Roos’ identity crisis amid Clarko question as ‘sickening’ loss lays bare failed draft trade gamble

Questions continue to be asked of North Melbourne’s on-field identity after a “sickening” 101-point loss to Geelong on Saturday night.

Questions continue to be asked of North Melbourne’s on-field identity after a “sickening” 101-point loss to Geelong on Saturday night amid more evidence of a failed draft gamble.

The Kangaroos finished a staggering -41 for inside-50s, -10 for clearances, -16 for contested possessions, and -18 for marks inside 50 on a night they couldn’t come close to halving the territory battle nor begin to contain the Cats’ purring forward line, with superstar Jeremy Cameron running riot for 11 majors.

It was North Melbourne’s 14th-straight defeat at the hands of Geelong and its fifth-straight loss as it remains with a measly four wins to its name for the season.

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“For North Melbourne fans, that would’ve been a sickening watch; incredibly frustrating. You feel sorry for the Kangaroos fans, who have watched this for six years,” the Herald Sun’s Jay Clark told Fox Footy’s Super Saturday Live post-match coverage.

Dual All-Australian and two-time Kangaroos premiership player David King pondered the machinations of the club’s game plan and lamented its inability to adequately defend.

“This (the North Melbourne rooms) would be an awful place to be, at the moment. It’s a tough one, because when you watch them play, it’s kind of difficult to work out what they’re trying to execute,” he began.

Questions are being asked of North Melbourne after the 101-point loss (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)

“Are they handballing when the options are available, and then run and gun? Or is it take territory and get numbers to drop of ball? Is it a mix of both? I don’t know what they’re doing defensively; that’s just not working at all — 40 (Geelong) scores tonight.”

The Cats scored 27 times from 58 intercepts on Saturday night, exemplifying the ease of which they were able to transition and punish the Roos on the counter.

“They just smashed them; they walked through them. The amount of times Jeremy Cameron was out the back by himself, and it’d be uncontested possession, uncontested possession, goal,” King continued.

“I’d love to ask Alastair Clarkson ‘what are you trying to achieve?’ Show us what it should look like, and then we can at least enjoy the ride. Because we just go from week to week and not see it. We have seen it in patches throughout the year, but we’re not seeing it now.

“I know the ruckman’s (Tristan Xerri) not there, I know Nick Larkey’s not there, but that shouldn’t have as big an effect as what it does on their ability to stop the opposition moving the ball full length of the ground.”

Patrick Dangerfield was tactically substituted out of the game, his 200th for Geelong, and the sight of the veteran sitting on the bench munching on a kebab while the game was still going on would have rubbed salt into the wound for North fans.

Patrick Dangerfield eats a kebab after getting subbed out. Photo: Fox Footy.

Serious questions continue to be asked of the Roos’ direction under Alastair Clarkson in the third year of the four-time premiership coach’s reign, with the club benefitting from top picks for the better part of the past six years.

In 55 games under Clarkson, North Melbourne is 10-44-1. The club has finished 17th on the ladder in consecutive seasons and currently sits 17th with four games left to go this season.

Asked when the pressure on Clarkson genuinely gets turned up, King answered: “It’s a great question; it’s hard to answer. I think you have a blind faith in the club that the decision-makers will get it right.

“Words are cheap; it’s really hard to just listen to the same conversation over and over and over. It’s a tough place to be, there’s no doubt about that ... third year in, a penny for his thoughts, is he able to do what he once thought he could do with this group? Are there any doubts there?

“You walk off the ground tonight, you have to doubt your own plan. You’ve got (Jack) Darling, (Luke) Parker and (Caleb) Daniel to the club to try and stiffen up with a bit of seniority; that doesn’t look like it’s working as well as it probably should.”

North Melbourne fielded eight former top-12 draft picks against Geelong, as King declared the club’s issues didn’t revolve around an absence of talented players.

“It’s not a talent issue; it’s a system problem,” he said. “You can be really brutal and say ‘it’s coaching’, right, but it’s also performance of that system.

“Where’s the disconnect? Are the players not understanding? Are they not prepared to work hard enough to ensure the system works? I think they’re good enough, and I don’t think they’re that young that they can’t compete defensively. That’s not really a talent issue.

“I’m the same as all those people in the room and all those watching on, I don’t understand the system, because I see so many flaws in it, so many holes in it.

“I don’t see it; it’s not consistent enough to say ‘this is their identifiable brand’. And I think when you see 150 points against, I think even they’d say ‘you wouldn’t be able to see it tonight’.”

Speaking post-game on Saturday night, Clarkson, who lamented glaringly obvious deficiencies in contest, clearance and territory, made it a point to highlight the discrepancy in experience between the sides.

“The Geelong forward line versus the North Melbourne backline, just see the void that sits there in terms of just experience and exposure,” he said.

“And I don’t want to make excuses for our players, but it’s where we’re at, though.

“And we’re giving these young players some exposure and opportunity, and in our back end in particular, we’re going to be left very, very vulnerable down there against a formidable forward line if we couldn’t control the middle of the ground as well as we’d like. And Geelong was too good in that space.”

The Roos fielded the second-youngest team in the competition in Round 20, with eight-game key defender Wil Dawson among those in royal blue and white tortured by Cameron and the Cats, who licked their lips each time they entered forward 50.

“Everyone will look at win-loss and all that sort of stuff, and making progress — and even if it is just win-loss, we have made some progress,” said Clarkson in his press conference.

“But we’ve had three performances that were well below our best, which (were) the Carlton game in Round 6 here, the Hawthorn game about a month ago down in Tassie, and tonight.

“But outside of that, we’ve been much more competitive than what we were last year, winning more quarters and being in more games at three-quarter-time than we had last year.”

But while Clarkson continues to preach that non-linear progress continues to be made at Arden Street, the Roos’ list management’s choice to trade away the club’s first-round pick this year has come back to bite hard.

Last November, North Melbourne — banking on a significant uptick this season — traded its future first-round pick to Richmond to secure the No.27 selection, key-position utility Matt Whitlock, who has played just one senior game in his debut season.

That future choice is currently slated to wind up as the second overall pick. Injecting young talent isn’t as urgent for the Roos as it has been in previous seasons, but given the stagnancy of this season, it’s premium draft capital they’d absolutely love to have this off-season.

“I think they thought they would be further progressed, because they did trade that pick away,” Clark said on Fox Footy.

“Would they have traded that No.2 pick away if they thought they were going to finish second-last on the ladder? No way. They thought they would be up the ladder; they thought they would improve, that’s why they gave that pick away.

“So, it tells you that they thought they would be better than they’re at; that’s really clear.”

The Roos are currently slated to make their first draft choice this November at No.20, holding a pair of picks at the top of the second round.

Originally published as Roos’ identity crisis amid Clarko question as ‘sickening’ loss lays bare failed draft trade gamble