Get your first month for just $1. Limited-time offer.<\/a><\/p>\nAnd there\u2019s concerns that Clarkson\u2019s defensive system isn\u2019t getting through to his players in year three, with North allowing 102.8 points per game in 2025 after 110.9 (2024) and 100.8 (2023) the last two seasons. <\/p>\n
Saints legend Leigh Montagna showed a series of clips on Fox Footy\u2019s The First Crack where North players were consistently caught out of position against Geelong as their zone continuously got exposed. It led to several easy goals out the back including \u201cthe 11 easiest goals you\u2019ll ever see\u201d from Jeremy Cameron.<\/p>\n
Is Clarko the right man for the Roos? | 06:25<\/p>\n
Montagna said North\u2019s defence was \u201call over the shop,\u201d with \u201ctoo many players who go ball hunting with no balance or want to defend\u201d and \u201cno layers\u201d or \u201corganisation\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what they are trying to do defensively and it\u2019s been like this for the last three year,\u201d Montagna said on The First Crack.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve got to ask if it\u2019s the right system, and if it\u2019s not, is the message getting through to the playing group? What do you value as a club?<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re going to start your backline with Colby McKercher, Caleb Daniel and Zane Duursma, are you really valuing defence? Charlie Comben is by far their best defender and intercept mark, and they pay him forward. I couldn\u2019t understand that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just wonder whether they\u2019re coaching it the right way. Because if that\u2019s the system they want to play, clearly the players either aren\u2019t capable of doing it or don\u2019t adhere to it. That\u2019s on the coaching to make some changes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt should\u2019ve been 150 points, Geelong stuffed up so many opportunities to put more scores on the board. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a training drill. If the system is too complicated, you\u2019ve got to strip it back. But this has been three years now of the system Alastair Clarkson wants to implement with his team, and it\u2019s not getting better. <\/p>\n
\u201cClearly there\u2019s a breakdown somewhere and they\u2019ve got some serious soul searching to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
‘Cardinal sin!’ Where did Dees go wrong? | 02:58<\/p>\n
Dual premiership Kangaroo David King believes Daniel should shoulder a key part of the blame, with the numbers not boding well for the recruit\u2019s influence across half back.<\/p>\n
Daniel, who leads North in kick ins with 116 including 110 disposals, is giving up 12.7 (81) from turnovers on kick ins this season \u2014 the worst return in the AFL.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know where the breakdown is \u2014 Caleb Daniel,\u201d King said on The First Crack.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s spun them into a complete bust. I don\u2019t want to see him kick out anymore, I really don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen him kick out 110 times and most of the time he goes to himself. He\u2019s the highest-cost kick-out player in the competition right now, he\u2019s a turnover machine. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not sure what he\u2019s actually doing, he\u2019s got the best role in footy.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe doesn\u2019t help you win the ball back and he doesn\u2019t help you counter punch. He doesn\u2019t fight the fight at contest, he\u2019s winning close to 90 per cent of his ball in an uncontested fashion across half back. That doesn\u2019t help.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo if you\u2019re not elite by foot or creating overlap run or winning the ball, what are you doing? They continually roll with this guy and it causes all sorts of problems for the rest.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s got to be out, I don\u2019t understand how he survives in this team without a function. I just don\u2019t get it.<\/p>\n
King believes such turnovers have \u201cpermeated through the team\u201d including impacting Colby McKercher.<\/p>\n
\u201cMcKercher is trying to do what Daniel does. What\u2019s happened to their vision? They\u2019ve become blast, they\u2019ve lost their mind and become really basic players,\u201d the Roos great added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey need to sit down and go: \u2018What\u2019s going on here?\u2018 This is Alastair Clarkson, it\u2019s not the support group.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"North Melbourne has been urged to change its defensive system after an ugly \u201cbreakdown\u201d in a 101-point loss…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,14405,64,63,55,639,25305,19056,25309,25312,1818,25313,3496,25315,1127,13659,25307,25303,12141,25049,3465,7804,25308,25314,20002,25311,85,25302,25310,25306,25304],"class_list":["post-25943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-alastair-clarkson","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-ball-hunting","tag-caleb-daniel","tag-cardinal-sin","tag-counter-punch","tag-david-king","tag-defensive-system","tag-dual-premiership","tag-firing-line","tag-fox-footy","tag-geelong-cats","tag-highest-cost-kick-out-player","tag-intercept-mark","tag-jeremy-cameron","tag-kilda-saints","tag-leigh-montagna","tag-melbourne-demons","tag-overlap-run","tag-right-man","tag-saints-legend","tag-selection-axe","tag-sports","tag-third-best-return","tag-training-drill","tag-turnover-machine","tag-turnover-rate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}