Coach North under Alastair Clarkson

[unitedhawk2]

He's lost it.

I wonder what analysis, if any, North did on Clarko's last 3-4 years at Hawthorn.

 

[emuboy]

Do I think Alistair Clarkson was a great coach at Hawthorn? Yes, the way he got immediate improvement from then built up the young Hawthorn squad of 2005 to a powerhouse that won four premierships from five grand finals and made the finals every year except two from 2007-2018 proves it without doubt.

Do I think Alistair Clarkson could still be a good coach in the future at another club? Yes, I could see him building up the foundation Tasmania club or turning around the fortunes of an existing team.

Do I think Alistair Clarkson is the right coach for North Melbourne? No. To be fair though, I think this is just one of those situations where an appointment should have worked out in theory, but for one reason or another did not. It can happen anywhere, in sports, in business, in the media, in academia and in all levels of government.

 

[Lavender Bushranger]

I'm sure if he had generational talent and leadership like Hodge, Mitchell, Roughead, Franklin and Lewis at North he'd probably look like a gun coach again.

It's funny though, his record without those guys is pretty meh.

 

[RCAB]

I'm sure if he had generational talent and leadership like Hodge, Mitchell, Roughead, Franklin and Lewis at North he'd probably look like a gun coach again.

It's funny though, his record without those guys is pretty meh.

Clarkson was fortunate we drafted Hodge instead of Judd. Given they picked McKercher two seasons ago, he may have wanted Judd over Hodge if he was at the club at the time. Hawks don't win a premiership if they'd picked Judd over Hodge, he would've packing his bags a long time ago at Hawthorn with an empty premiership cabinet. Complete sliding doors moment, not just for Hawthorn but the AFL.

Yesterday in his press conference Clarko mentioned rebuilds can take 6-8 years. I haven't seen any North supporters here take umbrage this comment, it's odd.

 

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[Spud11]

Clarkson was fortunate we drafted Hodge instead of Judd. Given they picked McKercher two seasons ago, he may have wanted Judd over Hodge if he was at the club at the time. Hawks don't win a premiership if they'd picked Judd over Hodge, he would've packing his bags a long time ago at Hawthorn with an empty premiership cabinet. Complete sliding doors moment, not just for Hawthorn but the AFL.

Yesterday in his press conference Clarko mentioned rebuilds can take 6-8 years. I haven't seen any North supporters here take umbrage this comment, it's odd.

As a hawks fan, to what extent do you credit clarko with the flags?

How much of it was down to him vs the team and structure he had around him and the players at his disposal?

It’s like he needs to be constantly challenged and doubted to bring out his best. North have given him the keys to the tractor and we’re harvesting absolutely nothing but excuses and mentions of a distant past.

 

[RCAB]

As a hawks fan, to what extent do you credit clarko with the flags?

How much of it was down to him vs the team and structure he had around him and the players at his disposal?

It’s like he needs to be constantly challenged and doubted to bring out his best. North have given him the keys to the tractor and we’re harvesting absolutely nothing but excuses and mentions of a distant past.

It's hard to give a percentage.

We don't win without Clarkson, we don't win without Hodge. It's as simple as that for me.

You need a Hodge or a Mitchell at the club, to take the next step. Where do you think that comes from? Is it Wardlaw? I thought Phillips would come on for you, it's so weird what happened to that kid. Was tracking as good as Matt Rowell and was one year younger. He lost his explosive burst from congestion. Something not being told?

 

[TheKanga]

He needs to make a stand at selection starting with McKercher. High pick and very talented, but you can't keep playing a guy who is afraid of physical contact.

Yeah i suspect he will be dropped this week (i hope)

 

[GAS PANIC]

As a hawks fan, to what extent do you credit clarko with the flags?

How much of it was down to him vs the team and structure he had around him and the players at his disposal?

It’s like he needs to be constantly challenged and doubted to bring out his best. North have given him the keys to the tractor and we’re harvesting absolutely nothing but excuses and mentions of a distant past.

In retrospect, it does seem that he worked more efficiently when he had strong individuals at Hawthorn who would challenge him i.e. Mark Evans, Fagan, Kennett (not saying all his comments were justified), Stuart Fox as CEO etc.

It got a little stale for the last 3-4 years as those individuals moved on and were replaced with people who appeared to believe Clarkson could do no wrong. It's not a surprise that Kennett led the charge to remove him in his second stint as President.

With this in mind, publically pumping him up as a Messiah initially and allowing him complete and total control at North may have been a mistake. However, it's understandable given his considerable resume and state of the club at the time.

 

[MisterMarcus]

It's worth remembering that North are still the youngest list in 2025.

People talk like they've now become a mature list "ready to take the next step". But they're still full of kids who have barely cracked the 40-50 game mark.

Plus they've been far more competitive than this time last season. Put Melbourne away, could (should?) have beaten the Dogs if they'd kicked straighter. They ran out of gas against both Adelaide and Gold Coast away, but were very competitive up until deep in the third quarter. The Sydney game perhaps the old truly uncompetitive effort.

They're still prone to lapses and brain fades like many young teams are. But t's not like they're turning up and being behind the 8-ball at quarter time like in past seasons.

 

[Jables]

Coach doesn't matter for North, they don't have the infrastucture to recruit or develop talent.

You can't easily give the credit, or take credit, from any coach for a flag, especially when so much of it comes down to timing, the specifics of the list and so on. Franklin kicked 113 goals while regularly marked by 2-3 players, if our coach was James Hird I'm just gonna say it, that probably would not have happened, but you still give 99% of the credit to the player.

Like you see some people in this thread holding his assistants success against him, if you think about it for two seconds that doesn't make much sense. Our 2015 assistants were all unsuccessful head coaches, Bolton, Yze, Ratten. It's when he had to have input on list management for more than just missing pieces that the team fell off, the star recruits we got did their best, but couldn't tie the previous stars boot laces.

 

[Syrah]

It's worth remembering that North are still the youngest list in 2025.

People talk like they've now become a mature list "ready to take the next step". But they're still full of kids who have barely cracked the 40-50 game mark.

Plus they've been far more competitive than this time last season. Put Melbourne away, could (should?) have beaten the Dogs if they'd kicked straighter. They ran out of gas against both Adelaide and Gold Coast away, but were very competitive up until deep in the third quarter. The Sydney game perhaps the old truly uncompetitive effort.

They're still prone to lapses and brain fades like many young teams are. But t's not like they're turning up and being behind the 8-ball at quarter time like in past seasons.

Just not true. Had a more experienced team than the dogs in round one and I’m pretty sure the suns had more players with less than 50 games. Surely no more excuses.