The first task of North Melbourne’s new coach Alastair Clarkson is to galvanise the Kangaroos to believe they can win a premiership. | By Peter Ryan petryan agerealfooty
By Wednesday, having only heard his new coach speak once, Horne-Francis revealed that Clarkson had his trust already.
Despite such emotion, he wanted to avoid letting it affect his decision on where he should return to coaching when the Kangaroos came knocking, the Giants’ circled and Essendon made a late attempt to spoil. “To know how passionate people still are about the footy club and how pleased they are that someone that they know is going to help steer the club back on the right path is really touching,” Clarkson said.
At Hawthorn, he had to be autocratic in his first two years as he and conditioning coach Andrew Russell set and maintained the standards.Clarkson knew such an approach was vital, but it also had a shelf life, so he hopes that sort of heavy lifting, where required, can be shared at the Kangaroos as it’s taxing on those driving the standards.
“It’s got to become about your teammate, rather than yourself. It’s got to become about your club rather than yourself, and it’s got to become about the game more so than yourself.”