By Jake Niall
Alastair Clarkson has been cleared of directing profanities at an umpire, following an AFL investigation, but the North Melbourne coach will not coach from the boundary line for the remainder of the season.
The AFL investigated Clarkson, who swore when standing on the bench during the Kangaroos’ clash with Port Adelaide last Saturday. The league, in a statement, said it was “not able to be comfortably satisfied that Clarkson’s swearing was directed towards a specific person or persons and in particular an AFL match official or officials”.
North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson.Credit: AFL Photos
The league spoke to officials in the vicinity, including a security guard, according to two sources with knowledge of the incident who spoke confidentially while the investigation was still in progress.
Clarkson, who admitted to swearing and using inappropriate language, has since apologised to the AFL.
“I acknowledge that during the third quarter of Saturday’s game in a moment of frustration I lost my temper and swore while I was coaching from the bench,” Clarkson said in a statement issued by the Kangaroos.
“It was undisciplined by me and I have expressed my apologies to the AFL.
“As a club we can do without these distractions and as such I have agreed that it’s best if I remain in the coaches box on match days for the rest of this season.
“In the meantime, I’ll continue to seek support on how I deal with these moments.”
The two sources indicated that the words used were “f---ing c---” . What was said was not in dispute; it was whether the language was directed at anyone.
Under typical AFL practices, merely swearing on the boundary line would not bring a punishment.
North Melbourne CEO Jennifer Watt said: “Alastair has accepted that his language was inappropriate and we are aligned in the measures he will take in response to this incident.
“We fully support him as he works to improve his reactions.”
If found guilty of abusing an official, the AFL would have had almost no choice but to invoke the suspension hanging over Clarkson because he was handed a suspended two-match penalty for inappropriate language directed at St Kilda players after North skipper Jy Simpkin was knocked out during a pre-season game.
On that occasion, Clarkson was also fined $20,000 for using the homophobic slur “c---sucker”.
The Kangaroos, who have a bye this weekend, are winless after 11 games.
Clarkson – who has a long history of poor discipline often related to a failure to control his emotions – said in March after the incident with St Kilda that he would need to adjust how he coached.
“I’m probably going to have to reinvent myself a little bit as a coach,” Clarkson said.
Jimmy Webster was suspended for this bump on Jy Simpkin.Credit: Fox Footy
“That tribalism and passion, which strangely enough is what our game’s built on, that’s been a key part of my coaching for a long, long period of time. Usually, I get embroiled in these situations when there’s a significant amount of emotion, or I’m trying to protect either a club or a player or myself or my family.
“I’ve been involved in these sorts of things before, we know that, there’s a history sheet of that, and each time it’s happened, I’ve pulled myself just below the line again.”
Among Clarkson’s long list of offences is a four-game ban from the South Metro Junior Football League for abusing a league official at his son’s under-9s game in 2012. That incident happened a day after he punched a hole in the wall of an MCG coach’s box.
In 2017, he was fined $20,000 by the AFL for saying he would not comment on “disgraceful umpiring” after Hawthorn had lost to Gold Coast.
Nine years earlier, he was docked $5000 for abusing umpire Justin Schmitt after a loss to Geelong when he said: “He’s a good player for the Cats that No.17, wasn’t he? He’s a ripper.”
Geelong did not have a player in that game wearing No.17, the number of Schmitt’s umpire’s shirt.
With Andrew Wu
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