New North Melbourne coach David Noble has provided his insight into comments made by club chairman Ben Buckley earlier in the day.
Buckley suggested on SEN Breakfast that the new coach has “got two to three years to get us in a position where we’re competing regularly in the top four and ultimately looking to win a premiership”.
The comments raised eyebrows around the football industry, with many wondering why Noble was put under so much pressure so soon.
Kane Cornes tweeted: “This quote will be replayed a few times in two years. Tough gig”.
Noble however said he and Buckley are on the same page and the comments weren’t a surprise to him.
“We talked about that at the board. Like, to be honest they’re discussions that we have had,” Noble told SEN’s Bob and Andy.
“We’re a team that’s honest and open and genuine so it’s not something we hadn’t talked about in the lead-up to that.”
On how he wants to shape the club on field, Noble said his aim is to create a club that puts out a consistent performance.
“I think we’ve got to be careful we don’t become too complicated,” he said.
“We just want our club to become reliable. We just want to present reliable performance on an ongoing basis and continue to grow and improve.
“There’s no ceiling on what that looks like.
“I’m not necessarily going to be looking at what that looks like from a win and loss because we know that that becomes your outcome and if you focus on the outcome you miss out on the process.
“We’ve got a really exciting group. We’re going back to the draft. We’ve got some older heads that are still playing good footy, we’ve got some exciting youth that have got games under their belt and we need our guys to be reliable in their performance.”