North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson says the strain of contributed to his recent verbal outburst on the bench.
In his first public appearance sinceof directing profanities towards an umpire almost two weeks ago,Clarkson spoke of the “hardship” he and Brisbane Lions coach Chris Fagan had endured since September 2022 when allegations of racism were made against the pair and a Hawks staffer. They have strenuously denied the allegations.
North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson said the strain of the Hawthorn racism saga contributed to his recent outburst on the bench.Getty Images
Clarkson will coach the rest of the year from the coach’s box to reduce the risk of making another foul-mouthed rant and potentially triggering until the end of the 2025 season.
“Without a doubt,we can’t dismiss the fact that ‘Fages’ and myself have been under enormous amount of pressure over the last 18 months,” Clarkson said.
“Just things build up. You don’t even know that it’s happening to you until you get into an emotional state then you react.
“The best way to try and avoid that is to keep away from getting into a significant emotional state,that’s probably better off being in the box than down on the bench.”
Clarkson said in March that he needed to reinvent himself as a coach and better control his emotions after an expletive-laden outburst at St Kilda players during a pre-season practice game.
The four-time premiership coach has a long history of poor discipline,often related to a failure to control his emotions,that pre-date the saga at Hawthorn.
Among Clarkson’s long list of offences is a four-game ban for abusing a league official at his son’s under-9s game in 2012. That incident happened of an MCG coach’s box.
In 2017,he was fined $20,000 by the AFL for saying he would not comment on “disgraceful umpiring” after Hawthorn had lost to Gold Coast.
Nine years earlier,or abusing umpire Justin Schmitt after a loss to Geelong when he said:“He’s a good player for the Cats that No.17,wasn’t he? He’s a ripper.”
The ongoing challenge for Clarkson is maintaining his composure during games when emotions are sharpest. He said he had improved in this area despite his recent slip-up.
“Last week would suggest not,” Clarkson said. “I know I’m making progress. Doing a lot of work with the sports psych,and doing a lot of things. There’s so much going on in our lives. If we can just try and keep things in perspective and avoid situations where you’re in emotional or temperamental types of situation,which is really difficult because that’s what we love about our game.
Caroline Wilson says the process through Hawthorn's racism scandal has been flawed.
“We’ve just got to keep working on being the very,very best we can be in that space. It’s an emotional game,you’re hugely invested. Particularly when you’re of the character and mindset of me it’s particularly challenging.
“I’ve got to keep working on it,try to reduce the amount of times I get caught up in those situations.”
Clarkson said he needed to put his situation in perspective against the plight of inspirational football figure Neale Daniher,who has devoted the final years of his life to raising awareness and money to find a cure for motor neurone disease.
“I’m wearing a hat for a great man. One of his most prominent sayings is,‘Life isn’t meant to be fair,’ ” Clarkson said,wearing this year’s FightMND beanie. “In his particular case,it’s hardly been fair to him.
“He’s been dealing with the beast for 10 years,his family have,and it’s an absolute inspiration he’s shared that journey with so many people and raised so much money to try and curtail this dreadful illness.
“That’s an enormous sacrifice that he’s made,an inspirational commitment that he’s made to community.
When you compare that to the hardship of ‘Fages’ and I ... then perspective is life hasn’t really been fair to me and ‘Fages’ either,we’ve had to deal with that stress,but it’s nothing compared to ‘Rowdy’[Daniher].”
Coaches pleased with holding-the-ball clarification
AAP
Carlton coach Michael Voss and Essendon counterpart Brad Scott are satisfied with the clarification offered by league officials this week following some initial confusion around the mid-season holding-the-ball rule tweak.
Voss was one of the chief agitators for change to the rule,which was delivered last week.
The tightening resulted in a spike in holding-the-ball free kicks paid – up 41 per cent to an average of 11.6 across the seven matches in round 12.
It was a significant rise on the average of 8.2 holding-the-ball free kicks paid across all games played earlier in the season.
The umpires’ application of the tightened rule received a mixed response from coaches over the weekend. But Scott said the umpiring department had given the Bombers “really helpful” clarification around the new interpretation in recent days.
The Crows’ Jake Soligo gets caught holding the ball by West Coast’s Campbell Chesser.AFL Photos
“They gave us five examples of correct decisions and an explanation as to why they were paid,” Scott told reporters on Thursday.
“You can debate your opinion of the rule,but that’s not of interest to us. What’s of interest to us is the AFL and the umpires’ interpretation of the rule and how they’re going to adjudicate it.
“Those five examples gave us great clarification.”
Scott,the AFL’s football boss before taking up his Essendon role,called on the league to make holding-the-ball explanations available to fans.
“Players and coaches can know it,but the fans have got to know too,” he said.
“It’s very frustrating when the fans don’t know what is holding-the-ball and what isn’t. The five examples I saw this morning,I’d like everyone to see.”
Voss,whose side faces Scott’s Essendon on Sunday night,said the Blues had also made contact with the league and received greater clarity on the new interpretations.
“Clearly the take is it’s going to be hotter on holding-the-ball,so I think we can expect that,” he said on Thursday.
“We want to operate within[the rules],and if they’re the changes that need to be made and it makes it better for our game,then so be it.
“After a couple of weeks,when teams are starting to get a bit of an idea on how it’s going to be interpreted,then players are generally pretty good at being able to adapt.”
North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson watched the new interpretations put into practice last week while his side had a mid-season bye.
“I was expecting perhaps an overreaction more than anything,” Clarkson said. “But whilst I noticed it was a productive and pleasing change,I didn’t think it was over the top.
“I didn’t think it significantly influenced games and I didn’t see any players,commentators or supporters getting overly frustrated with just a little bit of a tweak to it.
“I think that’s a productive thing for the game.”
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