Hawthorn legend Luke Hodge believes if North Melbourne is to lure Alastair Clarkson as their next coach, they must not let him run the full show.
The Kangaroos parted ways with coach David Noble on Tuesday and will now likely test the waters for the Hawks great.
Hodge, who won four premierships alongside Clarkson, says the Roos should go after him, but must put the right people around him to rein him in.
“The hardest thing with Clarko, he’s not an easy person to deal with,” Hodge told SEN’s Whateley.
“Yes he’s a great coach, yes I love him as a coach, as a mentor, but he’s not easy and he will be the first to say that … but he gets results.
“So if North is going to go after him, yes he comes in as a coach, but he can’t bully them, he can’t tell the CEO or the President what to do, yes he’s going to have some opinions and that’s why he’s been such a good coach in the past because he’s headstrong and he wants the best for the football club.
“But he can’t come in as the Clarko Show, he needs to know where his place is and that means they need a stable board, a stable off-field to let him know that.
“If that means they get people in and around who have the strength to control him when they need to, then yes he could go there.
“I think deep down he wants that. He needs that for him to be a successful coach. Sometimes it’s not always his way.
“I think that’s why he had success at Hawthorn because he had assistant coaches around him that would butt in. Brett Ratten, I used to hear arguments in match committee because Clarko would say something and Ratts would go against him because he didn’t think it was the best way for them to move forward that week.
“As much as Clarko won’t like it at the time, he’ll reflect and say ‘yep, maybe that was the right call’.
“At the moment, do I see him going to North, doubtful, but if they can be strong and make some calls off-field … and if he wants to be the best coach going around, he needs to bring a team like that from the bottom … and get them back into the finals.
“It’s a big challenge and we know Clarko loves a challenge.”
Hodge is adamant that Clarkson can’t be allowed to dominate every aspect of the club.
“That doesn’t work. If you’ve got a coach that’s running the football club, then it’s the wrong board, it’s the wrong CEO. You need the coach to be part of a group, but the big decisions off-field aren’t for the coach,” he said.
“The coach makes the decisions on-field and the messages that go out to the playing group … for North Melbourne, if they want to get Clarko, and if I was North I would be doing everything I possibly could to get a name, because you know for three or four years they’re going to let him do his stuff and they’ll give him breathing space, but they need to be firm and make sure it’s not run from the coach, it’s run from upstairs.”
Clarkson departed the Hawks at the conclusion of the 2021 season, with Hawthorn moving on to Sam Mitchell.
He has spent the year travelling and championing the Tasmanian expansion bid.