Former North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson has slammed the club's handling of his departure.
Speaking for the first time since President Dr Sonja Hood and footy boss Todd Viney spoke brutally about his sacking, Clarkson revealed he did not watch it live but his family did and the way it was handled caused some distress.
“... To sit there and say one man has lost his marbles in terms of the modern game. Wow. We're just shocked, and we just thought we were owed a little bit of respect in being informed and warned. Instead, they chose to dance on my grave like this,” Clarkson told The Age in an exclusive interview.
“They said, ‘We can't control what you're going to say, Clarko, but can you be diplomatic? We know you're going to have to talk at some stage, but we hope you don't bag the club'. I never would have done that. They wanted me to be as dignified as possible."
The Kangaroos were praised for the strength of their decision-making but critiqued for not handling his exit with enough grace given his standing in the game.
The honesty surrounding his perceived shortcomings was particularly rare for a press conference announcing a coaching departure.
“Any deficiencies I've got – and you know that I've got them – to be absolutely blindsided like that ... I've got a daughter who works at Fox News – can you imagine how she feels? How we all feel to be so publicly humiliated.”
Clarkson also addressed the incident with Essendon AFLW players in a lift which forced the club to apologise.
The way it was reported on caused the four time premiership coach to get emotional.
“I was trying to make those girls feel safe in the lift,” Clarkson said.
“It was me and one other bloke in the lift who I didn't know, and all these enthusiastic young girls barged into the lift. Three of them stood back as the doors were closing, and I said they could all fit in and something like, ‘We're all safe and free here. We've all got our hands up here, you can all pile in'. No one respects more than me what our AFLW team has achieved.”
