Alastair Clarkson is one of the single best football coaches in my time watching footy.
After a demolition loss to Adelaide that simply shouldn’t be happening in year four of the Clarkson experiment at North Melbourne, after a season of “nearly” games that include close losses to Sydney and GWS, it might be time to reckon with the idea that he might be yesterday’s man.
Two things can be true.
But before heaping dirt on him, we have to remember what he inherited.
The two coaches before him – Rhyce Shaw and David Noble – had a nervous breakdown and were sincerely hated by the players at the club, respectively. The club was at an all-time low.
His job, above all else, was to rebuild the club and the list to make it respectable.
Slowly but surely he has, particularly at the very top end of the list
Since 2023, Clarkson and the Roos have picked Harry Sheezel, George Wardlaw, Colby McKercher, Zane Duursma, Finn O’Sullivan, and Cooper Trembath across the midseason and national drafts.
All of them have shown themselves to already be good players or on their way to being good players. While there are still too many barely AFL-level players who play most weeks like Luke McDonald or Jacob Konstanty – which probably speaks to dual issues in professional scouting and late round drafting – the Roos now have the bones of a good team thanks in large part to Clarkson.
Clarkson has also made significant adjustments to the way that he wants to play.
Early in his tenure, Clarkson thought that his high possession, intricate kicking style from Hawthorn would work at North Melbourne. However, the Roos don’t have Hawthorn or Brisbane level players, and this year more than any other Clarkson has changed his style of ball movement from the back half.
Clarkson has also improved North’s front-half game which was a major weakness last year. Given he doesn’t have any good defenders like he did at the Hawks, once again this was a necessary improvement for Clarkson as the Roos have gone from 13th in front half scoring last year to third this year.
While Clarkson hasn’t got away from his need to control the ball, with North sitting second in disposal retention and 13th in metres per kick, these modernisations have driven improvement for North.
But he’s still behind the times in key areas that North needs to address before stars like Nick Larkey age out of being effective players.
With the new rules, football has become more about being able to stop and shift momentum than ever before. North Melbourne cannot stop runs of goals.
This is partly because they don’t have many ways to win around the ball despite having good stoppage players. I watch Hawthorn play under Sam Mitchell and it’s a symphony at stoppage, all designed to get one player first use of the ball if Meek or Reeves wins the tap.
For North, it’s still three one on ones like it’s 2014 and a hope that Luke Davies Uniacke or George Wardlaw breaks six tackles on his way out of the centre bounce. They’re good players so it often works, but the best coaches today make it easy on their players and Clarkson doesn’t do that enough around stoppage.
The other clear deficiency with the club that Clarkson appears unable to fix is with one aspect of the list build.
If you watch a Geelong game, it’s like watching an athletics carnival. They have athletes all over the field that can bail out bad football by good athleticism. Clarkson, because of the importance that he has placed on highly skilled players, has sacrificed elite athletes across the park.
As a result, North lacks the running power to both keep up and make themselves right.
Their only elite athletes are probably LDU and Dylan Stephens. Other than them it’s a group of trundlers, some of whom have nice skills while others are Jy Simpkin.
Both of those factors get to the same larger point. The best coaches today are making it easy on their players with structures and athleticism that they can fall back on. Clarkson isn’t. His style is still hard to play, even with his changes.
Can Clarko fix that?
With just one year left on his deal after this season, I have my doubts. It looks to me like he’s butting up against the roof of his own ability to innovate.
He’s Eminem trying to find fresh magic for his 27th album.
Instead, it might be time for North Melbourne to accept what is true for most coaches: the rebuilding coach is rarely the coach who wins the premiership.
Clarkson himself did it in 2008, when he was right at the cutting edge of modern footy. Damien Hardwick and Chris Fagan are other more recent examples. They are exceptions, not rules.
His presence alone still lends credibility, but it’s time for fresh ideas to get onto the park and into the list building meetings or risk plunging the club into an Essendon-style forever rebuild.
It’s time to start having those conversations with Clarkson and make arrangements to move him into a consultant role before the worst truly happens.