Mark Robinson: Essendon wants Alastair Clarkson but he should pick North Melbourne

One of Alastair Clarkson’s idols is credited with helping build North Melbourne to a dominant force in the 1990s. Now the time has come for Clarko to do the same, writes Mark Robinson.

Football is a dog eat dog world and suddenly Essendon believes it is well placed to cut North Melbourne’s lunch.

Just why they think that is a curious question.

Is it because the wealthy conservatives in the northwest corridor of Melbourne, who grow the big hedges and own the bigger house, believe no man worth his salt would reject such a famous football club?

Essendon wants Alastair Clarkson, and Clarkson might want Essendon, but that doesn’t mean Clarkson is headed for — or should head to — Tullamarine.

No, Clarkson should coach the Kangaroos.

For many reasons, not least being the belief that North Melbourne needs Clarkson more than the Bombers do.

The Bombers might beg to differ — they are a mess — have been for a while now.

Robbo believes Alastair Clarkson should pick the Roos over the Bombers.

The supplement saga tore the heart out of the club for any number of reasons and, at the end, those willing to fight finally lost the will to fight. And in doing so almost their lives.

Since then, Essendon became a vanilla club, meandering through season after season with hope more than conviction.

The move on Clarkson is not a surprise, although the surprise is it took so long.

It doesn’t make it a match made in heaven, though.

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Clarkson is a killer, but more than any other time in his career, the public has seen a gentler, warmer football person.

He’s speaking about the essence of footy rather than the business of football and all that entails.

Like how he talks of a team in Tasmania and what it would do for the state like he has spoken of the importance of sport in his hometown of Kaniva.

Essendon’s woe has been laid bare. Picture: AFL Photos/Getty Images

“My father was a builder and my mother was a kindergarten teacher, and we had the benefit of a really strong, sporting and farming community, and that’s what drove the culture of the town,” Clarkson told the ABC.

“The old adage ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ was very apt where I grew up.”

In May this year, after Tasmania launched a TV advert with a young girl kicking the footy around different places in the state, Clarkson said: “It (the ad) just reminded me of, albeit in Victoria, of doing the exact same thing as a kid.

“You see the footage of that little girl kicking the footy on that oval … and it just reminds me so much of my childhood.

Clarko has been a driving force in the campaign for a Tasmanian team. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

“And it doesn’t matter where it is in Australia, it’s our national game. And we’ve got a heartland in Tasmania that’s not featuring in our national game. It’s just wrong. It’s just wrong, and we’ve got to do something about it.’’

He’s shown he has a big heart, a big enough heart to return to the club he started at and to the club that really needs him.

Clarkson has shown many times that footy is not always about the best opportunity, but the right opportunity.

After all, he moved on his champs at Hawthorn because, he said, it was the right opportunity for them and the Hawks.

The pragmatic and practical people would say I’m being far too emotive in what should be a purely business decision. But footy isn’t your normal business.

Clarkson started his career at the Kangaroos after Essendon, who controlled the zone which included Kaniva, passed on him as a young man.

Can North president Sonja Hood convince Clarko to pick the Roos? Picture: AFL Photos/Getty Images

North Melbourne president Sonja Hood is a businesswoman and heartfelt supporter, and she no doubt would have spoken to Clarkson about his formative years at Arden St.

Does that count 30-odd years later?

In the four weeks Hood has courted Clarkson and his manager James Henderson, the discussions have ventured to all kinds of places, like character, personnel, ambition and opportunity.

She would’ve heard former Hawks skipper Luke Hodge describe Clarkson as a difficult person to deal with, but still she was determined.

She has done her due diligence and so has Clarkson on North Melbourne.

Clarkson wants to add to his legacy. He wants to work at a big club. He wants to win a fifth flag.

John Kennedy is a hero for Clarkson, and it was Kennedy, after departing the Hawks, who rebuilt the Kangaroos footy club in the 1980s.

He didn’t win anything, but North Melbourne people tell you “Kanga’’ set the tone for the 1990s.

Clarko’s career began at Arden St.

Can you imagine Clarkson’s legacy if he took North to a flag?

The satisfaction of arriving at a club at rock bottom on the field, and to build them, lead them and win with them?

True, the Bombers could say the same.

But if Clarkson rejects Essendon, the club will march on.

If Clarkson rejects North Melbourne, Hood will deploy Plan B. She has a plan, but not a name.

And the fans will be devastated.

It will be another kick in the guts for a club that has mostly always been the poor cousin to the mob up Mt Alexander Road.

Clarkson could change that by rejecting Essendon, and helping North Melbourne.

Now that would be a hell of a legacy.