On Tuesday, Alastair Clarkson rocked into Arden Street to speak to the North Melbourne players as a group for the first time since being appointed coach.
He was roughly the same height but not as nervous as he had been when he arrived at the club 35 years earlier as a young lad from Kaniva with a healthy ego and plenty of sporting talent to begin what has become a remarkable football journey.
New North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson.Credit:Jason South
Appearing relaxed and healthy in his Golden State Warriors T-shirt after a year spent away from the AFL grindstone, some of it travelling to sporting organisations and events around the world, he relayed part of the message he had delivered. It was one that reminded everyone who was listening that Jason Horne-Francis and Will Phillips’ experiences to date were not unique in the brutal world he had lived within for most of the past 35 years.
“They were probably thinking we’ve been drafted because our last three, four, five years have been pretty good and they’ve been selected in the top three players in the country at our age. And then they get one year or two years into their careers [and think], ‘Geez, this hasn’t gone as smooth as what I thought was going to happen’,” Clarkson said.
“Guess what? Welcome to AFL footy boys.”
How to navigate this tough and complex game is what Clarkson can offer as he embarks on the next stage of his journey with the fire in his belly burning like an old wood heater as he returns to coaching.
No.1 draft pick Jason Horne-Francis was under the spotlight in his debut seasonCredit:Getty
By Wednesday, having only heard his new coach speak once, Horne-Francis revealed that Clarkson had his trust already.
That’s what four flags, 524 games as a player and a coach, a coaching apprenticeship at Central District and time as an assistant coach in the AFL can give the Kangaroos’ new coach.
But what it does not guarantee is that success will be repeated at the club he felt he owed for the way they supported him as a teenager when he was not an easy lad to handle, when he was still dealing with the tragic death of his brother Andrew in a car accident, when he was on the tear in the big smoke.
He met his wife Caryn soon after arriving at the Kangaroos and debuted with a lifelong friend Craig Sholl in 1987 as he matured from a vulnerable teenager into a man of character through the guidance of legendary coach John Kennedy and under-19s coach Denis Pagan.
Clarkson chats with Ben McKay and Callum Coleman-Jones on the day he was announced as North Melbourne’s new coachCredit:Jason South
“Those people, at a vulnerable time of life, actually steered me in the right direction. You just never forget those things. And yeah, you perhaps even feel like you’ve got a debt in essence that they helped you out in a really, really tough time,” Clarkson said.
Despite such emotion, he wanted to avoid letting it affect his decision on where he should return to coaching when the Kangaroos came knocking, the Giants’ circled and Essendon made a late attempt to spoil.
“I was really, really clinical around the decision-making process of just working out that the club was right for me and I was right for the club. I didn’t want emotion to be able to influence my decision-making,” Clarkson said.
The subsequent selection process was rigorous as he looked under the Kangaroos’ bonnet to ensure there was no issue that meant the engine could not be fixed.
It was only after he made his decision that Clarkson let the emotions surrounding his return flood back, giving him a feeling of returning to a place where he was welcome that even surprised him.
“To know how passionate people still are about the footy club and how pleased they are that someone that they know is going to help steer the club back on the right path is really touching,” Clarkson said.
Clarkson knows, however, that all that emotion counts for little if he can’t turn the bottom team into a winning team in his comeback to coaching.
That responsibility lies initially with him and his trusted lieutenant Todd Viney, who joined Clarkson in the coach’s box at Hawthorn when his journey began there in 2005, and was appointed North’s football manager on Thursday with Dan McPherson departing. Quickly, Clarkson hopes, that responsibility will be shared across the football department and the club.
“The real challenge is working out how can you motivate people to understand what their role is in the collective? There’s not going to be any one person that’s going to be the sole reason why that club is going to get their hands on that cup,” Clarkson said.
Once were warriors: Luke Hodge and Alastair Clarkson lift the 2014 premiership cup.Credit:Justin McManus
That’s why his first job is to build relationships to understand people’s roles at the club and their motivation and how he can galvanise them toward one goal: winning what he always calls silverware, but others know as the premiership.
At Hawthorn, he had to be autocratic in his first two years as he and conditioning coach Andrew Russell set and maintained the standards.
Clarkson knew such an approach was vital, but it also had a shelf life, so he hopes that sort of heavy lifting, where required, can be shared at the Kangaroos as it’s taxing on those driving the standards.
“It’s a pressure and a strain that is unsustainable for a long period of time, but we won’t shy away from what the standards are required,” Clarkson said.
“We’re on the bottom of the ladder for a reason and that’s because some of those standards either dropped away or they’ve been accepted far too easily.
“Then you get to a point where that mediocrity just can’t be excused anymore and so then change happens. Instability is created, uncertainty is created, everyone’s going in different ways … and that is the opposite to what’s required to actually win silverware.
“It’s got to become about your teammate, rather than yourself. It’s got to become about your club rather than yourself, and it’s got to become about the game more so than yourself.”
He has been pleasantly surprised at what he has discovered at the Kangaroos and says the 2022 season is not a true reflection of the quality of people at the club and the players. He is optimistic he can galvanise the people within to shoot for a common goal but knows doing that isn’t a simple process either.
‘It’s got to become about your teammate, rather than yourself. It’s got to become about your club rather than yourself, and it’s got to become about the game more so than yourself.’
Alastair Clarkson
“This is also a club, because of the uncertainty, that’s been smacked around the ears a little bit. They’re a little bit sheepish about putting their head up, just in case they get another belting,” Clarkson said.
“We’ve got to get people to take that step forward and be confident in what they’re doing.”
Players such as Horne-Francis, Phillips, Tarryn Thomas and Jaidyn Stephenson symbolise the uncertainty that pervaded North Melbourne’s performances in 2022.
In Clarkson, they will find an ally and teacher with experience in how to bring out their best as he tries to move the club into a space where people want to come to work, inspired by the challenge ahead of them.
North Melbourne players listen to new coach Alastair Clarkson at his first press conference at the club.Credit:Jason South
“It has to be fun to actually try to overcome the significant challenges and hurdles [to forge a career] and some of that is just coming up against a really good opposition every week throughout the footy season as you get on this journey together and overcome obstacles,” Clarkson said.
“And then the other obstacles that come are just the things that happen in your life.”
Thomas had a family bereavement, Phillips had glandular fever, No.1 draft pick Horne-Francis had to transition into a new world under a fierce spotlight and they are just the challenges outsiders were aware they faced.
“This is life and we’ve got to deal with those things. But what we’re trying to teach these lads are things that help when they do confront those challenges, so they have the resilience and mental toughness to be able to deal with them as best they can,” Clarkson said.
“We know that the younger, they are the more difficult that is.”
And Clarkson knows he is a different person to when he started at the Hawks as senior coach 18 years ago as a 36-year-old.
“I felt like I was more an older brother to [those Hawthorn players]. Now I feel like I’m a mentor and a fatherly figure to them … so that in itself is very, very different. I’ll probably be a little bit more measured now, a bit more mature with emotional control and how I do things,” Clarkson said.
He wants to steer the players on the right path to being good footballers and resilient characters, but knows he is not the font of all wisdom and will occasionally need to be pulled into line by people he respects and trusts, such as Viney, for the “Clarko show” to be a ratings winner.
“Every senior coach in the competition is a competitor and a bulldozer,” Clarkson said.
“And they will try to get their own way but their way isn’t always the best way, and you need to have people around you prepared to tug your coat from time to time … to be able to just [take the keys] out of the ignition of the bulldozer every now and again and just take stock and reconsider other people’s views.”
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