Clarkson backing North Melbourne to bounce back

North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson believes his side is capable of the same turnaround Sunday’s opponent Melbourne has shown if they are willing to work hard enough.

North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson believes his side is capable of the same turnaround Sunday’s opponent Melbourne has shown if they are willing to work hard enough.

The Roos were outclassed by the Demons in the second-half in Hobart but put together a strong first two quarters where they led the contest by a game-high 33 points early in the second term.

In his first game back in the coach’s box since round 9 – which was also at Blundstone Arena – Clarkson said his players and supporters only had to look as far as Melbourne’s resurrection from competition easy beats to premiership fancies for faith that things can turn around.

“I said to the players after the game that around eight years ago Melbourne were in exactly the same position we are in now so it’s not permanent when you are in the bottom part of the ladder,” Clarkson said.

“It’s only temporary but we have to have the faith and belief that we can get there and we showed some signs today that there are some good things ahead for us.

“It’s going to take a lot of hard work and evidence that we want to do it and be relentless in the way we want to go about it and hopefully that will start transferring into some wins for us.”

After being pummelled by the same opponent in round seven to the tune of 90 points, Clarkson was pleased his side was able to show much more fight and improvement in what doubled as his 400th game as senior coach.

“In the context of our season and the opponent we are playing (there were positives),” he said.

“We played Melbourne at the MCG earlier in the year and they beat us by about 15 goals so we respect that club and playing group highly. The last time we played them they made us look, not even second rate, perhaps even third or fourth rate.

“So what was really pleasing today was that we made it much more of a contest. I think our first 40 minutes was six goals to one and then with three or four minutes to go in the first-half we were 20 points in front.

“They just scored three goals and we could have killed two of those balls so instead of going into halftime with a three-goal lead we go in neck and neck.

“We were pleased we were in the contest but good sides just do it for longer but we are learning and for 40 minutes of footy we really troubled them. We just have to find ways to do it for longer.”