North Melbourne GM of football Todd Viney has addressed the news that head coach Alastair Clarkson would be stepping away from the club for an indefinite period.
It was announced on Thursday morning that Clarkson was opting to look after his mental health after the weight of the ongoing investigation into racism allegations during his time at Hawthorn has taken a toll on him.
Clarkson has always strenuously denied allegations stemming from the report, and Viney credited the coach for bravely making the call to look after himself so he can come back and fulfil both his family and employment duties in a better mental place.
“This investigation has really taken a mental toll,” Viney said at a press conference.
“It’s to the point where he feels he needs to get himself right before he can help his family, first and foremost, and us as a club.
“He often talks about the most important being your family and looking after them.
“But in reality, he also says, it’s yourself you have to look after because if you haven’t got your health, you can’t look after your family and do the role he’s been employed to do at the North Melbourne Football Club.
“I wanted to say how brave it was of Alastair to get to that point yesterday, we don’t want him to wear a mask, we don’t want him to be in a poor mental state when he comes to work.
“We want him to be fit and healthy, I think it’s a really important message to send to our players, our staff and the wider community to make sure that if you’re feeling under pressure mentally you should speak to people about it.”
At this stage, Viney says there’s no timeframe on when the coach will return but he does expect that he’ll coach again this season.
“There’s been no timeframe to talk about when he’s coming back,” Viney said.
“It’s our firm belief that he will be back this year, but if you ask him and if you ask us, we can’t tell you if that’s one week or six weeks.
“We’ll take that as it comes, the number one priority will be for him to get fit and healthy again.
“In the meantime, he’ll be away, we’ve told him to burn his phone and concentrate on getting himself right.”
With Brett Ratten stepping up on an interim basis, Viney credited the assistant coach for taking pressure off the club in a tough period.
“Brett Ratten, who has been one of our assistant coaches will step up to be the senior coach,” Viney said.
“We’re very fortunate that Brett when asked late last night whether he’d step up, without hesitation he said he’d step up for his mate and the North Melbourne footy club.
“We’re rapt to have a coach in waiting like ‘Ratts’ to be able to step in and do that for us.
“It certainly takes a lot of pressure off us as a club to know we’ve got a person of his calibre to help us in this tough period of time.”
Ratten’s first game in charge of the Kangaroos comes this Saturday when they host the Swans at Marvel Stadium.
The AFL Coaches Association has since released a statement regarding Clarkson.
Read below:
Statement attributed to AFLCA CEO, Alistair Nicholson:
The entire AFL coaching group is thinking of Alastair Clarkson today.
AFL coaching is a high stress job and the AFLCA has offered Alastair its support as he steps away from the game for his mental health and wellbeing.
Today’s announcement underscores the importance of expediting the investigation into the Hawthorn issue for all parties involved.
It has taken too long and is taking a significant toll on those at the centre of the issue.