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

[DuckYeah]

Playing a zone is what ever other team in the comp does. Which is why we find it so difficult to score.

We can't keep playing a more 1v1 structure. It's an outdated way of playing footy.

Cohesion. They need cohesion

 

[Event Horizon]

The fact that we now have half decent assistant coaches, solid director of football, good player retention (McKay aside, who we were happy to let go), and have been able to recruit at least some players from other clubs (albeit with very limited success) we can thank Clarko for. Like everyone here I don't know if he still has it, in terms of getting to finals and having a shot at silverware. But that's irrelevant given where we are right now. We have no choice but to stick with him for the duration of his contract (unless he himself pulls the pin).

 

[The acurate one]

I'll still backing him in, see no reason not to do so.
He was never making a silk purse with the below lot who got thumped by the Hawfs. 8/9 of the below don't have bright futures on any AFL list I'd suggest.

 

[Black Diamond]

His premiership record and some of the takes here are interesting.

Should we disregard a coaching record entirely? What if we poached Hinkley? Would that be better? Never won a premiership but has his players putting in. That is the main criticism of Clarkson after all.

Adam Simpson won a premiership, then steered his team into the doldrums. Would he get any grace? Fewer flags and worse recent record.

The record isn’t everything, but Clarkson did win multiple flags with distinct game styles and significant list turnover after 2008. Counts for a bit to me.

And as mentioned earlier, look at West Coast’s hunt for a new coach. Good ****** luck to us if we move Clarkson on shortly.

 

[amaz199]

His premiership record and some of the takes here are interesting.

Should we disregard a coaching record entirely? What if we poached Hinkley? Would that be better? Never won a premiership but has his players putting in. That is the main criticism of Clarkson after all.

Adam Simpson won a premiership, then steered his team into the doldrums. Would he get any grace? Fewer flags and worse recent record.

The record isn’t everything, but Clarkson did win multiple flags with distinct game styles and significant list turnover after 2008. Counts for a bit to me.

And as mentioned earlier, look at West Coast’s hunt for a new coach. Good ****** luck to us if we move Clarkson on shortly.

As said previously, if the players cannot do it with Clarko, then no one else can.

 

[DrZaius]

As said previously, if the players cannot do it with Clarko, then no one else can.

Agreed. It’s pretty nuts that we have barely made any appreciable improvement whatsoever, even taking into account the mitigating factors. Even if Clarko is just here to put the foundation in place people have a right to be slightly worried that one of the greatest coaches of all time can’t seem to be able to crack into the psyche of this group. There are footballers in there somewhere. Even the less talented ones.

 

[amaz199]

Agreed. It’s pretty nuts that we have barely made any appreciable improvement whatsoever, even taking into account the mitigating factors. Even if Clarko is just here to put the foundation in place people have a right to be slightly worried that one of the greatest coaches of all time can’t seem to be able to crack into the psyche of this group. There are footballers in there somewhere. Even the less talented ones.

100%.

I believe the players are capable of so much more but the coaches have already put the foundations in place for them to find it. Can they? We will see.

 

[Marksup]

Our list is dogs***. It has nothing to do with Clarko. I’ve said time and time again you can’t polish a turd and it will take time to weed out the crap.

The players with the most potential on our list are barely able to drink legally.

Not to mention glaring positional needs that requires addressing.

I’ll reserve judgement until at least mid-2026. Yes, that’s a long time we’ve had to put up with crap, but previous administrations built a f****** disaster that Clarkson has to rectify. That goes from replacing personnel right down to drilling in better habits and weeding out the horrible ones that are ingrained in those that have been here for a while.

The biggest blessing we have in all of this is Sheezel. There is enough evidence from how our players talk that his standards are of a different breed. I imagine he will be linked up with every single player that walks through the doors from here on out to pass on some of that.

It will turn.

 

[kool kangas]

I'll still backing him in, see no reason not to do so.
He was never making a silk purse with the below lot who got thumped by the Hawfs. 8/9 of the below don't have bright futures on any AFL list I'd suggest.

View attachment 2099015

Next season is time for the old Clarko to return and if the players get upset and dont like it then its time for Clarko to kick them off his bus....

 

[zoomba23]

Our list is dogs***. It has nothing to do with Clarko. I’ve said time and time again you can’t polish a turd and it will take time to weed out the crap.

The players with the most potential on our list are barely able to drink legally.

Not to mention glaring positional needs that requires addressing.

I’ll reserve judgement until at least mid-2026. Yes, that’s a long time we’ve had to put up with crap, but previous administrations built a f****** disaster that Clarkson has to rectify. That goes from replacing personnel right down to drilling in better habits and weeding out the horrible ones that are ingrained in those that have been here for a while.

The biggest blessing we have in all of this is Sheezel. There is enough evidence from how our players talk that his standards are of a different breed. I imagine he will be linked up with every single player that walks through the doors from here on out to pass on some of that.

It will turn.

Yeah nah, don't buy this absolutist stuff.

The only established turds on our list are CCJ, Pink, Free and Drury (no fault of theirs that we went after them. Not slighting their endeavour, or in Pink's case his footy smarts, but they're just not very good at the level).

Other limited footballers are Lazzaro, Phillips, Taylor, LMac, Teakle, Tucker. And one of those played basically every game, and deservedly so. (Not the captain btw)

That's ten in a list of what, 44?

Everyone else has something (or multiple things) very very obvious to offer, but most of them, for various reasons (mental scarring seemingly being a big one) haven't been able to show what they can really do on a consistent basis.

The exceptions are Sheezel (prototype human being, works bloody hard), LDU (talent coming out of his ears), Jy (works hard, had consistency for two and a bit years and will get it back with a bit of fortune imo), Larkey (works hard), X (worked bloody hard on his game), and so far, McKercher (talented and believes he can take on the world and win).

At other clubs, many players are successful because of the club environment. The aforementioned players are successful in spite of North Melbourne. Because it's not the norm at North to work hard or to cultivate a strong mentality or to go about your football as if you really want a ****ing flag.

There's imbalance on the list, sure, lack of pace, lack of small forwards, and shit key position depth being glaring ones, but it doesn't mean the players are shit. Once the glue of
A: players taking it on themselves up to take the reins, push the club forward
B: players doing work on themselves to purge the belief that they're losers
C: training standards improving to an AFL standard

take place (if they ever do), the 'potatoes' that people love to flame on here are suddenly gonna look a million bucks.

Footy isn't and has never been absolute. Almost every player lifts when there's a baseline of performance. It's how Collingwood nearly beat the top team in a final with players like McCreery, Johnson, Cox, Noble, Krueger and Hoskin Elliott. Not a lot of talent amongst that lot, but it didn't matter. Problem is, we don't have a baseline, so the only players that rise up are the exceptional cases

 

[Spud11]

A coach who still has “it” would come into a team and give bit players roles, make “almost” players realise their potential, basically inspire the whole place to lift a little.

…not write off the last two dogshit performances as “nothing to play for” while defending a season that’s been arguably worse than last year based on how ****ing great all the other teams ****ing are.

That’s what Clarkson is doing. I don’t care about his “runs on the board”, this year has been a stinker with the weight relatively lifted off his shoulders (compared to last year), and to shrug off completely putrid performances is worrying. I don’t care if he won 20 flags in a row and his last one was last year - absolutely unacceptable.

No, we don’t move him on but good god we hope that he improves, expects more of this group and actually starts the culture shift we paid $5 million for.

Because at the moment, the last six years at Hawthorn where he hung around like a bad smell refusing to let the team evolve looks more relevant than any of his flags.

And the team he had helping him win those flags at Hawthorn is starting to look more and more deserving of credit now that he’s been given the keys and taken this organisation backwards.

 

[ChopChopDigDig]

I'll still backing him in, see no reason not to do so.
He was never making a silk purse with the below lot who got thumped by the Hawfs. 8/9 of the below don't have bright futures on any AFL list I'd suggest.

View attachment 2099015

We got a long way to go... and that's being pretty forgiving to blokes like Fisher, WilPhil, Jy, Corr, etc.

 

[DuckYeah]

View attachment 2099283

We got a long way to go... and that's being pretty forgiving to blokes like Fisher, WilPhil, Jy, Corr, etc.

Tucker has been serviceable off half back. No?

 

[ChopChopDigDig]

Tucker has been serviceable off half back. No?

Would he get a game for a finals team? Will he be in our flag team? Yes he's been serviceable, but so have many of our players, which is just not enough. He's filled a gap, but there aint many gap fillers in the best teams.

 

[TennisPlayerAndy]

Goater, Logue, Comben improves the backline.

Problem is all three of them are coming of various career limiting injuries.

 

[Passmore]

Would he get a game for a finals team? Will he be in our flag team? Yes he's been serviceable, but so have many of our players, which is just not enough. He's filled a gap, but there aint many gap fillers in the best teams.

No. But I reckon if you said to Sydney or Geelong, for example, you have to play him for a year, they'd give him a role that limits his deficiencies.

Every premiership or finals team has players that would look woeful in our team at the minute. They'd get exposed.

As you said, we have too many right now and we're asking too much of them.

Sent from my SM-A908B using Tapatalk

 

[blackshadow]

That’s what Clarkson is doing.

That's what Clarkson is doing publicly.

Away from the media spotlight I have a feeling the players would be receiving very different messages both as a team and as individuals.

 

[The Big O]

That's what Clarkson is doing publicly.

Away from the media spotlight I have a feeling the players would be receiving very different messages both as a team and as individuals.

X said Clarko told him last year to get his shit together or they would recruit Grundy to replace him.

On SM-S901E using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Event Horizon]

Our list is dogs***. It has nothing to do with Clarko. I’ve said time and time again you can’t polish a turd and it will take time to weed out the crap.

The players with the most potential on our list are barely able to drink legally.

Not to mention glaring positional needs that requires addressing.

I’ll reserve judgement until at least mid-2026. Yes, that’s a long time we’ve had to put up with crap, but previous administrations built a f****** disaster that Clarkson has to rectify. That goes from replacing personnel right down to drilling in better habits and weeding out the horrible ones that are ingrained in those that have been here for a while.

The biggest blessing we have in all of this is Sheezel. There is enough evidence from how our players talk that his standards are of a different breed. I imagine he will be linked up with every single player that walks through the doors from here on out to pass on some of that.

It will turn.

Agree with you mostly, except the mid 2026 bit. We should be able to see a clear improvement (including wins and losses) by next season. If we are still in the same position this time next year, something is going horribly wrong.

 

[TennisPlayerAndy]

Agree with you mostly, except the mid 2026 bit. We should be able to see a clear improvement (including wins and losses) by next season. If we are still in the same position this time next year, something is going horribly wrong.

The W-L needs to be close to 50/50 at the bye.

If we’re floundering at 2/3 wins, then it’s time to abort.

 

[amaz199]

Our list is dogs***. It has nothing to do with Clarko. I’ve said time and time again you can’t polish a turd and it will take time to weed out the crap.

The players with the most potential on our list are barely able to drink legally.

Not to mention glaring positional needs that requires addressing.

I’ll reserve judgement until at least mid-2026. Yes, that’s a long time we’ve had to put up with crap, but previous administrations built a f****** disaster that Clarkson has to rectify. That goes from replacing personnel right down to drilling in better habits and weeding out the horrible ones that are ingrained in those that have been here for a while.

The biggest blessing we have in all of this is Sheezel. There is enough evidence from how our players talk that his standards are of a different breed. I imagine he will be linked up with every single player that walks through the doors from here on out to pass on some of that.

It will turn.

If we don't show tangible progress next year then it won't happen in 2026. The time for making excuses for this team stops now.

Minimum 6 wins next year. If we can't achieve that we don't deserve to be in this comp.

 

[Marksup]

The W-L needs to be close to 50/50 at the bye.

If we’re floundering at 2/3 wins, then it’s time to abort.

Abort… again? That’s worked so well for us so far.

Clarkson has had one stable season at the helm and you want to abort 18 months in. 2023 was a write off at no fault of our own or Clarko’s. He wasn’t there for half the year because mental health is bigger than a game of football and so it should be.

 

[giantroo]

 

[TennisPlayerAndy]

Abort… again? That’s worked so well for us so far.

Clarkson has had one stable season at the helm and you want to abort 18 months in. 2023 was a write off at no fault of our own or Clarko’s. He wasn’t there for half the year because mental health is bigger than a game of football and so it should be.

Yeah, I think we should just stick with what’s taking us backwards, with outdated game styles and complete lack of leadership at all levels.

Things are going swimmingly.

 

[blackshadow]

Yeah, I think we should just stick with what’s taking us backwards, with outdated game styles and complete lack of leadership at all levels.

Things are going swimmingly.