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Opinion
Alastair Clarkson and North Melbourne are getting by too easy in 2023.
While coaches like Ross Lyon and Brad Scott have instantly turned around the fortunes of their previously struggling teams upon taking over, the legendary Clarkson has failed to follow the trend.
Of course, this was always a different challenge at North, taking over the back-to-back wooden spooners and trying to transform them to become a long-term contender.
This takes time and absolutely, the first six weeks of the process means nothing to the overall end game. Some of the young players on the list at North Melbourne are so exciting, there’s little doubt that this team will be fun to watch for years to come and become competitive.
But if we’re going to be critical of other teams that have dropped off, and even of Hawthorn at times early in this season, then Clarkson deserves to be in the firing line too.
(Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)
There’s a difference between a team with elite young talent, and an elite young team.
North Melbourne has scored the second-fewest points through the opening six rounds, and conceded the second-most, despite being older and more experienced than their opponents in four of the opening six rounds.
Sitting in 14th spot is obviously an improvement on face value, but the two wins over the disappointing West Australian teams in the opening fortnight of the season feels an age ago.
Since then, they’ve lost to Hawthorn, Carlton, Brisbane and Gold Coast.
It’s not really the results that are the issue though, but rather the lack of competitiveness they’ve dished up when the going gets tough, despite having experience on their side.
Maybe the perception of North Melbourne being a young team and having had no expectations on them means either this is seen as acceptable or, more likely, no one really cares at this stage.
That win in the opening round seemed so good – nine players with less than 50 games experience and a total average of 81 games per player, 29 less than the Eagles.
Since the opening round, the average age of North Melbourne’s team has been 26, with over 100 games of experience. They’ve made Gold Coast, Carlton and Fremantle look like children on paper.
Take the loss against the Suns last weekend for example. North Melbourne had six players with at least 150 games experience, and only five with less than 50.
But when Gold Coast shut down the influence of the shining light Luke Davies-Uniacke, no one was left to stand up.
Like most games this season, they over-possessed the ball without an effective end-game, they failed to apply pressure and when they got inside 50, they just couldn’t convert.
There are too many passengers with too much experience in the team at the moment that flies in the face of what Clarkson has tolerated as a coach previously.
Even new leader Luke McDonald has experienced a significant drop-off in defensive output and isn’t playing to the level of a leader.
Only the return of veteran Jack Ziebell into the backline has offered some sort of veteran leadership and inspirational action that if maintained, should provide some sort of flow-on effect as the season progresses.
(Photo by Adam Trafford/AFL Media/Getty Images)
Disregard inflated possession numbers if you like, the defensive work he has put in has been exceptional.
The way Clarkson coaches is designed to promote flexibility and learning opportunities for younger players.
Certainly, starting the season with Harry Sheezel off half-back is right out of his own textbook, that is designed to teach the young star both about accountability, and leading patterns of the opposition.
Yet through six weeks, there’s almost the universal acceptance of mediocrity from experienced players that just can’t cut it for any stakeholder of the club.
Rarely do we see a Clarkson playing group go through the motions, but it’s infectious and if recruits from other clubs can get games coasting by, it both sets the wrong standard for the younger members of the playing group, while also heaping pressure on them to perform.
The likes of Tom Powell, Paul Curtis, Charlie Comben, Will Phillips, even Bailey Scott have shown signs this season but are drowning under the lack of on-field impact their more experienced teammates have had.
Now, this isn’t one of those dire situations that means North Melbourne have gone down the wrong path, although ongoing investigations and findings will likely dictate that.
We’re only a quarter of the way through the first season of this official new ‘Roo rebuild, one which given the talent on the list, will be exciting along the way.
But North Melbourne isn’t some young team that has struggled to keep up against bigger bodies and been beaten by more experienced teams over the last month.
This is a team put on the park to be competitive given the demographics of the players selected and has ultimately failed to make any definitive change to what has been going on at the club, other than improved efficiency inside 50, when they finally get it in there.
North Melbourne will improve as the season goes on and their numbers and style will be more palatable as the coach starts to put the pieces together.
It doesn’t excuse this poor start to the season though and North Melbourne fans should feel disappointed in the opening six weeks.
It’s time to turn up the heat on Alastair Clarkson and his experienced team, their start to 2023 has been unacceptable.