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Opinion: Ashley Browne
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with Ashley Browne
Home sweet home – or is it?
Alastair Clarkson is embarking on a fairytale return to North Melbourne, but history says not all coaching homecomings end successfully.
Even those with a heart of flint could not help but be moved by the emotion surrounding Alastair Clarkson’s return to North Melbourne as coach.
From the “781” social media posts (he was North’s 781st player) to the warm and fuzzy embrace from all at Arden St on his first day back, this has been quite the homecoming.
The architect of the formerly ‘unsociable’ Hawks even tugged at the heartstrings when he said of coaching the team he played 93 games for: “When it comes time to make decisions as pivotal as this one, you think back to moments in my life where you needed support and this club gave it to me.”
He was referring to the warm embrace he received from the Roos as a young player coming to terms with the sudden death of his older brother Andrew in a car accident.
“Perhaps the shoe is on the other foot right now where this club needs some support and some help and that was pivotal in us making the decision to come back and help the club, help get itself back on track again,” he said.
But now comes the hard part.
Clarkson heading home is great for those of us who celebrate the romance in football, but clubs have been there before – and the results are mixed.
Norm Smith won four premierships as a champion full-forward for Melbourne, but left the club in 1949 to cut his coaching teeth with Fitzroy.
He always appeared destined to return to the Demons and in 1952 he did, despite many at Fitzroy claiming he had unfinished business there.
He did, but the siren call of home was too powerful and he was convinced to return to the Demons, where he became one of the all-time great coaches in League history, leading the club to six premierships between 1955 and 1964.
Smith’s protégé was the great Ron Barassi. He played under Smith in those six Demon flags before becoming a coaching legend in his own right with two flags at both Carlton and North Melbourne.
He returned to Melbourne amid great hoopla in 1981, but the Demons were a shell of their former great selves and the best Barassi could do was a pair of eighth-place finishes (in a 12-team competition) in 1982 and 1983.
It is instructive that both Leigh Matthews and Kevin Sheedy played at a time when Barassi was the biggest name in football, because they both resisted the temptation of returning to their former clubs as the “Messiah” with all the hype and expectation that entailed.
Sheedy, a champion at Richmond, twice resisted entreaties to return to Punt Rd.
The first was at the end of 1991, but he never warmed to the idea of replacing his great mate and former teammate Kevin Bartlett who had been sacked as coach.
But the Tigers made a compelling – and lucrative – pitch at the end of 1999, as negotiations for a new deal at Essendon reached a stalemate.
Sheedy was less than 24 hours from calling a media conference to announce his return to the Tigers when some confidantes from inside and outside Windy Hill convinced him to stay put.
Matthews is Hawthorn’s greatest ever player but only once ever took a phone call from the Hawks to discuss the coaching position. It was at the end of 2004 and it lasted all of 30 seconds.
His relationship with the Hawks remains unsullied despite nearly 40 years having passed since he last played for them.
“Coaching usually ends in difficult circumstances, so I’m glad I never coached Hawthorn,” he said.
You have to wonder whether Sam Mitchell, whose standing at Hawthorn sits not too far behind Matthews, considered that very thing when he disqualified himself from coaching searches at other clubs to fill Clarkson’s very large shoes at the Hawks.
There have been other favourite sons who returned home to coach premierships. Former Carlton captain Robert Walls did so at the Blues in 1987 after five years with Fitzroy.
But the Blues were perennial finalists who just needed a fresh voice and a few tweaks. Clarkson is joining a back-to-back wooden-spooner.
The legend of Clarkson will be further enshrined if he can land North its next piece of silverware, but coach and club have no doubt become reacquainted knowing that in footy, fairytales do not always come true.
THE MESSIAH?:
Alastair Clarkson will be hoping his return to North Melbourne as coach will be more successful than that of Melbourne great Ron Barassi to the Demons (inset).
