North Melbourne Wins Chase For Alastair Clarkson, Signs Five Year Coaching Deal

After weeks of speculation surrounding his future, Alastair Clarkson has signed a five-season coaching deal with North Melbourne.

The four-time premiership coach for Hawthorn had been linked with GWS, Essendon and North Melbourne.

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Clarkson played 93 games with North Melbourne between 1987 and 1995 before going on to coaching Hawthorn to 228 wins in 390 games.

North Melbourne President Dr Sonja Hood said she was “delighted” that Clarkson decided to head to Arden Street.

“This is a real watershed moment for our club, and I am writing to share it with members first – we’ll talk to media later today, but for now, this is a moment for all of us,” she said.

“I can’t speak highly enough of the professionalism of Alastair and his manager James Henderson over this past four weeks.

“We’ve had a crash course in getting to know each other and Alastair’s passion to drive our club back to where we belong is incredibly infectious.

“Alastair officially begins with us on November 1, and I’m looking forward to welcoming him, wife Caryn and children Stephanie, Georgia and Matthew, to the Shinboner family.”

Clarkson becomes the Kangaroos’ fourth coach in five years after David Noble was stood down from the job with just five wins in his 38 games coached.

The deal will most likely come as a relief to Clarkson, who said yesterday it was “embarrassing” to be in the middle of the coaching saga which involved the fate of Essendon’s coach Ben Rutten.

With the Bombers not securing Clarkson, it is expected Rutten will coach his last game against Richmond on Saturday night before the club looks to make changes at the helm.

“It’s quite embarrassing to be fair to be quite the central figure in all this,” Clarkson told Channel 10 on Thursday night.

“You know, I’ve got enormous respect for the three guys involved in their clubs, you know Spike McVeigh (Mark McVeigh, GWS interim coach), Truck Rutten (Ben Rutten, Essendon coach), and Patch Adams (Leigh Adams, North Melbourne caretaker coach) are all terrific people and they’re trying to do the right things by their clubs.

“In particular with the situation around Truck, you know he’s still got a year of his contract to run and it’s quite embarrassing being the centre of attention in a situation it’s just so difficult for both him and his club.

“I’d prefer to be able to get off the back page and I know full well that this circus will end once I can make a decision one way or another.”

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