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

[Passmore]

Wasn't there some sort of petition at the Hawthorn game to have Clarkson sacked?

Maybe like minded folk need to take this with it's thousands of signatures to the media to get the ball rolling. Probably best to have a well thought out alternative plan to go with it.

Ranting on an online forum is probably not going to get the results some desire.

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[amaz199]

And now some supporters accept it. Cool.

no one is accepting anything. Knowing the issues however it's understandable why things are the way they are.

It's unacceptable for the coaches, club and supporters but this is a long term process we have to take. Sugar hits aren't going to get us out of the wilderness into premiership contention. It will just lead us to a dead end like all those mid table finishes.

I don't want us to make up the numbers and certainly don't want us to change things drastically to the point it impacts what we want to achieve after going through all the heartache. No way.

Go through this pain now and be ready for Tassie coming in. Grab the opportunity and run with it whilst we can.

 

[Passmore]

I highly doubt anyone on here actually thinks that anything posted here will make a meaningful difference to club decision making. It’s an online community so we can be as negative or positive as we like as long as we don’t cross the line. Right now, negativity is pretty reasonable given where we are at, and that’s perfectly fine to me.

There's different opinions and that's great.

But the idea that railing against what we're doing or rolling with it on an online forum has some impact on club operations is slightly unhinged.

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[amaz199]

Again, if our senior players were stepping up our losses would be more competitive and less painful.

The fact they are not is what is making this period unbearable. If we topped up on fringe types and gave up on the draft for a scrappy 8th finish, what's stopping the same lackluster senior types costing us in an elimination final getting belted? We'd be furious just as we are right now.

This is about comfortably being in top 4 contention for prolonged periods not just one or two top 8 scraps and we're done. **** that.

 

[Spud11]

no one is accepting anything. Knowing the issues however it's understandable why things are the way they are.

It's unacceptable for the coaches, club and supporters but this is a long term process we have to take. Sugar hits aren't going to get us out of the wilderness into premiership contention. It will just lead us to a dead end like all those mid table finishes.

I don't want us to make up the numbers and certainly don't want us to change things drastically to the point it impacts what we want to achieve after going through all the heartache. No way.

Go through this pain now and be ready for Tassie coming in. Grab the opportunity and run with it whilst we can.

All of the experts and ex players are saying we should be seeing more. At a bare minimum we should be seeing a semblance of a plan, players with some idea, selection and recruitment standards & accountability.. We nearly won a few last year. We should be building on that.

This north team is disgraceful. Wanting to see something above ‘complete disgrace’ and ‘going backwards’ is not a “sugar hit” - it’s a reasonable expectation for a fan of an AFL club to have.

 

[Black Diamond]

If you want to feel good about how great a bunch of kids might be one day, go watch the local U17s.

We are supporting a substandard AFL team. One that could be the worst of all time and cease to exist at this rate.

Excuse anyone for calling this team what it is and suggesting improvements. You don’t recall this club almost ceasing to exist?

Please share what you would do then? We are not turning over the list in an instant. We are not ridding ourselves of the poor players overnight, the age profile is not suddenly going to change, and we are certainly not recruiting quality FAs.

 

[Spud11]

There's different opinions and that's great.

But the idea that railing against what we're doing or rolling with it on an online forum has some impact on club operations is slightly unhinged.

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“Unhinged” is, in itself, a way over the top description of footy fans talking on an online forum and people from NMFC possibly (not definitely) reading it.

What about “changes vs (insert club)” when everyone goes to exceptional lengths to pick their best ins and outs? They’re all unhinged?

Why are they bothering?
Don’t they know it makes no difference at all?

 

[amaz199]

All of the experts and ex players are saying we should be seeing more. At a bare minimum we should be seeing a semblance of a plan, players with some idea, selection and recruitment standards & accountability.. We nearly won a few last year. We should be building on that.

This north team is disgraceful. Wanting to see something above ‘complete disgrace’ and ‘going backwards’ is not a “sugar hit” - it’s a reasonable expectation for a fan of an AFL club to have.

Again, if it were easy to make the performances improve they would've been instantly obvious from the get go. But they are not because the most experienced players on our list bar a couple aren't carrying their weight. Quite the opposite is happening.

It is unacceptable and disgraceful how we are right now but I tell you what our young players should tell you what it's going to be like when it's 50-100 games in. Those patches will be come quarters then complete performances.

Long term success requires short term sacrifices. You're hurting just as much as I am and the rest of us. We hear you.

 

[justroyal]

I think where a lot of us are getting the assumption that it’s ’acceptable’ (and I could be wrong here, perhaps it’s just me) is because we have seen so many of the under 22’s get dropped, brought back in, dropped, back in again while the repeat offender older guys who haven’t strung one good game are given the luxury of being guaranteed games under the proviso of ‘much needed experience’.

But when we keep hearing Clarko saying we want to back the youth. Well ok, we’re hearing and seeing two different things then. Perhaps keep Will in and let Jy work on his game. Maybe play both Pink and Biggie instead of allowing Lmac a guaranteed lockdown spot.

 

[amaz199]

On the accountability part, we don't have that luxury either because we don't have much else. Gotta stick with what we have unfortunately.

Again, it comes back to the downfalls we are dealing with. It's a tough gig and Clarkson can't work his magic with the crop he has right now. Not possible.

 

[Passmore]

“Unhinged” is, in itself, a way over the top description of footy fans talking on an online forum and people from NMFC possibly (not definitely) reading it.

What about “changes vs (insert club)” when everyone goes to exceptional lengths to pick their best ins and outs? They’re all unhinged?

Why are they bothering?
Don’t they know it makes no difference at all?

It's unhinged to believe it's going to have any impact. It's just not reality.

No one's paying any attention to an anonymous online persona.

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[Spud11]

Again, if it were easy to make the performances improve they would've been instantly obvious from the get go. But they are not because the most experienced players on our list bar a couple aren't carrying their weight. Quite the opposite is happening.

It is unacceptable and disgraceful how we are right now but I tell you what our young players should tell you what it's going to be like when it's 50-100 games in. Those patches will be come quarters then complete performances.

Long term success requires short term sacrifices. You're hurting just as much as I am and the rest of us. We hear you.

We need to be asking why the opposite is happening. If there was a plan that they believed in, we would be seeing more.

So far, the plan is “go into the season with no backline, deliberately implement a plan (Northball) that specifically exposes that deficiency, abandon it all by round 3, trot out the same lines after loss after loss like it’s magically going to get better”.

Club didn’t fork out millions of dollars for that. It’s sub-par. Why do we talk about it? Because fans of the club deserve to see better than this.

 

[Spud11]

I think where a lot of us are getting the assumption that it’s ’acceptable’ (and I could be wrong here, perhaps it’s just me) is because we have seen so many of the under 22’s get dropped, brought back in, dropped, back in again while the repeat offender older guys who haven’t strung one good game are given the luxury of being guaranteed games under the proviso of ‘much needed experience’.

But when we keep hearing Clarko saying we want to back the youth. Well ok, we’re hearing and seeing two different things then. Perhaps keep Will in and let Jy work on his game. Maybe play both Pink and Biggie instead of allowing Lmac a guaranteed lockdown spot.

Absolutely.

 

[Spud11]

Please share what you would do then? We are not turning over the list in an instant. We are not ridding ourselves of the poor players overnight, the age profile is not suddenly going to change, and we are certainly not recruiting quality FAs.

You would want to see something more than what we’re seeing now. The players look clueless, the plan doesn’t seem to even be a thing anymore which sucks because under a new coach (apparently tactical mastermind), you would hope things would be different to that.

What would I do? You have to send a statement at selection for a start. Our subpar captains are immune from being dropped, players like Hugh Greenwood never get a look-in. We went into this season knowing that a backline of Nyuoun and Pink playing tag-team in and out of the senior side was not going to cut it.

Blind Fred couldve seen that
Our club forked our millions for well-paid people to still let it happen.

There’s plenty to do besides sitting at the press conference looking clueless and saying “we know where we’re at” and blaming youth. The Hawks side that destroyed us had just as many under 100 game players as us.

 

[Spud11]

It's unhinged to believe it's going to have any impact. It's just not reality.

No one's paying any attention to an anonymous online persona.

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That’s assuming people are posting specifically so the club might read it! Why would you think that’s even the motive?

 

[Danni_Benson]

Wasn't there some sort of petition at the Hawthorn game to have Clarkson sacked?

Maybe like minded folk need to take this with it's thousands of signatures to the media to get the ball rolling. Probably best to have a well thought out alternative plan to go with it.

Ranting on an online forum is probably not going to get the results some desire.

Sent from my SM-A908B using Tapatalk

Looking forward to seeing the alternative. Best in class no doubt. Maybe Clarko? Oh hang on…..

 

[Passmore]

That’s assuming people are posting specifically so the club might read it! Why would you think that’s even the motive?

Opinions are great. Have them, share them, fantastic.

You mentioned earlier "oh, so you're just accepting it.." well yeah of course I am. I'm not going to do anything about in the real world.

I assume not accepting something means you're going to do someyhing about it.

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[Passmore]

Looking forward to seeing the alternative. Best in class no doubt. Maybe Clarko? Oh hang on…..

And you can't just throw up a random name. Are they agreeable to it? Not sure there'd be many. Particularly if we sack another coach.

And then there's the soft cap implications...

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[ferball]

We are supporting a substandard AFL team. One that could be the worst of all time and cease to exist at this rate.

Are we?? Really????



**** I didn't know.

 

[DesertRoo]

Are we?? Really????



* I didn't know.

 

[amaz199]

Spud11, for the record, no one is accepting or believes these performances aren't embarrassing.

Just reiterating that this is not what we want to see and we want to see more competitiveness. However, when we get the opportunity to shake up the leadership culture, that will have a positive impact on the team. It's not where it should be and our footy department know that.

Reminder, all of these deficiencies are not going unnoticed or without attention and are definitely not being accepted. Viney and Clarko are too elite to allow that.

 

[Spud11]

Spud11, for the record, no one is accepting or believes these performances aren't embarrassing.

Just reiterating that this is not what we want to see and we want to see more competitiveness. However, when we get the opportunity to shake up the leadership culture, that will have a positive impact on the team. It's not where it should be and our footy department know that.

Reminder, all of these deficiencies are not going unnoticed or without attention and are definitely not being accepted. Viney and Clarko are too elite to allow that.

I hope they’re still elite, because they were. Malthouse and Pagan were also elite in their day too, couldn’t get with it. Just sayin

I know Alastair Clarkson and Todd Viney will read this, that’s precisely why I’m saying it.

 

[toepoker]

Need to draw a distinction between "acceptable" and "understandable"
I would hazard a guess and say no one here or at the club accepts where we are atm. It royally sucks and, were it not for my middle aged years passing with increasing rapidity, I would gladly jump in a time machine and progress to a point where my footy team isn't an embarrassment. BUT, given our current list profile and quality of senior leaders, I have no trouble understanding where we are at.
Won't stop me behaving like an unhinged lunatic on a weekly basis from now til the end of August though...

 

[Orange Peanut]

I think some people see "poor training standards" and think it means "not enough hard work and intensity" while others think it means "shithouse skills on display".
FWIW I thought McGuane meant the former, and Clarko has answered as though he meant the latter.

 

[DrZaius]

no one is accepting anything. Knowing the issues however it's understandable why things are the way they are.

It's unacceptable for the coaches, club and supporters but this is a long term process we have to take. Sugar hits aren't going to get us out of the wilderness into premiership contention. It will just lead us to a dead end like all those mid table finishes.

I don't want us to make up the numbers and certainly don't want us to change things drastically to the point it impacts what we want to achieve after going through all the heartache. No way.

Go through this pain now and be ready for Tassie coming in. Grab the opportunity and run with it whilst we can.

Once again, competitive performances and the possibility of a few potential wins on the board are in no way 'sugar hits' and have no bearing at all on the long term prospects of our team. You are just repeating thought terminating phrases.

An actual 'sugar hit' would be trading out someone coming in their prime like LDU for those sweet sweet magic beans that may eventually match or exceed his output in 5 years time, and based on the way things are going that seems to be our strategy so prepare for some sugar hits over the next few years.

Those mid table finishes had us a game away from the grand final on two occasions just FYI and we had a coach with a fraction of the ability Clarko has. Or were we simply making up the numbers because we had a shit list? I get confused because people can't seem to make up their minds whether or not we had a shit list or a shit coach.