Kangaroos’ veteran Luke McDonald says the players loved their former coach Alastair Clarkson as intrigue around North Melbourne’s decision to sack the four-time premiership coach continues to bubble.
McDonald, who has played under four coaches during his 236-match career, said he felt as though the team was about to launch and described the vacant coaching job as an “enviable job” because of the talent on the list.
He said Clarkson – a four-time premiership coach at Hawthorn – took the North Melbourne job when the club was “at a pretty low ebb”, bringing stability to Arden Street.
“We loved ‘Clarko’ [Alastair Clarkson],” McDonald said. “We got on really well with Clarko. He had a big impact on a number of our players, but in saying that we also support the club’s decision because we are not where we want to be right now. We want to still be playing. We want to be playing finals.”
Despite all that, McDonald said he supported the board’s decision to end Clarkson’s tenure with one year remaining on his contract. He also excused football manager Todd Viney’s brutally frank remarks about Clarkson’s performance in the post-sacking press conference on Wednesday.
“It’s an emotional decision … we support the club’s decision and we want to be playing September footy,” McDonald said.
Viney and president Sonja Hood told Clarkson his time was up on Tuesday night following a unanimous board decision. He said the coach didn’t see the decision coming, but it was based on feedback from key people within the club that indicated they had lost their belief that Clarkson was the right man for the job.
Viney said there were “gaping” holes in the gameplan when providing reasons for the decision at the post-sacking press conference. Clarkson hit back in an interview with this masthead saying he felt as though the club had “danced on my grave” with their comments.
McDonald – who was co-captain of the Kangaroos under Clarkson in 2023 and 2024 – refused to comment on whether the coach’s communication of the gameplan was confusing for the players.
“I am not going to get into the nitty-gritty on the reasons because, at the end of the day, there is a lot of information the board have that we don’t as players,” McDonald said.
“We are not where we want to be as a footy club. We want to keep improving and keep getting better. That comes from the playing group. Obviously, we are going to bring in a new coach who is going to help that, but it’s going to come from our leaders, our young guys getting better and that is what we can control.”
North Melbourne have not played finals since 2016, and Clarkson was the fourth coach to lead the team since Brad Scott – who took them to two preliminary finals. McDonald has played under Clarkson, Scott, Rhyce Shaw and David Noble.
“When a decision like that is made, the first thing you do as players is reflect on yourself,” McDonald said.
“We have got to be better and play better footy and put ourselves in better positions that don’t lead to these decisions. The first thing we do as players is look at ourselves.
“We support the club’s decision, but it doesn’t make it any easier.”
He said he didn’t know what type of coach the team needed but he was confident the board would make the right call despite the past three coaches now failing to lead the team to finals.
“I would have thought it would be an enviable job,” McDonald said.
Teammate Jackson Archer said he did not have a bad word to say about Clarkson, but the decision showed that the AFL is a cut-throat industry.
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