Brett Ratten calls Alastair Clarkson a warrior as he prepares to take over at North Melbourne

Brett Ratten has been a caretaker coach before but never in the circumstances he finds himself in with North Melbourne.

Brett Ratten takes charge of a North Melbourne training session. Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

Alastair Clarkson is “a warrior”, but even the four-time premiership coach was overwhelmed by the “wear and tear” of the ongoing racism investigation according to Brett Ratten, his replacement as North Melbourne coach.

Ratten, who has coached both St Kilda and Carlton, spoke for the first time on Friday since being thrown back into the hot seat after Clarkson’s bombshell decision to step away from football.

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Amid revelations about a vicious halftime spray of his players in Tasmania last weekend and meetings in which he said he couldn’t keep going, Clarkson’s decision to step away was “brave”, Ratten said.

“He’s resilient and he tried to keep going and trudge through, but he was showing some signs of wear and tear,” Ratten said.

“It was so brave of him to come out and make the decision he did … he’s one of the leaders of our football club.”

Brett Ratten is now in the North Melbourne hot seat. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

Ratten reached out to Clarkson via text message on Wednesday night and he replied that he was “OK”. Ratten said he was confident Clarkson would be back.

“Al’s going to be right and he’s going to get healthy and get back,” he said.

“He just needs some time away, so we’ll just let him do that. I’m just warming the seat and he’ll be back.”

The players were addressed as a group by Ratten and other senior North Melbourne staff and were “up and about again” ahead of a return to playing against the Swans on Saturday.

“They’re a pretty resilient group,” Ratten said.

“Everybody had their opportunity to talk and (say) how they were feeling. Then we have to get on with it. The brutal thing about AFL footy is it waits for nobody. At 1.45pm against the Swans, they’re going to bounce the ball and we need to be prepared and that’s the hard bit with the game.”

Originally published as Brett Ratten calls Alastair Clarkson a warrior as he prepares to take over at North Melbourne