Alastair Clarkson defends decision to sub out Will Phillips at three quarter time

North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson has defended a questionable call during the club’s heartbreaking loss to Collingwood.

Clarko spoke out after the loss. (Photo by Josh Chadwick/AFL Photos/Getty Images)

North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson has defended the decision to tactically sub out Will Phillips at three-quarter time of their heartbreaking one-point loss to Collingwood at Marvel Stadium on Sunday.

Phillips had done a very good tagging job on Nick Daicos, to the extent that it forced the Pies to move the Collingwood superstar up forward in the second half.

But taking Phillips out of the game not only meant that veteran Liam Shiels was tasked with negating Daicos in the final term, but also prompted Collingwood to move their best player back into the guts.

And Daicos took full advantage, racking up 10 disposals (five contested), four inside 50s and a clearance in the final quarter, to finish up with a team-high 29 touches, 18 contested possessions and two goals and end up being the most influential player on the ground.

“He was doing a good job,” Clarkson said of Phillips, who was a late inclusion for Jy Simpkin (hamstring).

“Will was starting to fatigue a little bit, and we just thought the freshness of the sub (would help us).

“But when you don’t win, you sit there and say, ‘Oh gee, was that pivotal?’ I don’t think it was pivotal in terms of the final result.

“You take some punts with the sub sometimes.

“Hindsight’s a wonderful thing, but sometimes you make the right decision and sometimes it doesn’t work for you.”

Phillips had done the work on Daicos. (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)

The Kangaroos coughed up a 54-point lead as the Magpies stormed home to execute one of the biggest comebacks in VFL/AFL history.

A Zac Fisher snap under pressure from 25m out with three seconds left agonisingly went to the right of the goalpost to ensure a memorable Collingwood win.

It was a moment that put the final result in “the lap of the gods”, according to Clarkson.

“By and large we did enough today to suggest that we’re on the right track,” he said.

“We had a shot on goal right on the death knock, just goes the wrong side of the post.

“One hundred and thirty minutes is a long time to play and unfortunately we’ve got to learn to be able to play that right out to the death and we were unable to do that today.”

Clarkson said Collingwood played “Russian roulette” to get back into the game in the second half.

“They just took punts, downhill skied,” he said.

“They’ll look at their own games and say, ‘This is why we got back into the contest’. But some of the things that they were doing was just like Russian roulette, whether it was going to come off or not, and unfortunately some of those really, really brave 50-50 plays should’ve been turned over.

“Some luck plays actually just fell in the lap of their players and they’ll look at that and say, ‘That’s really, really good play’, and in a sense it is, but it could’ve easily just gone the other way.”

Daicos lifted once Phillips was taken out. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

The Magpies’ record in games decided by six points or less under Craig McRae is now a staggering 17-3-2.

“Collingwood are a really, really experienced side and you think of the amount of games in that type of atmosphere that they’ve played over the last two years, they’ve got 30-40 games’ experience across the board on our players,” Clarkson said.

“Despite the disappointment of the loss, the learning for our lads will be profound.

“We’ve just got to learn to be able to cope with the pressure when it comes at its fiercest when the opposition get a run-on.”

Emerging youngster George Wardlaw perhaps personified North’s fortunes on Sunday best. After racking up 22 disposals in the first half, he only recorded eight in the second.

“Part of this is just the simple conditioning of players to be able to run games out,” Clarkson said.

“George Wardlaw I imagine is best on ground in the first half and by the end of the game, though, he’s not getting across the ground anywhere near as what he did.

“Can’t do anything about that until he gets to 30, 40, 60, 80 games of footy.”

Clarkson said Simpkin was a chance to take on Melbourne next Saturday night.

Originally published as Alastair Clarkson defends decision to sub out Will Phillips at three quarter time