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Why North Melbourne fans should hold their faith in Clarkson
Nicholas Quinlan • April 19th, 2025 2:43 pm
Despite being in their sixth season of a rebuild, North Melbourne fans are being told to maintain their faith in Alistair Clarkson despite starting the season 1-5.
After a promising win against Melbourne back in Round 2, there were signs that North may be on the rise.
But instead, they have shown regression and have been comprehensively beaten across the last four weeks.
And after incurring an 82-point loss against Carlton in their Good Friday clash at Marvel Stadium, it has only leaves further questions around Clarkson and what improvements he has made to the team.
On SEN’s Crunch Time, Luke Hodge who was a three-time premiership captain under Clarkson at Hawthorn believes that the Kangaroos need to maintain Clarkson despite the poor results to continue building the list and the culture.
“I don’t think anything’s changed my point of view,” Hodge stated.
“What you need to do to change the culture of a footy club is put things in place and build a foundation.
“And you can’t build a foundation in a week.
“He’s (Clarkson) has put things in place and I thought early on, they were okay.
“They turned over the ball a lot moving forward in that first half which hit ‘em on the scoreboard but then defensively and Simmo you know what this is like, the last couple of years coaching some younger sides.
“As soon as momentum goes against you against a very experienced side, they stick to what they need to do where the young guys fall away and I think that’s where North Melbourne fell away big time in that second half.”
Adam Simpson who was a 306-game player for North Melbourne agreed with Hodge thinking that the issue lies with maybe the expectation of this season being overestimated.
This has been evident in North’s list strategy having brought in Luke Parker, Jack Darling and Caleb Daniel to provide their list with more experience.
They also traded this year’s first-round pick to Richmond to select Matt Whitlock at pick 27 and the Tigers second-round pick.
“For me, it’s about the bigger picture and the messaging and what’s the expectations of North Melbourne with their fans,” Simpson said.
“Coming into this season, I think everyone was thinking there’s another step to be taken.
“And what did they win last year? Three or four games and I think most people were thinking seven or eight games (for 2025) and just a step forward.
“And that’s still possible, but they win against Melbourne and I heard Kingy (David King) talking about how they’ve arrived and here we go, the button has been pushed.
“But I looked into that game and they kicked seven goals from centre bounce which you just don’t do every week.”
North Melbourne will look to add to their one win for the season next week when they face Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval next Saturday.
