Alastair Clarkson is one of the single best football coaches in my time watching footy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After a demolition loss to Adelaide that simply shouldn\u2019t be happening in year four of the Clarkson experiment at North Melbourne, after a season of \u201cnearly\u201d games that include close losses to Sydney and GWS<\/a>, it might be time to reckon with the idea that he might be yesterday\u2019s man. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Two things can be true. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But before heaping dirt on him, we have to remember what he inherited. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The two coaches before him \u2013 Rhyce Shaw and David Noble \u2013 had a nervous breakdown and were sincerely hated by the players at the club, respectively. The club was at an all-time low. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Clarkson was like Carmy Berzatto walking into The Original Beef of Chicagoland, forced to rebuild it with a rag-tag bunch.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n His job, above all else, was to rebuild the club and the list to make it respectable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Slowly but surely he has, particularly at the very top end of the list <\/p>\n\n\n\n Since 2023, Clarkson and the Roos have picked Harry Sheezel, George Wardlaw, Colby McKercher, Zane Duursma, Finn O\u2019Sullivan, and Cooper Trembath across the midseason and national drafts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Clarkson has also made significant adjustments to the way that he wants to play. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Early in his tenure, Clarkson thought that his high possession, intricate kicking style from Hawthorn would work at North Melbourne. However, the Roos don\u2019t 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n By throwing Cam Zurhaar and Luke Parker to half back, he\u2019s made the Roos much more direct and more confident with ball in hand in the back half, which has markedly improved their transition game.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Clarkson has also improved North\u2019s front-half game which was a major weakness last year. Given he doesn\u2019t 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<\/sup> in front half scoring last year to third this year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While Clarkson hasn\u2019t got away from his need to control the ball, with North sitting second in disposal retention and 13th<\/sup> in metres per kick, these modernisations have driven improvement for North. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But he\u2019s still behind the times in key areas that North needs to address before stars like Nick Larkey age out of being effective players. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This is partly because they don\u2019t have many ways to win around the ball despite having good stoppage players. I watch Hawthorn play under Sam Mitchell and it\u2019s a symphony at stoppage, all designed to get one player first use of the ball if Meek or Reeves wins the tap.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n For North, it\u2019s still three one on ones like it\u2019s 2014 and a hope that Luke Davies Uniacke or George Wardlaw breaks six tackles on his way out of the centre bounce.<\/a> They\u2019re good players so it often works, but the best coaches today make it easy on their players and Clarkson doesn\u2019t do that enough around stoppage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The other clear deficiency with the club that Clarkson appears unable to fix is with one aspect of the list build. <\/p>\n\n\n\n