Former Melbourne captain Garry Lyon believes North Melbourne’s lack of effort is the “biggest concern” for the club under master coach Alastair Clarkson after it dropped a fifth-straight game.
It comes after the Kangaroos kicked off the Clarkson era on a positive note with two-straight wins before falling away badly over the last month including suffering a 90-point loss to Melbourne on the weekend to tumble down to 15th place on the ladder.
While the rebuilding Roos are of course in a development phase, they’ve alarmingly ranked 18th in the competition this season in both pressure rating and marks conceded and ranked 16th in defending ball movement.
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And speaking on Fox Footy’s On the Couch, Lyon was critical that Clarkson’s side wasn’t putting in 100 per cent.
“There’s game style where I could understand some confusion, and then there’s effort. This is the greatest concern, I would think,” Lyon said in response to the worrying numbers.
“Some of that comes about, I would imagine, because they want them to a play a certain way with a certain defence with a zone. Sometimes when you’re not in the right spot you give up easy marks or whatever the case may be.
“But that is the biggest concern.
“The Kangaroos fans (would be) saying: ‘We didn’t think we were going to win every week, but Clarkson has the demeanour of someone who demands this … why are we seeing that?’
“In the first two weeks we were saying look at the immediate impact the new coach has had on this club who’ve been kicked around. They were up and proud and committed.”
North Melbourne’s defence has been a clear issue, conceding an average of 123 points over its last four games.
It comes despite star defender Ben McKay, who ranked No. 1 in the AFL in intercept marks last year (4.1 per game), returning from injury in Round 5.
But McKay’s intercept marks have dropped to just two per game in his three appearances under Clarkson to personify the team’s struggles in adapting to a new system.
“There’s no doubt it’s been a complete rebuild down there, certainly from a defensive structure point of view,” triple-premiership winning Lion Jonathan Brown said on On the Couch.
“You’ll see some inconsistencies there and the way the defenders go about it.
“A guy like Ben McKay, who was out injured at the start of the year, he’d be struggling to get his head around the system and taking time to get used to that.
“Understanding a new system and fitting into that new system and working with your teammates can be a challenge and takes a while.”
In something of a hopeful prospect though, On The Couch compared the similarities between North Melbourne’s defensive profile to Hawthorn’s in 2005 – Clarkson’s first season as coach at Waverley when he first implemented his systems ahead of a golden era where the club won four premierships.
Both 2005 Hawks and 2023 Roos ranked bottom five in opposition score per inside 50 and ranked bottom three in allowing opposition ball movement from defensive 50 to inside 50.
“He takes over the Hawthorn footy club and he turns them upside down and wants them to play a different way and they get opened up early,” Lyon said.
“This is what can happen and this is why I’m saying I think they’re on a steep learning curve, I don’t want to make any excuses. But I’m not accepting of the lack of effort.”
However Brown argued learning new methods can impact the players’ intent on field, saying “when they’re implementing a new game stye and players are learning heavy strategy, it can slow a player down by thinking too much and it can look like you’re not applying pressure to the opposition.”
The Roos will look to bounce back against St Kilda at Marvel Stadium on Sunday.
