Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\nWhile North has clearly improved, it\u2019s only beaten one side ahead of it on the ladder and the club appears happy to go into next season with Clarkson uncontracted beyond 2027.<\/p>\n
Lyon says the club\u2019s \u201cdisappointing\u201d five-game losing streak, including winnable games against Port Adelaide, Collingwood and St Kilda, has heaped pressure on Clarkson and should raise legitimate queries on if the 58-year old can still coach the modern game at a high level. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think he deserves to coach out (his contract). I wouldn\u2019t be making any extension to him, but I think he would be cognisant of the need to get moving,\u201d the Melbourne great said on Fox Footy\u2019s AFL 360.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a massive (fan), have been for a long, long time. But they do need to ask themselves, and him, real, hard, serious questions about the contemporary nature of the way he coaches. And what has held him in great stead for a long time, is it still relevant and pertinent? And is he still coaching at the cutting edge?<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s the question and \u2018Clarko\u2019 has to be honest enough to answer that. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere are issues with the way they defend, it\u2019s been an ongoing issue for a long period of time. When you sit down in front of him, you go: \u2018OK, how come we\u2019re not getting better in that area?\u2018<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I think he deserves and earns a right to coach into next year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clarko contract nears final year | 01:45<\/p>\n
Clarkson is coaching in his 21st AFL season including 443 games since taking the reins at Hawthorn in 2005.<\/p>\n
While that Hawks golden era undoubtedly makes Clarkson one of the greatest coaches of the modern era, Lyon said \u201cit comes to an end for all these greats\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cMick Malthouse, the longest serving coach … he bowed out at age 61,\u201d the Demons legend continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, \u2018Clarko\u2019, one of the great coaches \u2014 maybe the best I\u2019ve seen \u2014 is getting into that twilight. He needs to make that decision: \u2018Am I contemporary? Am I cutting edge?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause all the stuff that made him great, that changes. Players come in with different attitudes … a newer breed comes in and says: \u2018Is that a bit old man-ish?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re all the things he has to work out and then it\u2019s around the people around him and all that sort of stuff.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut there should be good pressure if they are the club they want to be. \u201cAnd that\u2019s to Sonja (Hood) and Jen (Watt), who are trailblazers as female president and female CEO.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clarkson\u2019s Roos face a \u201csignificant\u201d run home against the Bulldogs (nine-game losing streak against), Geelong (15) and Sydney (11) that has North at risk of finishing the season 0-8.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they were to win one of these, it would be momentous. If they don\u2019t, they\u2019ll back out of the season 0-8 \u2014 and 0-8 is an ugly place to get to,\u201d AFL 360 co-host Gerard Whateley said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I agree with you, next year is judgement year. They got a very cushy draw from where they were and they got it front-loaded to keep them viable, which is a manipulation of the fixture. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou wouldn\u2019t want to back out 0-8. But next year is judgement year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anderson backs in Dimma despite rumours | 01:22<\/p>\n
Clarkson, who\u2019s guided the club to 19 wins from 79 games since arriving at Arden Street in 2023, is happy to go into the 2027 without a commitment for 2028 and beyond. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a bit old school, all I require is a handshake and a wink and a nod and that\u2019ll do me,\u201d he said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll work our way through whatever we need to, but like I said, I\u2019m here to serve the footy club, and we\u2019ve done a pretty good job to stabilise (the club).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re really keen to progress ourselves up the ladder, but what we do know is that\u2019s done by investing in our stability and continuity.\u201d<\/p>\n
The legendary coach played down the growing speculation on his contract saga and future at the club at large.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been in the caper a long time. That\u2019s a bit of water off a duck\u2019s back,\u201d Clarkson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, what we\u2019re concerned about is the stability and continuity of our program inside the walls of our footy club. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t control the external perception. We just roll up to work and continue to work hard at what we know is a strategic direction of where we want to go as a footy club.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon’t worry about the outside noise, you guys are well aware of that.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Garry Lyon says Alastair Clarkson deserves to lead North Melbourne into 2027, but hard questions need to be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":843162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-843161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843161","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=843161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/843162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=843161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=843161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=843161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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