North Melbourne on Friday pulled off one of the greatest coups in club history, signing Alastair Clarkson as their next coach.
The announcements came after months of discussions between the four-time premiership coach’s management and the Roos, led by president Sonja Hood.
While Essendon and GWS both signalled their interest in Clarkson, he ultimately chose the club where he played 93 games between 1987 and 1995.
A candid Hood said from the outset that she believed Clarkson coaching North Melbourne presented the perfect alignment between coach and football club.
She said that if Clarkson opted to coach elsewhere in 2023, it wouldn’t be as good of a fit as the North Melbourne job.
“I knew (Clarkson coaching North Melbourne) was a great fit,” she said on SEN’s Crunch Time.
“I also therefore knew that it if he chose to go somewhere else, then he wasn’t going to be a great fit because to me, the value alignment and purpose alignment is so strong.
“What he brings, what he needs and what we offer and what he wants, there’s such strong alignment so I felt it was just going to work.
“But I won’t lie, I desperately wanted it to happen and I was like that kid before Christmas who sees a big parcel under the tree that thinks it is theirs but is not 100 per cent sure.
“That is me.”
Hood confirmed Clarkson won’t attend North Melbourne’s final game of the season on Saturday, instead preferring to watch the game from his farm on the Mornington Peninsula.