Kane Cornes has dubbed North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson too “cuddly”, fearing the former Hawthorn leader has lost his “fiery attitude”.
The Kangaroos are 0-11 heading into their bye, with Clarkson seeming to have no answers.
Now, Cornes is fearful that the whole reason North Melbourne recruited him to coach their struggling club, isn’t part of his game anymore.
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“‘Cuddly Clarko’, I’m calling him,” Cornes said on Nine’s Footy Classified on Monday night.
“He’s a coach where, as a player, you are just a little bit intimidated by him. You don’t know how he’s going to react at times, it just keeps you on edge.
“I think that is his greatest strength.”
Clarkson’s unforgiving coaching style while at Hawthorn saw him collect four premierships, in 2008 and a three-peat between 2013-2015.
Although admitting that Clarkson’s intense former ways of coaching may not fly in today’s modern game, Cornes still believes he’s lacking the passion he once had to lead sides to premierships.
It comes after Clarkson’s behaviour against St Kilda players in February, which saw him punished for using a homophobic slur.
Clarkson was handed a suspended $20,000 fine at the time.
“You certainly can’t do it (coaching) as aggressively as what you used to. Perhaps he’s a little bit gun-shy about the off field issues,” Cornes said.
“I’m not saying his mojo. I’m saying he’s lost his greatest strength.
“That was his passion, his fiery attitude, keeping his players on edge, the demanding nature of his coaching style.”
Cornes fears that Clarkson’s post match press conferences reveal more than what North Melbourne fans care to see – that he may have lost his spark to lead.
“Every time I hear him speak it’s like, ‘the wheel will turn, we’re happy with this, don’t worry there’s kids coming through, we will get there’,” he said.
“He’s lost a level of that passion. Have you seen him as animated as that (previously coaching Hawthorn) in recent times (at North)?
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“I’m only judging him on what I’ve seen in the past and what led him to being one of the greatest coaches we’ve ever seen.”
Cornes is also unhappy with Clarkson simply accepting that his side is getting belted every week, with no signs of improvement or care to make him young playing group hungry.
“His acceptance publicly of getting 100 points kicked on him every week. There’s no reaction to it. There’s no, ‘this isn’t good enough’ to his players,” he said.
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“It’s all nice, it’s all smiles. Happy place for a club that’s lost 11 games on the trot.
“It’s got to the point of when a team beats them, what do they think of it? Not much.”
North Melbourne’s 0-11 start is worse than their 0-9 start under David Noble in 2022.