THE NOISE, and there has been lots of it, doesn't drown out the verdict. North Melbourne was right to sack Alastair Clarkson.

A week has passed since Roos president Sonja Hood and football department boss Todd Viney arrived at Clarkson's home to tell him he was fired, and six days have elapsed since Hood and Viney spoke publicly with borderline unprecedented AFL industry openness on the reasons behind the decision.

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Within the next 24 hours, the club will formally construct a panel to identify its next coach. Viney, CEO Jen Watt and AFLW coach Darren Crocker are expected to be on that sub-committee. Former captain and current board member Andrew Swallow may also be part of the official search, along with at least one external consultant.

While no candidate will be ruled out, there has been a strong belief among key decision makers at North Melbourne that it is time to employ an untried coach, initially placing the likes of Jaymie Graham, Corey Enright, Daniel Giansiracusa and James Kelly more favourably than Adam Simpson, John Longmire and Nathan Buckley.

Managing Clarkson had become impossible for North Melbourne. There had been an accumulation of actions which convinced Hood and her board that Clarkson was incapable of changing. He refused constant urgings to be clearer and to stay consistent with his messaging to players, and despite pleadings for him to reduce meetings and their duration, in the back half of the 2026 season, he was not only increasing them in number but also in their duration.

And then a series of season-exit meetings left some players even more confused with Clarkson's messaging about their roles and futures.

Despite being told it would not be financially viable, Clarkson had been hellbent on taking the North list to the Kokoda Track, a sacred and emotional experience he first instigated in late 2004, just weeks after being appointed coach of Hawthorn, which he subsequently took to four premierships. He had suggested the Roos needed to employ Andrew Russell, who oversaw the Hawks' high performance department in that period.

Clarkson's underwhelming win-loss record at North (20-71) was merely part of the decision reached by Hood and her board. His inability, or refusal – take your pick of word – to make the changes requested of him was the overriding factor.

I applauded the rawness and bluntness of Hood's and Viney's messaging during last Wednesday's media conference outlining the sacking of Clarkson. I still commend it, as I will never be critical of any football industry official who is prepared to publicly reveal their full versions of storylines. I do, though, acknowledge the views of many others, including Jason Dunstall and Dermott Brereton, that some wording was unnecessarily disrespectful, specifically the detail given to the assessments of Clarkson's failures as a "modern coach".

Two days after he was fired, Clarkson told The Age he was "blindsided", that the Roos had "danced on my grave", and "I feel like my life's shot". On the weekend, he off-loaded bags of Kangaroos apparel at an op shop in a move he clearly wanted publicised. 

Clarkson exited Hawthorn, at which he secured the 2008, 2013, 2014 and 2015 flags, with similar bitterness. Premiership-winning coaches, particularly those destined for the Australian Football Hall of Fame, never believe they deserve to be sacked.

For the first time since 2009, North Melbourne will embark upon a wide-ranging process to find its next coach. In 2009, Brad Scott was appointed, after Nathan Buckley rejected the role. Since 2019 when Scott was sacked, North abandoned processes in the appointments of Rhyce Shaw (off board member Glenn Archer's recommendation), David Noble (off then-highly paid consultant Paul Roos' recommendation) and Clarkson (Hood's "captain's call").

Other aspects of North's football operations should also be pulled apart in procedural review as part of the reset forced by the Clarkson sacking. It has surprised me that Viney is set to be given an official role in finding the new coach, given he wasn't working in football before Clarkson sought for him to join the Roos.

And surely the entirety of recruiting operations is properly critiqued. On Tuesday, Zane Duursma, the No.4 pick in the 2023 national draft, asked to be traded. In 2022, Jason Horne-Francis, the No.1 pick in the 2021 draft, left for Port Adelaide. 

There are many people outside of Clarkson who have been responsible in failing to get North off the bottom reaches of the ladder.

The noise around Clarkson will soon fade. The scrutiny of North shouldn't.

X: @barrettdamian