he had been when he arrived at the club 35 years earlier as a young lad from Kaniva with a healthy ego and plenty of sporting talent to begin what has become a remarkable football journey.

New North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson.Credit:Jason South

Appearing relaxed and healthy in his Golden State Warriors T-shirt after a year spent away from the AFL grindstone, some of it travelling to sporting organisations and events around the world, he relayed part of the message he had delivered. It was one that reminded everyone who was listening that Jason Horne-Francis and Will Phillips’ experiences to date were not unique in the brutal world he had lived within for most of the past 35 years.

“They were probably thinking we’ve been drafted because our last three, four, five years have been pretty good and they’ve been selected in the top three players in the country at our age. And then they get one year or two years into their careers [and think], ‘Geez, this hasn’t gone as smooth as what I thought was going to happen’,” Clarkson said.

“Guess what? Welcome to AFL footy boys.”

How to navigate this tough and complex game is what Clarkson can offer as he embarks on the next stage of his journey with the fire in his belly burning like an old wood heater as he returns to coaching.

No.1 draft pick Jason Horne-Francis was under the spotlight in his debut seasonCredit:Getty

By Wednesday, having only heard his new coach speak once, Horne-Francis revealed that Clarkson had his trust already.

That’s what four flags, 524 games as a player and a coach, a coaching apprenticeship at Central District and time as an assistant coach in the AFL can give the Kangaroos’ new coach.

But what it does not guarantee is that success will be repeated at the club he felt he owed for the way they supported him as a teenager when he was not an easy lad to handle, when he was still dealing with the tragic death of his brother Andrew in a car accident, when he was on the tear in the big smoke.

He met his wife Caryn soon after arriving at the Kangaroos and debuted with a lifelong friend Craig Sholl in 1987 as he matured from a vulnerable teenager into a man of character through the guidance of legendary coach John Kennedy and under-19s coach Denis Pagan.

Clarkson chats with Ben McKay and Callum Coleman-Jones on the day he was announced as North Melbourne’s new coachCredit:Jason South

“Those people, at a vulnerable time of life, actually steered me in the right direction. You just never forget those things. And yeah, you perhaps even feel like you’ve got a debt in essence that they helped you out in a really, really tough time,” Clarkson said.

Despite such emotion, he wanted to avoid letting it affect his decision on where he should return to coaching when the Kangaroos came knocking, the Giants’ circled and Essendon made a late attempt to spoil.

“I was really, really clinical around the decision-making process of just working out that the club was right for me and I was right for the club. I didn’t want emotion to be able to influence my decision-making,” Clarkson said.

The subsequent selection process was rigorous as he looked under the Kangaroos’ bonnet to ensure there was no issue that meant the engine could not be fixed.

It was only after he made his decision that Clarkson let the emotions surrounding his return flood back, giving him a feeling of returning to a place where he was welcome that even surprised him.

“To know how passionate people still are about the footy club and how pleased they are that someone that they know is going to help steer the club back on the right path is really touching,” Clarkson said.

Clarkson knows, however, that all that emotion counts for little if he can’t turn the bottom team into a winning team in his comeback to coaching.

That responsibility lies initially with him and his trusted lieutenant Todd Viney, who joined Clarkson in the coach’s box at Hawthorn when his journey began there in 2005, and was appointed North’s football manager on Thursday with Dan McPherson departing. Quickly, Clarkson hopes, that responsibility will be shared across the football department and the club.

“The real challenge is working out how can you motivate people to understand what their role is in the collective? There’s not going to be any one person that’s going to be the sole reason why that club is going to get their hands on that cup,” Clarkson said.

Once were warriors: Luke Hodge and Alastair Clarkson lift the 2014 premiership cup.Credit:Justin McManus

That’s why his first job is to build relationships to understand people’s roles at the club and their motivation and how he can galvanise them toward one goal: winning what he always calls silverware, but others know as the premiership.

At Hawthorn, he had to be autocratic in his first two years as he and conditioning coach Andrew Russell set and maintained the standards.

Clarkson knew such an approach was vital, but it also had a shelf life, so he hopes that sort of heavy lifting, where required, can be shared at the Kangaroos as it’s taxing on those driving the standards.

“It’s a pressure and a strain that is unsustainable for a long period of time, but we won’t shy away from what the standards are required,” Clarkson said.

“We’re on the bottom of the ladder for a reason and that’s because some of those standards either dropped away or they’ve been accepted far too easily.

“Then you get to a point where that mediocrity just can’t be excused anymore and so then change happens. Instability is created, uncertainty is created, everyone’s going in different ways … and that is the opposite to what’s required to actually win silverware.

“It’s got to become about your teammate, rather than yourself. It’s got to become about your club rather than yourself, and it’s got to become about the game more so than yourself.”

He has been pleasantly surprised at what he has discovered at the Kangaroos and says the 2022 season is not a true reflection of the quality of people at the club and the players. He is optimistic he can galvanise the people within to shoot for a common goal but knows doing that isn’t a simple process either.



“This is also a club, because of the uncertainty, that’s been smacked around the ears a little bit. They’re a little bit sheepish about putting their head up, just in case they get another belting,” Clarkson said.

“We’ve got to get people to take that step forward and be confident in what they’re doing.”

Players such as Horne-Francis, Phillips, Tarryn Thomas and Jaidyn Stephenson symbolise the uncertainty that pervaded North Melbourne’s performances in 2022.

In Clarkson, they will find an ally and teacher with experience in how to bring out their best as he tries to move the club into a space where people want to come to work, inspired by the challenge ahead of them.

North Melbourne players listen to new coach Alastair Clarkson at his first press conference at the club.Credit:Jason South

“It has to be fun to actually try to overcome the significant challenges and hurdles [to forge a career] and some of that is just coming up against a really good opposition every week throughout the footy season as you get on this journey together and overcome obstacles,” Clarkson said.

“And then the other obstacles that come are just the things that happen in your life.”

Looks like apart from JHF and Ford and maybe McKay the rest dont seem that interested...