North Melbourne president Sonja Hood has been quizzed on the club’s process to identify its next senior coach.
The last-placed Kangaroos are on the hunt for a new coach after parting ways with David Noble last week.
Hood was asked about the Alastair Clarkson links, the panel that will select the new coach, her comments about North’s list, and the club’s application for a priority pick.
Kane Cornes and David King asked Hood a range of questions about the aforementioned topics on SEN Breakfast on Friday morning.
See the transcript below:
Cornes: “Have you spoken to him (Clarkson) personally?”
Hood: “No.”
Cornes: “When do you plan on doing that?”
Hood: “I don’t know at this stage.
“We talked about that at the board meeting on Wednesday night. We’re working through the process of making sure we’ve got the right people around the table.
“Our previous two coaches haven’t lasted terribly long, have they? So it’s incumbent on us to be really clear on what’s happened there and what we want moving forward.”
Cornes: “Is there a panel that will select the coach?”
Hood: “There will be. That’s part of what we’re discussing now. We’ll get all those things right in the coming weeks.
Cornes: “Have you got a thought on how much you can pay a coach? We’re hearing $1.6 million for Clarkson … and you take that with a grain of salt.
“What’s your philosophy on how much you can pay a coach?”
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Hood: “My philosophy is that I’ve got a CEO and a head of finance and a head of footy to work those things out and my philosophy as the president is we can’t spend any more money than we can afford.
“But it’s their job to work out that detail.”
Cornes: “You’ve been positive about the list – I disagree with you, I don’t think you have a really great list. My criticism around that would be you can’t have a great list and then apply to the AFL for a priority pick. Can you respond to that and do you back away from those comments?”
Hood: “Two things: I hadn’t done a press conference before, I’m hoping I never have to do another one.
“But if in the context of that the criticism I cop is for overstating the state of our list, I’ll wear that.
“I had the playing group sitting there, they’d found out that morning that their coach was departing, it was a pretty emotional environment.
“I was going to cop criticism no matter what answer I gave to that question, so I’d probably rather talk them up than talk them down.”
Cornes: “With the coach, how many would be on your shortlist? You’re going to have to act soon. You’re telling me you haven’t spoken to Clarkson yet – I think you should, I think you should speak to him pretty quickly.
“I’m fascinated on how you go about appointing the coach because this is the biggest decision you’re going to make.”
Hood: “Actually, arguably the biggest decision I was going to make was made two weeks ago.”
Cornes: “But you can’t stuff the next one up.”
Hood: “No, I can’t, you’re absolutely right.
“Do we have a number on the shortlist? I’m probably not going to share that with you. I’m not going to tell you who’s on the panel. We haven’t completely decided that yet.
“We’ll make the right decision rather than the fast decision.”
King: “Is the panel made up of some experience that have done this sort of thing before?”
Hood: “We’ll be looking on our panel for people who have done this sort of thing before and people who are in the industry now.”
Cornes: “Take us through the priority pick presentation to the AFL and how that was received by them.”
Hood: “I wasn’t part of it. The feeling in the club was that it was very positively received and my understanding from the AFL is there’s some positivity.”