North Melbourne: Who’s best placed to coach Kangaroos in 2021?
North Melbourne can’t afford to muck up its coaching appointment. Jon Ralph rates the three leading candidates.
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North Melbourne has cut an initial list of around 30 candidates for its head coaching job to a short list.
The Herald Sun understands Daniel Giansiracusa is a contender alongside Robert Harvey and David Noble.
It’s tough task to choose the next leader at any club, so here Jon Ralph looks at what each candidate can bring to the role.
DAVID NOBLE
PROS
Spend any time speaking to Noble and you realise he oozes common sense.
He isn’t flustered, he has seen it all - the highs and the lows - and he comes from a football program where his head coach Chris Fagan has shown how effective that kind of leadership can be.
Noble has a solid coaching background, having gone through local football with Upwey/Tecoma before a progression that included the Oakleigh Chargers, the Western Bulldogs and Glenelg before becoming an Adelaide assistant in 2005. So he has shown he had the coaching acumen before moving into football administration.
He might not be fire and brimstone like Mick Malthouse or John Northey but he is exactly what North Melbourne needs – a methodical and calm coach who will help build the club as well as the list, who won’t get flustered, who has seen every crisis the Roos might run into.
CONS
He hasn’t coached for a decade and hasn’t coached his own team for 15 years. Does that matter?
It certainly didn’t for Chris Fagan when he took over Brisbane.
It’s hard to think of many negatives for Noble given he won’t be flustered by the media and he won’t waver if the Roos battle early in their mini-rebuild.
A decade ago it might have mattered that he didn’t have the cache of premiership greats who turned into AFL senior coaches but surely we have moved past that stage.
Will he sell memberships for the Roos like a Michael Voss might have over summer?
Perhaps, but surely football fans are educated enough to realise a starring AFL career doesn’t necessarily convert into success
ROBERT HARVEY
PROS
Harvey has done it all not only as a player but also an assistant coach.
If you are looking for a senior assistant who has been at multiple clubs, proven himself in a successful environment and rounded out his coaching CV over more than a decade, it’s Robert Harvey.
The dual Brownlow Medallist at St Kilda has been at Collingwood since 2012 but before that was a St Kilda and Carlton assistant coach.
He was actually St Kilda’s interim coach for a time, even though he never coached them in a game in late 2011 when Ross Lyon quit.
In his time at Collingwood he has been an assistant coach of the year, been the backline coach, been the senior assistant and made his name as the midfield and transition coach.
CONS
Even as a club champion and St Kilda captain Harvey wasn’t seen to love the media part of the game.
The Pies pushed him hard last year in a charm offensive when he was up for roles in recent years.
But even if he isn’t a song-and-dance man, Pies assistant Justin Longmuir was cut from the same cloth and showed in his first year at Fremantle that development and wins are the only commodities that really matter.
The Pies battled with their midfield this year – or more specifically their midfield-forward connection – but surely only the churlish would believe that should reflect upon Harvey’s coaching credentials given their exceptional onball form over many years.
DANIEL GIANSIRACUSA
PROS
Surely the outsider in the race given he only has six years of coaching experience, yet Giansiracusa is a star on the rise.
Like Rhyce Shaw before him, he’s an AFL Coaches Association assistant coach of the year which shows how quickly he has transitioned from playing (265 games) into his next challenge.
From 2015-16 he was the club’s forward coach before two years as the stoppages and set-plays coach, before taking over the club’s VFL side in 2019.
It’s a well-rounded portfolio, and one that saw him poached by Essendon this off-season.
Giansiracusa has always been a popular figure as a player at the Dogs and one that can bring the list together, and that has immediately translated as an assistant coach.
MORE AFL NEWS
WHO’S IN: The race to coach the Kangaroos
NEW IDEA: BUCKY: What North Melbourne need to do to turn around
THE LIST: Every Kangaroos’ contract situation
CONS
Would the Roos be wary about appointing another star on the rise with so few years on his coaching CV?
Are they looking for a bulletproof candidate and one that is seen to be risk-free like Noble or Harvey?
He will surely be better with another 5-8 years as an assistant coach but that doesn’t mean he isn’t ready at 38 years of age.
He would only be six years younger than Todd Goldstein, but surely that doesn’t matter in modern football.
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