They’ve got Port in Adelaide next week … which I expect them to lose to only further ramp the pressure up.
Then they’ve got us.
You know what’s going to happen - even this far out.
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I’ll start this by saying I’m not a current “lid off” devotee but in the last three games we have given up 60, 57 and 75 pts.
North have given up 117, 141 and 153.
We are nowhere near as bad defensively as they are.
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I’m calling if, they’ve botched their rebuild.
Drafted far too many mids and haven’t addressed other areas of the ground to the point where they have to play the likes of Darling, Fisher, Hansen Jr
Traded pick 25 for Caleb Daniel which he’s been average at best and then traded what is currently pick 4 for a project tall in Whitlock who was there at pick 27. Irony is they could’ve kept pick 25 and just drafted Whitlock and still retained what’s looking like a top 5 pick this year the way they’re going.
Guys like Caddy, Curtain, Watson, McDonald, O Sullivan. List goes on and on of players they had access to but just kept taking mids
Rawlings is one of the worst list managers in the comp
It’s glorious to see this rebuild go to ■■■■ with the angry little man at the helm
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They don’t pay any respect to the defensive aspects of the game. What is Clarkson teaching them at training? In pre-season? They’re actually regressing in this area.
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Probably teaching them some chords on the guitar, how to build a fire. Dad stuff
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There’s some speculation on Gorth’s BF board that Clarkson may be suffering cognitive decline. No idea if the rumour has any substance but if true, they could be in for a wild ride.
Not sure if it would be that, but he definitely makes less sense the more I hear him in the media. The game has possibly passed him by.
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Of course he is. He’s nearing 60, used to play a sport where his head got caved in every second week, just came out of stressful allegations that he’s the world’s biggest ■■■■, only to come back and coach a club that is a few seasons away from derefistrstion.
That would make my brain rot too. He’s probably also just checked the ■■■■ out of it all too and doesn’t give a ■■■■.
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Wait a minute…
What the ■■■■ is going on at North Melbourne?
A couple of days ago I made a post expressing my disbelief that North were crazy enough to give Richmond this years 1st, a likely top 5 pick, in exchange for last years second (27) and this years second.
And just now I found out that they handed the bulldogs pick 25 (ended up being 29) in what was seen as the deepest draft of all in exchange for Caleb ■■■■■■■ Daniel, who turns 29 in July.
I never gave them much thought but now I hate them 'cos they’re stupid.
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But North will win a final before Essendon
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Ex-Kangaroo Ryan Bastinac reaching out to club in 2023 and again now to give players private coaching/training.
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they also gave swans the pick to get Riley Bice for Luke Parker.
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He’s already flying down to Melb each week to play footy. Have heard nothing but good things about him down here.
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Did they steal these from the Dodoro thread?
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Issues with defence and the coach under pressure. Sounds familiar.
Maybe the Tin Rattlers want Brad back 
North greats have had enough, but is Clarkson the man to turn it around?
Excerpt from the above article is below. Had a laugh at the bold text.
Is Clarko still the man?
AFL great Nick Riewoldt fears the wagons are circling around Clarkson. Club insiders insist the coach is as fresh as ever, Viney describing criticism of the four-time premiership coach as disrespectful. The man himself responded by declaring he is as ruthless as ever, and is working desperately to lift the club from the “doldrums”.
Clarkson turns 57 on Sunday, and has more than two years remaining on his five-year contract. His signature was hailed as a significant turning point for the club, but when it comes to wins and losses that hasn’t been the case.
“Put on a tape of Glenn Archer, watch his desperation, hatred of being beaten, and ask: ‘Am I competing like that?’”
Luke Hodge, a three-time premiership skipper in his time at Hawthorn, has been Clarkson’s staunchest defender, recalling the patience that was required with the Hawks when Clarkson began there in 2005. By the end of 2008, a flag was delivered.
Clarkson has brought stability internally to North, and is a well-respected public face for the club, but hopes of a finals bid, let alone a premiership dream, are as distant as ever.
King has questioned whether Clarkson’s seven-figure wage has filled a major chunk of the $7.675 million soft cap. But the Kangaroos insist they have a strong assistant coaching group.
There is also public debate whether Clarkson’s long rap sheet has taken the sting from his tail. This includes the $20,000 fine and two-game ban, suspended until the end of the season, for his inappropriate outburst towards St Kilda players Jimmy Webster and Dougal Howard last season.
Riewoldt wants Clarkson to get angry.
“They are good players, but they are good players playing like they fear nothing from the senior coach. They don’t fear repercussions from the senior coach for ordinary efforts, particularly defensively,” Riewoldt said on Seven.
“The wagons are circling, the noise is getting louder. If you are going to go down, Clarko, go down swinging.”
Former St Kilda coach Grant Thomas took to social media to question whether “the ruthless, demanding, hard edge of Clarko” had diminished.
But Clarkson made it clear he still has what it takes to drag the club up.
“I am sure our players would tell you, if they wanted to reveal it to the outside football world, that I am not all kisses and cuddles. I think everyone has known that about me for as long as I have been involved in AFL footy. But I also know when the right time is to wrap an arm around a guy and try and give him some support,” Clarkson said.
He also pointed to the rise Melbourne and Brisbane have had over the past decade to show how the wheel can turn.
Viney insists Clarkson is back to his best after stepping away from North Melbourne in 2023 due to the effect of the Hawthorn racism investigation on his mental and physical health.
“He’s had enormous distractions, unwarranted criticism, judged unfairly – it’s taken an enormous toll on him over those two years,” Viney, who also worked alongside Clarkson at Hawthorn, told SEN.
“Eventually, we’re into this third year, he’s two years and six games in, and he’s a rejuvenated person, back to his old self, a lot of energy, seeing the game as well as he’s ever seen it.”
No more Mr Nice Guy
Former Kangaroos are hopping mad. Not only has King been vocal in his scathing assessments for weeks, former forward Troy Makepeace has made his feelings clear on social media, posting last Friday there was too much club focus on being “nice”.
“One of my coaches said, ‘Nice guys finish last’. AFL is the elite. [There’s] no room for being nice, you need to be brutal, you need to want it more. Get angry … break something … no more bullshit, that ship has sailed … stand for something … just do something …” Makepeace said
Makepeace – as Clarkson has done – later called for unity, urging the club to return to its “Shinboner way”.
But unity will only go so far if the results don’t come.
In what should have been a season where the Kangaroos showed marked signs of a rebirth, they again find themselves having to explain what’s gone wrong.
“I wish I had the crystal ball to be able to look into … and say ‘this is the day that it’s going to happen for this footy club’,” Clarkson said on Thursday.
“But all I can tell you is that day is getting closer. It’s not getting further away
Essendon missing out on Clarkson
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I would love nothing more than to see Clarkson get fired, and leave the game a shambles of a man. I so want to see him have a complete meltdown in public
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Because Brad Scott turned out so great…
North probably wish they still had Brad!