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

[justroyal]

At the ground, I thought it was clear that the Hawks had a better system.

Their ability to spread from the contest and the confidence with which they'd take the game on offensively was impressive and unlike anything that we've seen from North Melbourne this year.

Every coach gets the comment that it looks like they don't have a system, but usually, you can get the gist of what they're trying to do.

Shaw in 2020 wanted to play the boundary and create contests. Noble in 2021 wanted to use the corridor, but halfway through the year started putting more numbers behind the ball. Noble in 2022 wanted risk-free football and had us at all times playing like we were protecting a five-goal lead. You go back even further and you always knew what Brad Scott was trying to achieve.

I've never worked out the plan this year. In the preseason we were playing in a consistent manner, but we kept tweaking things and I think lost all form of identity.

We trained like a team that wanted to move the ball quickly, but by round two we were playing outdated possession football against Fremantle. We were trying a high defensive press early, but it took five weeks for Brisbane to make that system look completely amateurish.

At the moment we play like we have a shell of a gameplan and the players are doing their best to improvise within it.

Tbh imo our best looking football was under Shaw. And I didn’t rate shaw. Everyone was relentless. Jy and Luke impressed me more then too with their physicality and presence.

 

[amaz199]

Tbh imo our best looking football was under Shaw. And I didn’t rate shaw. Everyone was relentless. Jy and Luke impressed me more then too with their physicality and presence.

As much as we looked the goods, it wasn't sustainable playing that brand of footy. It still required effort and frankly quite a bit of heavy lifting from our senior players.

We can't keep applying game plans that require 120 minutes of pressure and ferocity. You'll have the hospitals full of our players in no time. The thing is, the game plan has to be something that works when we're not red-hot so it doesn't fall apart. That's how the good teams win.

 

[Event Horizon]

I have no doubts that Clarko will be better in year two.

Plan A didn't work and when it came time for him to go back to the drawing board he wasn't able to 100% commit himself.

Are you suggesting his leave/mental health issues were not caused by the racism saga but rather his inability to get results? It’s a big claim to make if so…


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[Mixed Results]

Tbh imo our best looking football was under Shaw. And I didn’t rate shaw. Everyone was relentless. Jy and Luke impressed me more then too with their physicality and presence.

Yeah, I think Shaw gets massively underrated.

In 2019, he was able to get us playing our best football that we’ve seen since the start of 2016.

2020 was poor, but I don’t understand why it gets held against him so much. With Brad Scott still on the books we had a shoe string budget for assistants, and we all know the unique challenges that he had to face. With the injuries we had, you can look back at some of the teams we fielded and it’s clear that he didn’t have a ton available. He deserved to come back in 2021.

Are you suggesting his leave/mental health issues were not caused by the racism saga but rather his inability to get results? It’s a big claim to make if so…


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

Not at all. I was trying to attribute his inability to get results, especially after round 5 or so, to the duress that the racism saga had placed him under.

 

[Ball Dont Lie]

As much as we looked the goods, it wasn't sustainable playing that brand of footy. It still required effort and frankly quite a bit of heavy lifting from our senior players.

We can't keep applying game plans that require 120 minutes of pressure and ferocity. You'll have the hospitals full of our players in no time. The thing is, the game plan has to be something that works when we're not red-hot so it doesn't fall apart. That's how the good teams win.

Hmm see I think that’s wrong. I think the successful teams of the past (Tigers) and currently (Pies) are built fully on relentless 120 minutes of pressure. It’s actually more valuable than skill and speed as once you force a turnover you get the additional time on the ball to make the right decision. It allows even substandard skilled players to execute.

 

[Bend_It_Like_Brown]

Welcome back Clarko!
Take us to the promise land because I can’t take this anymore.

 

[giantroo]

Dr Sonja Hood's President's function address

Dr Sonja Hood's President's function address ahead of the Round 18 clash against Hawthorn

www.nmfc.com.au

Section from Sonja's president lunch address re Clarko

And if you want more proof of just how resilient our club is, I’d point to the other big change since our two teams met earlier this year – Alastair Clarkson stepping down as senior coach.

Now I don’t want to pretend losing Clarko hasn’t hurt – it has, and it continues to. But we are not defined by the adversity we face. We’re defined by how we respond to that adversity.

And so, led by Brett Ratten

Brett Ratten

Age

53

Ht

184cm

Wt

88kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

22.4

5star

K

12.1

4star

HB

10.3

5star

M

2.9

3star

T

3.0

5star

No current season stats available

D

26.4

5star

K

13.8

5star

HB

12.6

5star

M

3.4

4star

T

1.6

4star

, Todd Viney, and Jen Watt, the club has continued on the steady “one club” path we set last year, continuing to develop players and the game plan, and enabling Clarko to take the time he needs, and to ensure he comes back 100% fit.

Two months ago when Clarko stood down, his physical and mental health was shot. His body was breaking down and his mind couldn’t function.

I’m not going to detail what Clarko has been through over the past couple of months. If he chooses to tell his story eventually, that’s up to him. But here’s one simple example of how the physical and mental fed on each other.

For Clarko, running has been a lifelong strategy to clear his mind, work through problems, deal with stress. Over this year, worsening back pain meant he couldn’t run, and this space, this coping mechanism, was suddenly not available to him at the time he needed it most.

But he’d stopped getting help for the back, hadn’t noticed that the running had stopped because his mind was fixated elsewhere, hadn’t tuned into the pain, wasn’t sleeping properly so he couldn’t function . . . and so every day he got up, and focused on just getting through without falling apart. Until he fell apart.

I can’t tell you yet when Clarko will be fully back in the senior coaching role. He’s working incredibly hard on his physical and mental health. He’s also back working hard for our football club – for the moment, in a behind the scenes role

What I can tell you, is that he’s in much better shape than he was, and he and we are taking his return slowly and cautiously. As with everything else, we’re in this for the long game, not the short one.

I can also tell you that in our club, we’ll get both sides of this right – the mental and physical. And I’m not just talking about our coach – I’m talking about our players, our people, our whole club. We’ll take the time and the resources we need to take, with the goal every day to be better than the day before.

 

[Psicosis]

Tbh imo our best looking football was under Shaw. And I didn’t rate shaw. Everyone was relentless. Jy and Luke impressed me more then too with their physicality and presence.

He got maximum effort.

Equally his game plan was completely unsustainable and wouldn't hold up with how the game is now played.

 

[DuckYeah]

I think its time the boys, after next weekend head straight up to Clarko’s property for a ****ing honesty session. No holds barred, spike their drinks with barbiturates and lets have some ****in truth telling sessions and throw the gloves in the middle.

 

[Danni_Benson]

Are you suggesting his leave/mental health issues were not caused by the racism saga but rather his inability to get results? It’s a big claim to make if so…


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

I would think combo of the two. Hard to see him stepping away if we were winning games…

 

[Psicosis]

His single biggest focus needs to be on transition ball movement. Until he does that we won’t get out of this hole.

 

[TennisPlayerAndy]

His single biggest focus needs to be on transition ball movement. Until he does that we won’t get out of this hole.

Issues with that are as follows:

It’s a rarity than any of our backmen look for a 20-25m option which presents itself in turnover/someone is willing to run to provide that option.

It’s an even bigger rarity that that option is passed the ball effectively which leads to;

A direct turnover with all our backmen out of position/covering grass or;

A kick to a contested situation whereby the opposition gains possession after a scramble and execute the very basic skills that we aren’t able to.

It’s a ****ing shitshow.

 

[King Corey]

As much as we looked the goods, it wasn't sustainable playing that brand of footy. It still required effort and frankly quite a bit of heavy lifting from our senior players.

We can't keep applying game plans that require 120 minutes of pressure and ferocity. You'll have the hospitals full of our players in no time. The thing is, the game plan has to be something that works when we're not red-hot so it doesn't fall apart. That's how the good teams win.

Yeh the Shaw blip (that sucked me in too) was a combination of new coach bounce and trying to play at a sprint pace for 4 quarters.

It caught out Richmond and Collingwood and flattened Port. It also overwhelmed Hawthorn after a torrid start.

But the same honeymoon period included kicking 14 points (yes points) in an entire game, a few losses and scraping a dead rubber win over 17th placed Melbourne.

By the 2020 preseason (and we've covered this before) the Emperor's new clothes were revealed and a few games in once other teams had accustomed to our new style and our 2019 intensity had faded, Shaw had little to nothing else to show for the future.

2020 didn't do many AFL coaches any favours but it was a chance for Shaw to plant the seeds of future success. But for many reasons not worth discussing here he didn't or couldn't and that was that.

 

[blackshadow]

GC last week, Caufield the week before, now Metro V Country…

I must say…

I don’t love the fact he isn’t watching our games whilst we are rotting…

No point in him being at AFL games being hassled by every Tom, Dick and Harry and every s**tstain excuse for an AFL journalist. I believe he's doing what he can to get back.

 

[zoomba23]

2020 was poor, but I don’t understand why it gets held against him so much. With Brad Scott still on the books we had a shoe string budget for assistants, and we all know the unique challenges that he had to face. With the injuries we had, you can look back at some of the teams we fielded and it’s clear that he didn’t have a ton available. He deserved to come back in 2021.

He had a full-blown mental health crisis. He ended up in hospital. I wouldn't have thought that he wanted to come back

 

[giantroo]

What a load of hogwash.

 

[TennisPlayerAndy]

Oh boy….

 

[deano28]

Cough * bullshit * cough

 

[footy2016]

Is a troll account on twitter- is no truth to it, that’s straight from a players brother in the program. Clarkson is back today at the club full time. So would make interesting viewing if key people were meeting in a back alley to terminate….

 

[King Corey]

2020 was poor, but I don’t understand why it gets held against him so much. With Brad Scott still on the books we had a shoe string budget for assistants, and we all know the unique challenges that he had to face. With the injuries we had, you can look back at some of the teams we fielded and it’s clear that he didn’t have a ton available. He deserved to come back in 2021.

Am critical of a lot of club decisions (and how) but can't begrudge them the Shaw-Noble process.

We had no choice or leverage in the Shaw fadeout. Had to play with the hand dealt to us unfortunately.

The selection process and choice of candidates upon going to Noble, not that it means much but I'd have made the same choice (and said as much at the time).

Based on how the club/squad has performed for Clarkson/Ratten it's clear that if Noble did have the makings of a successful coach under the right conditions in him - this was not the group that was going to express it for him.

Ah well.

 

[giantroo]

 

[Mixed Results]

The Trade Whisperer jumped the shark about a decade back.

 

[bennymate]

What a load of hogwash.

View attachment 1742524

This isn't bullshit, we might be in trouble.

 

[Roos1991]

This isn't bullshit, we might be in trouble.

Do you have some Intel?

 

[Kanga1996]

This isn't bullshit, we might be in trouble.

That's interesting, I was just told the opposite.