North Melbourne didn’t just lose all faith in Alastair Clarkson.
This was a club which feared its coach was next year in danger of taking it backwards.
By the end of Wednesday’s extraordinary press conference, it was clear North Melbourne’s powerbrokers thought Clarkson’s magic had well and truly worn off.
And if everything president Sonja Hood and football boss Todd Viney said was true, then it is some wonder he lasted this long.
In recent months, Clarkson pushed a contract extension beyond 2027 with Roos’ chiefs, but if that deal was signed the club genuinely feared a walkout.
And that would have been catastrophic for a club which has been in the doldrums for a decade.
That is why the club believed it had to act as harshly as it did on Wednesday.
Essentially, North could no longer trust the leader of its football team. Inspiration had become irritation. The crown too heavy.
We have known for years the Roos had been a poor defensive team and had struggled to show enough improvement behind the ball.
The Roos inability to beat teams above them had become a set of handcuffs.
But what the Roos described on Wednesday was a coach who was not only not up to the modern demands of the game, he was someone who struggled to relinquish control.
This was not just about performance and win-loss. This was about style. And coaching method.
It was a bruising assessment.
Viney blamed gaping holes in the game plan. A lack of clarity and cohesion.
The confusion. Outdated methods.
And, reading between the lines about the lack of delegation, Clarkson was not in a mood to share the steering wheel as the screws tightened late in the season.
These sorts of departures are normally attempted thank yous. A bit awkward, but gracious.
But North dropped the hammer on Clarkson on Wednesday with a level of honesty and transparency we rarely see.
If he has trepidation about returning to Hawthorn following the racism saga, it’s hard to know when he will walk back into Arden St.
For a club that has been down the bottom for so long, maybe the powerbrokers decided the situation needed some napalm.
North said Clarkson was frustrated and disappointed by his exit and didn’t see it coming.
They could try to give him feedback about some of the issues, but how would he handle it?
They weren’t sure. In any case, if he wasn’t filthy already, he will be now.
Viney is Clarkson’s best mate, after all. Or certainly, he was.
It hit North fans hard Wednesday morning. But by 3pm they were left in absolutely no doubt the club was completely off its coach.
And this wasn’t just a board decision.
The players, coaches and staff had all been consulted.
And the feedback wasn’t pretty.
The players and his assistants had grown tired.
They loved Clarkson’s passion over the journey and he had saved them to a degree when he picked the Kangaroos over Essendon.
But there was inconsistency.
Things were up and down. Maybe even erratic.
Clarkson’s energy and commitment was his strength.
But when it tipped over, it was also his weakness.
The giveaway there was when Viney said the program had become “too heavy”.
That means too harsh. Too full-on. And Hawthorn said the same thing.
The Roos want a lighter environment. More enjoyment.
The four-point loss to Collingwood in round 18 was poor because North was a talented team on the rise which should have eclipsed one which was trying to hang on.
The difference was Collingwood had a defensive system. They also had Nick Daicos. But what wasn’t missed was the Magpies’ set up. The brand.
The discipline and organisation. Especially at a venue which should have suited the Kangas.
Then the final round loss to Sydney Swans against a club on its knees was a shocker. But the alarm bells were well and truly already ringing.
History will show the die was already cast. They are a one-way football team despite Charlie Comben’s heroics in the back end.
North was crumbling at the time Clarko took over. It was a relic of a football club. And his arrival was an enormous shot in the arm.
The long list of player re-signings in recent years was to his credit. They believed in him. But the faith had dried up.
That continued on-field disappointment actually represented the biggest risk to the club for next season, rather than the decision to sack Clarkson this week.
Indeed, it was clear the board was going to come under some threat if things blew up in the early part of next year.
All eyes are on former player Mark Roberts, Stephen Head and Mark Dawson. There is a view North lacks football experience on the board. That is a watching brief.
But for now they must appoint a new coach and this will be more of a Melbourne-style approach than an Essendon process.
Club greats Adam Simpson and John Longmire hold obvious appeal, but the Roos want to find the best coach rather than just a North Melbourne person.
The Bombers limited the pool. The Roos will look to expand it.
It puts Fremantle assistant Jaymie Graham right in the frame after seemingly coming second at Collingwood (to Craig McRae), Carlton and Essendon.
The Roos want a connector. Someone who can coach a modern game style. A modern defensive grid.
North thought they were getting that in the man who invented ‘Clarko’s cluster’.
But in the end, North agreed with the same conclusions Hawthorn drew in 2021 when the baton was passed to Sam Mitchell.
It is a sad end, but aren’t they all? Just ask Michael Voss.
Considering all the prime talent, this is a club which must play finals next year.
And that expectation will not be insignificant on a new coach.
So the club needs to be careful if it goes down the path of an untried assistant, because the expectations will be high after a decade of doom.
It’s one of the most attractive jobs we’ve seen over the past decade because the bulk of the heavy lifting has already been done.
That is thanks to Clarkson, in part. This loaded list is ready to pop.
Clarkson had done the heavy lifting and had been paid well for it.
But he will be a shattered man on Thursday.
Clarkson told the Herald Sun in March he had lost the first two years of his stint to the Hawthorn racism saga. It nearly killed him, he said. The full toll on him was crippling, mentally and physically.
Viney said those scars may have never fully healed. So he may have been doomed from the get-go.
The wounds are unlikely to feel much better today.