Season 2026 - North Melbourne

I doubt Fagan or others could have got much more out their list at the time. I still believe their list is bottom 6 in the comp.
It’s a bit like thinking anyone else could have got many more wins out of our list this year. We had a bottom 2 list this year and I’m not sure any coach would have got 4 or 5 wins out if it

Good thing junior footy is finished for the year.

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This has nothing to do with Brad Scott. And not a blight against Clarko.

A good coach is shaped heavily by the list they have at their disposal. Then they are also shaped by his assistants and support staff. Nothing more, nothing less. Clarko was their ‘messiah’. The guy who could fix all their wrongs. And even he was more likely to fail than succeed.

We don’t need a messiah. We need multiple people pulling in the same direction for longer than three years. I usually hesitate to bag one person for the reason teams get themselves into terrible situations simply because it is multiple people within the club who send a team into those terrible situations. And it usually begins small when you’re doing well and snowballs the longer a club believes they could ‘be better’ or ‘isn’t them’.

We are where they were at the end of 2021. We don’t know if we’ve hit rockbottom yet. That’ll be determined next year. They hired Clarko and he has improved their ladder position whilst trading away a future first round pick when for a late first and took Whitlock. I don’t even think Dodoro would take a risk like that. If we have the same results as North have had since 2021, we should be glad we’re on the improve across a four year period. Something we haven’t done for twenty years. Yet, that wouldn’t be the sentiment. We’d want our coach sacked and scream that he can’t develop, doesn’t know how to teach gameplan, etc. The usual bullshit fan tropes that don’t even escape teams who make finals every year. We’re a long way off it. I hope fans / members get it and I certainly hope the leaders at the club get it too. The sad thing is, we’ll have board upheaval coming at some stage in the four years, because the club is ripe for the pickings for a group of leaders to take the club into the direction they feel will be successful. Hopefully, good comes out of it. Our next ‘backward step’ is going to feel far tougher than the four rock bottoms / couldn’t get worse than this moments we’ve experience in the last twenty years.

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Norf failed to get more than 1 rising star nomination in 2026 (Trembath), same number as Brisbane. Its bad when a struggling team is not getting around 3 nominations.
It looks like Norf thought they were ready to go, expected to do a lot better in 2026, played their best 23 all year and failed to launch. Monumental overestimation of the state of the rebuild. Essendon: take note.

I mean, I distinctly remember Dimma saying Richmond had to take a backwrd step to go forward. Nek minut they win 3 flags.

no they havent. Dodoro is the worst list manager in league history.

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What if the perception is that another coach could have got at least as much it of the list while not being a negative to all other parts of the clubs culture.

If he was “just another coach" rather than anything special, why would they bother putting up with the crp?

And you’d think that for a club whose AFLW team is the best thing that’s happened to it in 100 years, having to keep a risk in the risk register “men’s coach disillusions every female on the planet” might be a bit much.

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Which is why I think they will go all in for Ridley and Murray

Sush you pesky bastard do you want a good pick for him or not

I think they are a lot closer than most in here think.

If they mature a bit and don’t drop those games to port and wc this year they are at 11 wins and lost a few close one.

A good young coach with the right assistants and game plan and a few good recruits in the back half and I think they will jump up again next year

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Unless they already have someone lined up to take over. It’s such insane timing

Would be very hard to get assistants to come and interview when they are putting all their concentration into finals

And within a week or so of the season finishing their is trade period etc

They are going to have to hit the ground running at lightning speed

I so hope Simpson takes the gig, I would love to see him fail

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It happens and clubs are fine

They don’t need to appoint/interview assistants mid finals, they won’t even have their senior coach locked in during finals period

Bevo was appointed to Dogs in mid Nov previously, made the finals following year

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Please don’t bring facts into a discussion

It’s petty

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But also yes on Simpson. I expect they will go a younger option however given what has been sen at Dees, Blues etc and even our appointment

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Have been told the sacking has been dressed up as being about on-field issues, but in reality is about Clarko’s “performance” off field.

Be interesting to see if any media ask what he’s been up to, and who he’s been up to it with.

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As in romantic performances? Yuck.

I know most would hate it, but would we think about an BT style helping Spike role for Clarko if Hirdy says no… it would have a lot of knowledge and it would ■■■■ Hawks off which has its own benefits lol

I’m sure the AFLW team would approve.

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YARN  Don't make me hurt you.  Freaky Friday  Video gifs ...

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itd get a similar response to appointing thorburn

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I highly doubt it would ■■■■ the hawks off. They ■■■■■■ him off and replaced him. To my knowledge his replacement has done pretty well so far. I reckon they’d be laughing all the way to finals about how dumb a club you’d have to be to appoint to blokes fired by North to important footy roles.

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