Alastair Clarkson has maintained despite early “disappointments” this year that his Roos brigade remains on the right track amid comparisons to Brisbane’s rebuild led by former peer Chris Fagan.
North Melbourne fell to Gold Coast by 52 points at Gather Round last Saturday after leading narrowly in the third term, with Clarkson left to lament two second-half lapses in as many weeks after getting run over by Sydney in Round 4.
In the past six seasons, the Roos haven’t managed a ladder finish higher than 15th, with Clarkson in possession of a 7-34 record as senior coach at Arden St since 2023.
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The four-time premiership mentor maintains his side is in a better position than this time last year, despite recent “frustrations”.
“I know the reality is it’s tough yards, and it’s tough to win games of footy and improve,” Clarkson began on AFL 360.
“Looking for wins in other areas than just your win-loss column (is key), we know that we’re a much better club this time this year than what we were 12 months ago.
“We’ve seen the improvement, but we are disappointed at different stages, we still lapsed in the last two weeks (against Sydney and Gold Coast) … the third quarter against the Swans was dreadful, (and) with six minutes to go in the third quarter (vs. the Suns), we’re six points in front, then 40 minutes later we’re 52 points behind.
“So, these are the enormous frustrations, disappointments, sometimes anger that we have as coaches.”
“Guess what? When we do start winning some games of footy, there will be also some disappointment and some bumps in the roads in terms of finals that we should’ve won and we somehow lose them, and ‘Fages’ has been through that over the past three or four years, getting a lot of critique … and then you salute, and it’s never any question anymore.
“It’s just all part of the journey, and I’m trying to use my wisdom in the game to just keep it all as balanced as we possibly can, but are we impatient and anxious and wanting to be better quicker? Of course we are.
“I don’t want to sell pessimism, I don’t want to sell too much optimism, but the balance of it is somewhere in between.”
On AFL 360’s Coaches’ Night, Clarkson likened his club’s bumps in the road to that of Fagan’s Lions, with the pair having overlapped at Hawthorn between 2008-16.
Asked by co-host Gerard Whateley if he was still ‘cutting edge’ as a coach in the modern game, Clarkson said: “Who can even answer that question? Are you cutting edge in what you do?
“I don’t know … I’m not the best person to ask, you need to be asking everyone else.
“That’s not me (to say I’m on top of my game). I’m never going to blow my own trumpet … I’m doing what I’m doing, contracted by the North Melbourne Football Club to do that. I’m trying my best and so is the group to get this club back up off the canvas and get ourselves back up the ladder again.
“I’m just backing myself in, like ‘Fages’ did (at Brisbane), and what we did at Hawthorn, and backing in what’s stood the test of time.
“What I do know and am very, very confident in is setting the club up in the right environment to one day be able to climb the ladder … we haven’t lost our way in that space.”
Comparing the Roos and Lions rebuilds | 02:25
The On the Couch panel compared the Roos’ ongoing rebuild to that of Fagan’s Lions half a decade ago when the age demographics were near-identical.
Fagan led Brisbane to consecutive five-win seasons in 2017 and 2018 before the Lions broke through the barrier for 16 wins and a top-four finish in 2019.
Going into Round 5, North Melbourne had an average age of 25.3 years with 105.4 games played. Brisbane in late 2019 was 25.2 years old with 102 games experience.
“You look at those numbers … at the end of the third year of ‘Fages’, so it’s actually 20 weeks advanced on where North Melbourne are under Clarkson at the moment, and the age and experience was relatively similar,” former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley told Fox Footy.
“But the reality is that you’re looking for these comparisons as a coach as … you’re looking at the premiership side and you’re speaking to your group saying ‘hey, they went through their bumps and bruises as well’, but at the same time, they were a top-four side in that (year).”
Brisbane Lions legend Jonathan Brown said: “That doesn’t make for great reading, the comparison, but no doubts it is (similar) from an age perspective.”
The three-time premiership forward expressed worry about the Roos’ defence, which hasn’t been able to make notable strides since Clarkson’s interrupted first season in 2023.
The Roos currently rank 15th for defending opposition inside-50s after ranking 18th in 2024 and 17th in 2023.
“Defensively that’s a concern for me,” Brown said. “That doesn’t make for great reading.
“Clarko came in and focussed on that in the early days, unfortunately he was away from the club — he had a leave of absence for about 13, 14 weeks in his first year — which certainly doesn’t help, but they’ve got to start to improve those numbers.”
North has also struggled defending turnover since Clarkson’s arrival, ranking 18th, 18th and 16th respectively between 2023-25.
“Their defence is reasonably experienced, midfield there’s some inexperienced guys there and some really talented guys,” Brown continued.
“Now, whether they’re just getting out of balance with how much they’re running forward as to how much they’re running defensively, we’re not sure, but they’ve got to fix up (those numbers) because they’re conceding 100-plus week in, week out, apart from against Melbourne.”
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