Analysis North under Alastair Clarkson

[Farang83150]

How nice it must be for players going into the game actually trying to win. Giving themselves a chance rather than trying to minimise a loss.

I was shocked to hear Clarko basically say in the press conference last night that 'winning isn't important'. This is from the most ruthless coach of the 21st century.

I would be absolutely seething if I was a North supporter.

Seemed pretty important against GC late last year!

 

[SSSSSS]

Seemed pretty important against GC late last year!

It's a modern day Greek tragedy that North Melbourne's only win in 27 games is probably their biggest loss.

 

[Farang83150]

An old article but wow if it's close to correct!

The $1.6 million man: Kangaroos ‘in box seat’ for Clarko as ‘all-in’ plan to land coach revealed

The $1.6 million man: Kangaroos ‘in box seat’ for Clarko as ‘all-in’ plan to land coach revealed

www.foxsports.com.au

 

[SSSSSS]

This is 100% what the move should have been.

Comben has been the #1 intercept and contested marking defender in the comp since hes come back.

Move one of the few pieces in the side genuinely working, for what?

A few disposals and a spoil and exposing the already thin KPD's to a mauling?


Unbelievable oversight from a "master coach"

One of the few positives from the last few weeks has been Comben.

I used to hang shit on some North supporters in the other threads for their overrating of Comben. He looked pretty bog ordinary as a CHF (To be fair it's hard to be a key forward when the supply is atrocious).

He looks very good as a CHB. He's angry. He's brave. He wants to hurt people. Hopefully Clarko can let him settle in that position in the long-term.

Schoenmakers gets memed alot but Clarkson did him no favours. His development was absolutely shafted because he kept getting sent back and forth and never settled in a position. Injuries hurt him as well. Thankfully he was able to come out of his career with a well earned flag after a great Grand Final performance.

 

[The Casey Cat]

I think the thing that baffles me is how unaccountable he has the defence playing. They all seem to be running around chasing kicks. It’s one of the reasons I can’t work out the Zac Fisher recruitment and decision to play him in the backline.

I don’t think anyone expects Clarko to have North playing finals, however, when Roos took over at Melbourne they still finished 4-18 but it was immediately obvious to everyone watching that he had changed the way the Demons were playing and was establishing a system and working to a plan. I don’t really see any of that with the way he’s coaching at North.

This. Losing is one thing. Nobody is expecting North to be winning more games than they are. But the way they 'try' to defend is absolutely not good enough. They must figure out a way to be harder to play against. Goals that start with the opponent kicking in or deep in defense and end with an absolute gimmie which could have been raffled between 3 or 4 loose players after they have transitioned the ball the whole ground completely bruise free have got to stop. For what's supposed to be a professional competition it's disgusting to watch.

 

[Juddernaut08]

One of the few positives from the last few weeks has been Comben.

I used to hang s**t on some North supporters in the other threads for their overrating of Comben. He looked pretty bog ordinary as a CHF (To be fair it's hard to be a key forward when the supply is atrocious).

He looks very good as a CHB. He's angry. He's brave. He wants to hurt people. Hopefully Clarko can let him settle in that position in the long-term.

Schoenmakers gets memed alot but Clarkson did him no favours. His development was absolutely shafted because he kept getting sent back and forth and never settled in a position. Injuries hurt him as well. Thankfully he was able to come out of his career with a well earned flag after a great Grand Final performance.

Combden has potential but when Clarko swings him forward it does him no favours.

Lots of calls for Sheezel to be played in the midfield. Not sure that works but worth a shot.

 

[The Casey Cat]

I've seen the low estimate being $1.1 million and the high estimate being $1.6million.

And you compare that attitude to coaching and the club in general to when he started at Hawthorn when he took less and told Hawks to instead spend more on assistants and football department. He just isn't the same man but has a much more difficult hill to climb.

 

[Jock1eyemcpie]

To be fair to clarko, he hasn’t really had a full season at north, didn’t he step away for a while last season cause of the racism issue? Bit rough to compare him to Roos with a full season.

North will never play finals under Clarkson though. He will be long gone before they are any good again imo.

 

[Taper]

Time to ship them off to Canberra permanently so the AFL can justify giving them some draft assistance to get them into a position of dominance.

The move ticks so many boxes it's silly to ignore it especially given they are going to be woeful for at last another 3-4 years whilst they remain in Melbourne.

North played home games in Canberra years ago and Canberra didn't want them.
Shipping North off to Canberra would be a disaster for the AFL, and that's before mentioning the fact that Canberra is GWS territory.

 

[LordLucifer]

North played home games in Canberra years ago and Canberra didn't want them.
Shipping North off to Canberra would be a disaster for the AFL, and that's before mentioning the fact that Canberra is GWS territory.

GWS should never have been made to play games there, it's counter-productive to establishing them into the westrn suburbs of Sydney.

Canberra didn't want them ?? Really ........... you are just making random comments to suit your argument.

Canberra (1984-2009)[edit]​

See also: Australian rules football in the Australian Capital Territory
The idea of a national competition started in Canberra as early as the early 1980s. Australian rules had become the most popular code in Canberra by the late 1970s and the territory made its first bid for a VFL license in 1981. After its rejected bids (which coincided with the relocation of South Melbourne to Sydney) the territory began resorting to relocate a Melbourne based club and commenced discussions with North Melbourne. The prospect of North Melbourne playing home games in Canberra was first raised publicly as early as 1984, with the club expressing an interest in playing a role in developing a national competition.[2] By 1990 it was suggested that the ACTAFL was in ongoing discussions with the club to relocate it to Canberra.[3] While the ACTAFL said that it would welcome the club, North Melbourne strongly denied the rumours. The proposal was raised by the ACTAFL again in 1992[4] and in 1993, however strong on-field performance of the Kangaroos made it a more difficult target for the ACTAFL.[5] In 1999 the club dropped the name North Melbourne in its branding to become The Kangaroos in an effort to appeal to interstate markets (at the time, Sydney and Canberra). The move was to prove lucrative with the AFL and North Melbourne gaining ACT government backing to play home games at Canberra's Manuka Oval from 2002. The government backed the deal in the hope that the club would eventually commit long term to the region and for a time, the team playing in the territory were promoted locally as the "Canberra Kangaroos".[6] North Melbourne's matches against the Swans in Canberra in 2004 and 2006 became the territory's record crowds for the sport peaking at 14,922 in 2006. However in 2006 the Kangaroos, encouraged by the AFL, received a more lucrative offer to move its interstate home games to the Gold Coast. The ACT Government set a deadline for the club to choose between Canberra and the Gold Coast, to which North Melbourne executive Geoff Walsh announced that it would be turning its back on the ACT and signed a three-year deal to play ten home games at Carrara Stadium between 2007 and 2009 at AUD$400,000 per game. After the AFL's AUD$100 million push to relocate the club to the Gold Coast failed, North Melbourne in 2009 attempted to re-negotiate with the ACT government, however the club was told that it had suffered irrepairable reputation damage in Canberra.[7][8]

 

[LordLucifer]

Clearly North have had morons in charge of the discussions over the years because each time there has been the propsect of moving, they have completely butchered it ........... and then cried poor. (Gold Coast, Sydney, Tassie & Canberra).

Time for them to come out from under mum's apron and stand up like a real man.

 

[Rob R]

North played home games in Canberra years ago and Canberra didn't want them.
Shipping North off to Canberra would be a disaster for the AFL, and that's before mentioning the fact that Canberra is GWS territory.

Canberra wanted them but North never put any effort in and left chasing more money on the Gold Coast before backing away from that deal. They went back to Canberra who told them to f off. Doubt they would be welcome in Canberra now (where teams in other codes struggle to survive even without the baggage a relocated North would have)

On SM-A125F using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Rich01]

Clearly North have had morons in charge of the discussions over the years because each time there has been the propsect of moving, they have completely butchered it ........... and then cried poor. (Gold Coast, Sydney, Tassie & Canberra).

Time for them to come out from under mum's apron and stand up like a real man.

North fans quickly realising the off field leadership may not be what it was cracked up to be.

 

[Freomaniac]

Even Roosy 2nd year at the helm with Melbourne was far better then the rubbish that Norf continue to dish up. We won 8 games for thr yesr and were far more competitive against top 8 sides.

Bit like Malthouse at Carlton, only took the job to because of his inflated ego and willingness to prove Hawthorn wrong instead of taking the job for the right reason.

Mick was say and wanted to prove a point to Collingwood and it back fired fairly quickly. Can't see the roos sacking Clarko but there's been zero improvement from last year.

actually it was 7 wins Paul Roos won in his 2nd season. One of them was a win vs the cats in geelong or was that the next season when the demons got 10 wins under paul roos?

 

[dazzledavey36]

actually it was 7 wins Paul Roos won in his 2nd season. One of them was a win vs the cats in geelong or was that the next season when the demons got 10 wins under paul roos?

My apologies, you are correct and yes we beat Geelong down at Geelong back in 2015. Our last win down there prior to that was 2005 so Roosy was able to break a 10 year drought.

That's still 7 wins better then what Clarko will dish up this year in his second year.

 

[Taper]

Would be him or Dimma you would think.

Dimma was on close to 1 million a season at the Tiges and you would think the Gold Coast would have had to pay him a fortune to turn his head. I think Longmire and Adam Simpson are also quite well paid (both would be close to 7 figures).

Ken Hinkley is on close to seven figures as well.
Amazing how clubs like North and Port are paying the senior coach so much, leaving them with not much money to spend elsewhere.

 

[Freomaniac]

My apologies, you are correct and yes we beat Geelong down at Geelong back in 2015. Our last win down there prior to that was 2005 so Roosy was able to break a 10 year drought.

That's still 7 wins better then what Clarko will dish up this year in his second year.

I dont think the demons of 2012-16 was terribly bad.

I just thought they were shot with confidence in some games.

But having and comparing mark neeld in 2012-3 and Paul Roos in 2014-6, the difference is massive.

 

[GoEaglesGoSGIO]

Basically any press conference implying pressure would go ike this

"Clarko, with 10 losses in a row do you feel any pressure on your position"
"Im playing Jy Simpkin

12

Jy Simpkin

Age

28

Ht

183cm

Wt

77kg

Pos.

M/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

16.0

4star

K

7.9

3star

HB

8.1

5star

M

2.4

3star

T

3.3

5star

CL

2.9

4star

D

20.6

5star

K

11.0

4star

HB

9.6

5star

M

2.0

2star

T

3.5

4star

CL

5.5

5star

D

10.0

3star

K

5.6

3star

HB

4.4

4star

M

2.8

3star

T

2.4

4star

CL

0.2

2star

and Luke McDonald mate, what do you want from me"

The end

 

[Bagger72]

Don't think Clarko has been in charge for a full season yet. Im indifferent towards him admire what he did at Hawthorn but if North board think Clarko is the best mentor for these kids coming through then he needs more than 6 months. More like 36 at minimum otherwise they will go in a cycle like our nuffies did and keep sacking coaches.

 

[Attempted Moustache]

Combden has potential but when Clarko swings him forward it does him no favours.

Lots of calls for Sheezel to be played in the midfield. Not sure that works but worth a shot.

Sheezel is a real talent but is slumming it down back in my opinion.

He can find it with ease and is creative but hiding him in defence to let him keep fattening his stats by taking repeated kick ins when the team is crying out for polish forward of centre isn’t helping the team or Harry’s development.

Harry’s good enough to start mid already.

 

[Great8]

Harry’s good enough to start mid already.

Absolutely.
Kid is a gem and you would hope Clarko swallows some pride and pits him on the ball

 

[Xtreme]

The greateast coach in the AFL era has taken on the toughest assignment in football. But not even Clarko can turn every glass of water into a bottle of wine.

 

[Ed_Gein]

I reckon he'll chuck the towel in at some point, but no idea when - it won't be this season, anyway. North look too far back. They're not helping themselves giving the likes of Dylan Stephens

15

Dylan Stephens

Age

25

Ht

184cm

Wt

80kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

10.3

3star

K

7.0

3star

HB

3.3

3star

M

3.0

3star

T

1.7

4star

CL

0.0

1star

D

10.3

3star

K

7.0

3star

HB

3.3

2star

M

3.0

3star

T

1.7

3star

CL

0.0

1star

D

10.3

3star

K

7.0

3star

HB

3.3

3star

M

3.0

3star

T

1.7

4star

CL

0.0

1star

a 4-year deal. He's not great and was struggling to stay on our list.

 

[Soggy2112]

I reckon he'll chuck the towel in at some point, but no idea when - it won't be this season, anyway. North look too far back. They're not helping themselves giving the likes of Dylan Stephens a 4-year deal. He's not great and was struggling to stay on our list.

I used to think he was a decent talent but god I was wrong. Shocking work rate and struggles under any sort of pressure. Skills are no where near good enough to make up for his weaknesses.

 

[Freomaniac]

We saw 'Northball' in the preseason. Fast flowing, attacking football.

Here I thought Clarkson has evolved. He's rejuvenated himself. He's embracing modern footy.

How wrong I was.

We saw yesterday the same old Clarko from his latter blunder years. Slow, boring, long down the line footy. High kicks to no one in particular inside 50 over the head of Larkey. Damage control football.

Helped preserve the margin in what should have been a 15 goal belting but it's soul sucking football. The players out there looked like they have zero confidence in themselves or the gameplan.

I wouldn't be surprised if he loses the players soon. They actually looked like they enjoyed their footy more under Ratts.

If Clarko keeps playing this way North Melbourne are going to lose a generation of young supporters and for a small club like North that could be a death knell.

So Clarkson is playing Ross Lyon football?