Clarko’s right-hand man unpacks North Melbourne sacking

North Melbourne’s decision to sack Alastair Clarkson wasn’t on the cards two weeks ago.

That is according to renowned AFL high performance guru Andrew Russell who had recently been negotiating a consultancy role with the Kangaroos.

Russell was Clarko's right-hand man during Hawthorn’s premiership era including the 2008 flag and the three-peat from 2013 to 2015.

The fitness specialist said things were normal up until very recently, suggesting to him that the decision from the North board to sack Clarkson last week only came about of late.

“I was going to go to North in a consulting role. I'd been speaking to Todd (Viney) and to Clarko for months,” Russell said on SEN Breakfast.

“So as recently as two weeks ago, this wasn't on the cards from North Melbourne's perspective. I had done a deal to go there as a consultant, not full-time, and not in the performance role. Kev White does an amazing job at North Melbourne and they're very happy with that role.

“So it was actually a performance role across the whole football department and working with the players, which was exciting. So as I said, as of two weeks ago, this came very late.”

Garry Lyon asked: “So what do you think happened?”

Russell explained what he believes eventuated after the four-time premiership coach was initially brought back to Arden Street in 2022, widely seen as the ‘messiah’ who could turn North’s fortunes around.

After spending time with Clarkson last week, Russell has gained some insight into how it played out with CEO Jen Watt, president Sonja Hood and the board.

He suggests there was feedback from the playing group which might have had an impact.

“It's really interesting from a governance point of view. Clarko comes in as the messiah. He comes in with the ‘you're going to save us’ (mentality), which is huge in sport when the big messiah comes in,” Russell said.

“My understanding is he doesn't get any formal feedback during the time from the CEO, from the board, from Sonja. I think Sonja was catching up with players and talking to players.

“Then I think at the end of the year they did a feedback mechanism which sounds like it came together pretty quickly. The feedback was a focus group session with players. When you get players together, sometimes the players are the last people you want to ask around a coach. I’ve seen players ruthless on a coach and coaches when that team is winning, let alone when you're losing.

“It's a knife’s edge, the relationship with a coach. So when you get a group of players together the strongest voice will give their piece, groupthink takes over. I’ve seen it forever and a day, groupthink in these groups of players, either in a positive or a negative direction.

“I think a few players had a strong perspective and that perspective was then fed back at some level. There must have been a few other things going on. Then all of a sudden, normal conversations, normal challenges that happen in a football department, all of a sudden something happened and that must have gone to the board and then decisions change from there.”

Russell had enough discussions around the Roos to learn that they were striving to become ‘world class’.

What does that exactly mean? He’s not too sure, but he is confident that Clarkson would have been driving the highest standards he could in order to take the club forward - as was in his remit.

“So you can see from a governance point of view, it sounds like they have some challenges,” Russell continued.

“One of the great things around governments is you’re nose in and hands out, and that's for them to work out. You have a really good understanding of what's going on, but let the painters paint. How much do you need to be involved from that level?

“Because I was going to go in and and work with them and work with the players, there is a mantra they've been running with at North as in to be world class. They want to be world class. I don't really know what it means, other than you want to do things at a very high level.

“What it means is that every person supporting those players is striving to be the best they can be in their role. They're getting the latest knowledge that they can get from around the world and then everyone's coming together and executing it and everyone's on the same page.

“And then the players have to understand it, buy into it and then they have to execute it. So, I mean the pressure's back on the players now, isn't it? Because they've had a perspective or some players have had a perspective.

“The role of the coach is to support the players, to challenge them, to agitate at times, to ask questions, to set and drive standards. I think Clarko was driving very high standards. I think he was saying, ‘Well, you want to be world class. Well, this is what I think world class looks like’. And that's challenging for a lot of people.”

During the press conference to announce Clarkson’s sacking, president Hood said: “This club needs a coach who can coach for the modern game”.

But that is a notion that Russell can’t quite understand.

“Clarko is a smart guy. This concept of ‘the modern game’ - what is the modern game? I don't understand what people are talking about when you talk about the modern game,” he added.

“Because a person like Clarko, he’s wired a certain way. He's curious, he's a lateral thinker, he's a risk taker, he's courageous, but what he needs also is he needs people around him to balance that. He is what he is, he comes in, he was exactly the same version that they got four or five years ago when he came in. He's the same version now.

“So they say, ‘we're happy with that version four years ago, but now we're not happy with that’. So I would suggest where they probably fell down is they haven't been able to get the balance around him, because Clarko had unbelievably good balance around him for many, many years at Hawthorn.

“And part of his success was that he was very, very switched on, very driven, all the things I've spoken about. But part of the reason was he had people around him that balanced him out.”