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“Disrespectful”: Kangaroos hit back at Clarkson commentary
Andrew Slevison • April 23rd, 2025 9:49 am
Todd Viney, North Melbourne’s GM of football, has defended Alastair Clarkson.
The four-time Hawthorn premiership coach’s confidence and swagger has been questioned in recent times, with some wondering whether he’s lost the hard edge that has delivered him so much success previously.
The Kangaroos slumped to a fourth straight loss against Carlton on Good Friday and now find themselves sitting 16th on the ladder with a 1-5 record.
North have been at their rebuild for several seasons now and their inability to defend is a constant source of content on footy analysis shows, but Viney is confident that things at Arden Street are on the right track under Clarkson.
Asked on SEN Breakfast if Clarko still ‘has it’, Viney replied: “I find it amusing, really. I find it disrespectful.
“This is not only to Clarko but this is something that is pointed at senior coaches all the time. It’s almost like a sport. There is a sport around putting undue pressure on senior coaches in my view."
Vinery said the off-field dramas surrounding Clarkson and the Hawthorn racism claims over the last few years have taken their toll, but he is comfortable that the club’s senior coach is now refreshed and seeing the game as well as ever.
“We well and truly know the previous two years and what that’s dealt, and not many cubs can really perform at their best when they’ve got such distractions going on,” Viney continued.
“You can look at many clubs over a period of time when they have stuff going on they don’t perform at their best.
“He’s had enormous distractions, unwarranted criticism, judged unfairly, its taken an enormous toll on him over those two years.
“Eventually we’re into this third year, he’s two years and six games in and he’s a rejuvenated person, back to his old self, a lot of energy, seeing the game as well as he’s ever seen it. To support him we’ve got unbelievable people within the footy department.
“From my point of view as head of football, he sees the game as well as he ever has, the coaches forever tell me that he sees stuff that we don’t see. His attention to detail, his eye for the game, the understanding, his innovation which has always been lauded over the journey is still there.
“But we are in building blocks. We’re not in the position to be too innovative because we’re still trying to get the fundamentals of our game plan right, but that is coming. Then we add players to that as we go forward.
“I think the criticism is really unwarranted. I think it’s a bit of a sport, the coach-bashing thing, it’s a tall-poppy syndrome which is the Australian culture, we pick on the guys who have been successful and in time ultimately bring them down.”
North Melbourne is a strong off-field position, according to Viney, and will continue to work hard in a bid to improve the results that have eluded the club over the past six years in particular.
“We’re a really strong club, we’ve got a lot of things put in place really well with our unity, our Board, our executives, our football department, record membership again, profit,” Viney said further.
“So a lot of things are going well so we won’t be fractured, we won’t fall into jumping at shadows with all of the noise, we understand the game gives us nothing and we need to deserve to win games.
“No one is going to give us anything and we don’t expect it, we expect to cop our right whack with performances like the weekend, but we won’t hear that everything we’re doing is not right because there are a lot of positive things that are going right.”
Viney also had a message for the club’s loyal supporters.
“We need to stick fat and our supporters and members over a long period of time have tried to do that. They’ve tried to move us, relocate us, but we’re not going to bend. We’ll stay the course.”
The Roos next meet Port Adelaide at the Adelaide Oval on Saturday.
