{"id":584179,"date":"2026-04-04T03:23:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T03:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/584179\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T03:23:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T03:23:11","slug":"alastair-clarkson-spray-to-colby-mckercher-video-north-melbournes-good-friday-win-over-carlton-latest-news-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/584179\/","title":{"rendered":"Alastair Clarkson spray to Colby McKercher, video, North Melbourne\u2019s Good Friday win over Carlton, latest news"},"content":{"rendered":"

North Melbourne young gun Colby McKercher has revealed that Alastair Clarkson\u2019s spray at him in the Good Friday win over Carlton<\/a> was due to a defensive lapse.<\/p>\n

But McKercher says the fiery three-quarter time address came from a place of care as the pair \u201chugged it out\u201d after the epic comeback win. <\/p>\n

The Kangaroos trailed Carlton by 22 points at the final change when Clarkson went off at McKercher in an animated moment caught on camera including a whack to his chest.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Watch every match of every round of the Premiership Season LIVE and ad-break free during play on FOX FOOTY, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI was disappointed I let the team down,\u201d McKercher told Fox Footy post-match.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a forward 50 stoppage and I kind of switched off mentally for a bit. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think Jagga Smith might\u2019ve snuck through and kicked a goal as my matchup for the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew I\u2019d made a mistake when it happened and I could see him beeline straight for me at three-quarter time. I was like: \u2018Here we we go\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clarko speaks on frantic final quarter | 13:21<\/p>\n

North Melbourne stormed home with seven goals in the fourth quarter to overrun the Blues in one of the club\u2019s most memorable wins under Clarkson to improve to 3-1 on the season.<\/p>\n

And there were no hard feelings from McKercher towards his coach in the aftermath.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Clarko\u2019 and I have such a good relationship, we hugged it out after the game,\u201d the 20-year old added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s just his way of showing care, he\u2019s so hard on me because he cares so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such sprays are rare in the modern era, with talk that the younger generation of players don\u2019t respond as well. <\/p>\n

But McKercher said he didn\u2019t take it personally and knows the four-time premiership mentor was simply trying to spark a \u201cresponse\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cNah, not at all (I didn\u2019t take it personally). He\u2019s trying to get a response out of me to improve in that area and make better efforts in the fourth quarter,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have such a good relationship, so I trust his judgement. <\/p>\n

\u201cObviously he was pretty fired up there, but it\u2019s in the heat of battle. Things like that happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it should be made a big deal out of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blues choke 22-point lead to Roos | 01:40<\/p>\n

The zippy yet smooth-moving McKercher was among North Melbourne\u2019s best in the Marvel Stadium clash with 24 disposals \u2014 including 19 in a particularly effective first half \u2014 across half back. <\/p>\n

Clarkson praised the former No. 2 pick\u2019s abilities with ball in hand but wanted to emphasise the defensive side of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they scored three goals in three minutes in the last part of the (quarter). Colby\u2019s attention to detail on a couple of D50 stoppages wasn\u2019t as strong as it needed to be,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just a general reminder that we need to be strong in that part of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a young kid learning the game, he does some terrific stuff and he was really strong with ball in hand in the first half.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we need to be really, really good defensively and that was frustrating.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they scored four or five goals from inside 50 stoppages and those last two certainly got the coach a bit frustrated going down at three-quarter time.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Kerch\u2019 had a part to play in both of those.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"North Melbourne young gun Colby McKercher has revealed that Alastair Clarkson\u2019s spray at him in the Good Friday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,14405,64,63,55,639,684,3239,23080,286000,54308,285997,285999,12117,285998,7204,85,14379,286001,9020],"class_list":{"0":"post-584179","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-alastair-clarkson","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-australian-football-league","13":"tag-australianfootballleague","14":"tag-ben-cotton","15":"tag-carlton-blues","16":"tag-colby-mckercher","17":"tag-defensive-lapse","18":"tag-defensive-side","19":"tag-epic-comeback-win","20":"tag-fiery-three-quarter-time","21":"tag-final-change","22":"tag-four-time-premiership-mentor","23":"tag-north-melbourne-kangaroos","24":"tag-sports","25":"tag-three-quarter-time","26":"tag-three-quarter-time-address","27":"tag-young-gun"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584179","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=584179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}