North Melbourne sacked David Noble to make a run at Alastair Clarkson, says Mark Robinson

David Noble paid the price for North Melbourne’s horror season, but he might not be the last big name in the gun, writes Mark Robinson.

Mick Malthouse once said it’s well and good being the conductor, the real test comes when you’re the bus driver.

David Noble failed as the bus driver, sacked by the Kangaroos after 38 games in charge.

He was dignified and resilient to the end.

Despite – and maybe because of – a passenger list which was loaded with young and unfulfilled talent and bereft of leadership depth, Noble couldn’t get the bus rolling.

Was it all his fault? It can’t be.

But the Kangaroos clocked him off for good on Monday.

Always, the finger of blame is pointed.

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Noble was a bloody good conductor, having previously coached his own team, worked in recruiting and in development, and headed up football departments at Adelaide and Brisbane.

When interviewed by North Melbourne he beat Daniel Giansiracusa and Robert Harvey for the role because his CV shone, his football philosophies were strong and after the Rhyce Shaw situation, and in the face of Chris Fagan’s success at the Lions, the Roos opted for experience.

The Kangaroos were told Noble was diligent, ferocious on the fundamentals of the game and had an ego to boot. But he wasn’t Chris Fagan Mark II.

North Melbourne CEO Ben Armarfio, president Dr Sonja Hood and David Noble announce Noble’s departure as senior coach. Picture: Alex Coppel

Angst centres on the committee that recruited him – Ben Buckley the then president, Glenn Archer, Brady Rawlings, Paul Roos, Ben Amarfio and the president now, Sonja Hood.

That’s unfair.

Yes, it was a Buckley decision, and strongly influenced by Roos. But Noble is not coaching the Kangaroos mostly because of one person — Noble.

The buck stops with the coach, but there are always other factors, too.

The decision to appoint him was sound at the time, the performance was not at the end.

Unfortunately for Noble, he couldn’t drive the bus. Or at least this bus. With another list, an older, saltier, take-no-prisoners list, Noble’s style might’ve been welcomed.

But not at North Melbourne. What he demanded of his players they could not deliver. His game style and explanations and education around it was described to me as confusing at times. Another observer said he was trying to teach chess when his group could only play checkers.

That’s not to say the players are dumbasses, it’s that the layers upon layers of defence-offence and how they mesh together must be taught layer by layer, and cannot be delivered over one or two pre-seasons.

Of course, Noble needed more time.

A resolute bugger, I’m not sure Noble would do anything different if he had his time again, not even pull back on that infamous spray he gave the players after round 3, which he apologised for.

He is who he is, the Kangaroos took a punt on the best man available – and everyone lauded the decision at the time – and it didn’t work.

David Noble is gone after a run of 14 straight losses. Picture: Michael Klein

The contender’s list will have all the alluring names, but let’s not kid ourselves, North Melbourne sacked Noble to make an official run for Alastair Clarkson.

The club simply couldn’t wait until season’s end to make its play, and it certainly couldn’t make its play while it still had a coach. So, heartbreaking as it is for Noble, the Kangaroos were noble for making the call. And Noble would respect that

It will be a most curious period ahead. It would be a bold move to appoint an untried coach, and which untried coach would go there anyway? For example, Richmond assistant Adam Kingsley was asked to contend for the position last time and refused.

Kingsley doesn’t think he’s King Dick, he just didn’t have faith in the football department to fully embark on a campaign.

A good friend to both former coaches and current commentators, Nathan Buckley and Ross Lyon, said Buckley was a 1 per cent chance of coaching again and Lyon was a 5 per cent chance, so you can almost certainly rule those two out.

That said, people can be persuaded to do anything if you have a good plan and good-sized cash.

What we do know is Clarkson is 100 per cent in on coaching again.

Expect the AFL to get involved, and despite Hood saying the AFL was in the backroom, at times of crisis like this, no one likes to be the bus driver more than Gillon McLachlan.

Remember, he manoeuvred Peter Jackson and Roos to Melbourne in its time of darkness, and it’s not exactly the summer solstice at Arden St right now.

North Melbourne needs old souls in its football department, and Clarkson would be ideal if the AFL could convince him to build a premiership and not take on a team ready to win a premiership, if that makes sense.

North Melbourne will make a big play for Alastair Clarkson. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

The problem is Clarkson wouldn’t go to North unless the football department was beefed up.

It’s a radical plan but because Hood guaranteed Ben Amarfio would be at the club next year, maybe the Roos need to split the CEO’s role. Like, appoint Amarfio the chief operating officer – they haven’t got one at present – and get him to deal with money, sponsorship, membership etc, and appoint a football-based CEO.

It’s only a thought, but a dream team of Clarkson and Mark Brayshaw makes so much sense, or at least would deliver so much hope. Still, McLachlan has his work cut out to make that happen.

First-year head of football Dan McPherson might be an unlucky casualty through no fault of his own. That’s not to say he needs to be moved on, the club just might need an old soul in that position, and McPherson could work with him.

While it was mostly lovey dovey at the press conference on Monday after a tumultuous 24 hours – or is that a tumultuous 15 weeks? – there were reports on Tuesday morning that feedback from players and staff to Geoff Walsh weren’t favourable for Noble.

Hood denied that was a factor to sack Noble, but it would’ve been difficult to ignore.

There were mixed messages from Hood at the press conference, like why sack the coach this week after challenging Collingwood in the Roos’ most competitive performance this year, but not last week after they lost to Geelong by 112 points, when they were embarrassingly uncompetitive.

“General club happiness and satisfaction was one of the things we considered,’’ she said.

Let’s be brutal, some current and former staff have been condemning in their conversations about Noble – to Walsh and to others – and clearly there have been some good North Melbourne people let go over the past 18 months.

They include high performance people, medical, player welfare, strength and conditioning and, a week before the mid-season draft, the key figures in list management. Some of them were replaced and some of them walked.

The point is the whole joint was shaken upside-down.

Hood was excellent in a difficult situation on Tuesday. People knew she was smart, but there’s also some sizzle and grunt about her. She several times dismissed questions with a sharp “no”, and was decisive throughout. I’m not sure she told the whole truth, but name a president who does at a sacked coach’s press conference.

True, there’s a group of former officials and directors considering a board stoush, as revealed in Saturday’s Herald Sun, and it would seem Hood and Amarfio are their line of sight. But how serious are they?

Hood’s support for Amarfio on Tuesday was admirable, if not a little strange. She said in a letter to members: “Resisting the urge to dream big, we set a simple benchmark – improve on last year, compete consistently against the teams around us on the ladder and play a brand of football that challenges the competition’s best teams.

“Put simply, we have failed to live up to those expectations.’’

Who’s we? Is Noble we? Or are there more heads to roll?

In a desperately bad year, it’s never just the coach.

Originally published as North Melbourne sacked David Noble to make a run at Alastair Clarkson, says Mark Robinson