Alastair Clarkson brings in top lieutenant in big ‘coup’ as North clean-out begins

North Melbourne has cut ties with its football boss paving the way for Alastair Clarkson to bring in the highly-rated Todd Viney.

New North Melbourne coach Alistair Clarkson and president Sonja Hood. Picture: Michael Klein

North Melbourne and football boss Dan McPherson have cut ties after less than one year, paving the way for Alastair Clarkson to bring in the highly-rated Todd Viney to Arden St.

The Kangaroos on Thursday confirmed they’d parted ways with McPherson, as well assistant coaches Heath Younie and Anthony Rocca. AFL Media reported the trio were informed of the club’s call on Thursday afternoon — six days after Clarkson was unveiled as North’s new coach.

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The Kangaroos only appointed McPherson, who played 111 games for the Swans, in October last year after the club’s football manager role was split in two. McPherson was brought in to oversee including coaching, high performance and medical, operations, player development and wellness, and soft cap management, while Brady Rawlings narrowed his focus to recruitment, list management and Total Player Payments.

But under a new structure, Viney will oversee all on-field facets of the men’s and women’s football programs, including coaching, operations, high performance, medical services and player development. Rawlings will continue to the lead the club’s recruiting and list management team, but will now report to Viney

Viney will officially begin in the role part-time on August 29 before transitioning to full-time on November 1.

“Todd is a widely respected figure of the game with great football nous, and he will be a huge asset to our club,” North Melbourne chief executive Ben Amarfio said.

“Todd’s vast experience in a range of football roles has given him an understanding of all aspects of the game. We look forward to him leading our football program and working alongside Alastair.”

Todd Viney and Alastair Clarkson at Hawthorn in 2005.

Younie joined the Kangaroos as an assistant coach in late 2020 just after David Noble was appointed coach, with the duo reuniting after working together at the Adelaide Crows. Noble was sacked in early July.

Rocca was also brought across to the Kangaroos ahead of the 2021 season, taking on a development coaching role.

The club also parted company with head of medical services Clint Frazer last week.

“Dan is a quality individual who worked incredibly hard this year and did a lot of great work but this is the harsh reality of the industry when you restructure a football department,” Amarfio said.

“The same goes for Heath and Anthony, who have been wonderful contributors to our club and showed great commitment to their roles.”

The expectation among the AFL world before Clarkson joined North was if he was appointed to a senior coaching role, he’d have a significant say in how the club’s football department would look.

Clarkson reportedly spoke to several former lieutenants about their interest in joining him as part of his coaching panel earlier this month

One of them was Viney, who was an assistant under Clarkson between 2005 and 2009, has been out of footy since departing Melbourne in 2019.

His former Melbourne teammate, Garry Lyon, told Fox Footy earlier this month Viney would be “perfect” for the Kangaroos.

“He (Viney) is a very, very simple man: ‘If you don’t compete, you don’t play.’ He was massive on that at Hawthorn as a premiership-winning assistant coach, he was big on it at Adelaide and at Melbourne that was the recruiting philosophy,” Lyon told Fox Footy.

“I think he’d be almost perfect (at North) … He’s got a property that’s on the other side of town, which would be an easy drive to Arden St I would’ve thought.

“If in fact that’s what happens, Arden St would have the best coach and they’d have the best harness man alongside him – and that’d be a coup.”

Originally published as Alastair Clarkson brings in top lieutenant in big ‘coup’ as North clean-out begins