Jordan Clark is underrated because he doesn't play in Victoria, says North Melbourne coach Alistair Clarkson
Master coach Alastair Clarkson believes Fremantle dasher Jordan Clark is underrated because he does not play in Victoria.
Ahead of his North Melbourne side's clash with the Dockers on Saturday, Clarkson gave a glowing review of the unheralded half-back, who is in the mix for a maiden All-Australian blazer halfway through the season.
Clark is the Dockers' fourth-highest rated player this season and the 12th ranked defender in the league, according to Champion Data figures.
For his role, he is considered elite for disposals, contested possessions, intercept possessions and pressure.
'Yeah, geez he's been a good player hasn't he,' Clarkson said.
'He is sort of a little bit underrated and unheralded perhaps because he plays over here and the Melbourne media don't see him every week like they would some of the players that are based in Melbourne.
'But he's been a really, really good player at Geelong, but he's really taken his game — it seems — to another level here.
'He's a guy that defends really well, but uses the ball and helps set it up.'
Clarkson was also full of praise for in-form Dockers guns Shai Bolton and Luke Jackson and warned they couldn't play a negating role on all three of Justin Longmuir's weapons.
'We'll have to keep an eye on that ... but we can't sit and negate every talented player that they've got, otherwise you're just chasing your tail,' he said.
'There's a part of us where we just need to go out and play the game and if some of these guys get off the chain, that's where we need to try and stamp and negate their influence.'
Asked how he would handle the influence of Bolton, Clarkson said it was made difficult by the dual premiership player's ability to influence the game in different parts of the ground.
Bolton spent more time forward in Fremantle's win over Gold Coast a fortnight ago. He kicked three goals and laid the game-winning tackle.
'He was particularly strong against Gold Coast a few weeks back, I think he kicked three goals in that game,' Clarkson said.
'If you have got a player in your side that can kick three goals and also generate sort of 25 touches in the midfield like he can, they're pretty valuable players and that's why worked so hard to get him from Richmond and bring him home.
'The difficult part about it is because he can swing from midfield to forward and you think he's a midfielder and then he spits forward and then you think he's a forward and he goes up into the midfield.
'That's the quality of him as a player, to be able to swing and switch from one to the other really quickly and sometimes you can stuff around your structures a little bit.
'We need to work out what you do there, but I reckon at some point in the game if he is really hurting us then we will need to try and negate him somehow.'
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The Advertiser
27 minutes ago
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Piastri-Norris boilover 'inevitable' in F1 title hunt
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"The coolest one by far is putting myself in the list of world champions." Lando Norris knows it's only a matter of time before his brewing rivalry with Oscar Piastri reaches boiling point. Piastri heads the Formula One championship by 10 points over teammate Norris after leading the third McLaren one-two finish this season with a flawless race at the Spanish Grand Prix. Australia's Piastri is in career-best form ahead of this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix, shooting into title contention after banking five race wins. Meanwhile, Norris - long viewed as McLaren's No.1 driver - has taken just two wins. Well aware that his biggest competition is on the other side of the garage, Norris concedes an on-track confrontation is inevitable as the season progresses. "We never said we're going to avoid everything," Norris said. "We've actually been quite open in saying at some point something is probably going to happen. We just have to be ready for that. "Everything is in the open, everything is obvious, everything is known between us. "We both want to win, we both want to beat each other, but at the end of the day there can only be one person, and that will be whoever performs the best over the course of the year. "I think Andrea (Stella, McLaren team principal) said it, it's not an 'if', it's a 'when' and we'll see when that time comes. "We'll try and avoid everything as much as possible, but it's inevitable that it happens in racing." Piastri and Norris wouldn't be the first F1 teammates to come to blows on the track. In 2018 former Australian racer Daniel Ricciardo was involved in a high-speed crash with a then-young upshot Max Verstappen. The two had banged wheels multiple times on the Baku City Circuit at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, before Ricciardo eventually ran up the back of Verstappen at the end of the main straight. Lewis Hamilton also had numerous volatile confrontations with former Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg, with Sebastien Vettel also locking horns with Mark Webber at Red Bull. Piastri, managed by fellow Aussie Webber, conceded that Norris poses a larger threat than reigning four-time champion Verstappen. Red Bull heavyweight Verstappen has won two races and is 39 points behind the McLaren pair. "Lando is the main opponent, but I'm not going to rule out Max," Piastri said. "The gap is obviously a bit bigger now, but it's not insurmountable by any stretch of the imagination. "We're going to keep pushing to try and make our car even faster, make myself even faster, but yeah, I think the main opponent, let's say, is Lando." Piastri is keeping a lid on the championship hype after joining Hamilton and Ayrton Senna in holding eight consecutive podiums. The 24-year-old has only missed the podium once this season - his home race in Melbourne. "I mostly blank it out. I know exactly why I'm here. It's to try and win a championship," Piastri said. "I think all the other stats that go along with that - yeah, OK, they're cool. "The coolest one by far is putting myself in the list of world champions." Lando Norris knows it's only a matter of time before his brewing rivalry with Oscar Piastri reaches boiling point. Piastri heads the Formula One championship by 10 points over teammate Norris after leading the third McLaren one-two finish this season with a flawless race at the Spanish Grand Prix. Australia's Piastri is in career-best form ahead of this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix, shooting into title contention after banking five race wins. Meanwhile, Norris - long viewed as McLaren's No.1 driver - has taken just two wins. Well aware that his biggest competition is on the other side of the garage, Norris concedes an on-track confrontation is inevitable as the season progresses. "We never said we're going to avoid everything," Norris said. "We've actually been quite open in saying at some point something is probably going to happen. We just have to be ready for that. "Everything is in the open, everything is obvious, everything is known between us. "We both want to win, we both want to beat each other, but at the end of the day there can only be one person, and that will be whoever performs the best over the course of the year. "I think Andrea (Stella, McLaren team principal) said it, it's not an 'if', it's a 'when' and we'll see when that time comes. "We'll try and avoid everything as much as possible, but it's inevitable that it happens in racing." Piastri and Norris wouldn't be the first F1 teammates to come to blows on the track. In 2018 former Australian racer Daniel Ricciardo was involved in a high-speed crash with a then-young upshot Max Verstappen. The two had banged wheels multiple times on the Baku City Circuit at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, before Ricciardo eventually ran up the back of Verstappen at the end of the main straight. Lewis Hamilton also had numerous volatile confrontations with former Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg, with Sebastien Vettel also locking horns with Mark Webber at Red Bull. Piastri, managed by fellow Aussie Webber, conceded that Norris poses a larger threat than reigning four-time champion Verstappen. Red Bull heavyweight Verstappen has won two races and is 39 points behind the McLaren pair. "Lando is the main opponent, but I'm not going to rule out Max," Piastri said. "The gap is obviously a bit bigger now, but it's not insurmountable by any stretch of the imagination. "We're going to keep pushing to try and make our car even faster, make myself even faster, but yeah, I think the main opponent, let's say, is Lando." Piastri is keeping a lid on the championship hype after joining Hamilton and Ayrton Senna in holding eight consecutive podiums. The 24-year-old has only missed the podium once this season - his home race in Melbourne. "I mostly blank it out. I know exactly why I'm here. It's to try and win a championship," Piastri said. "I think all the other stats that go along with that - yeah, OK, they're cool. "The coolest one by far is putting myself in the list of world champions." Lando Norris knows it's only a matter of time before his brewing rivalry with Oscar Piastri reaches boiling point. Piastri heads the Formula One championship by 10 points over teammate Norris after leading the third McLaren one-two finish this season with a flawless race at the Spanish Grand Prix. Australia's Piastri is in career-best form ahead of this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix, shooting into title contention after banking five race wins. Meanwhile, Norris - long viewed as McLaren's No.1 driver - has taken just two wins. Well aware that his biggest competition is on the other side of the garage, Norris concedes an on-track confrontation is inevitable as the season progresses. "We never said we're going to avoid everything," Norris said. "We've actually been quite open in saying at some point something is probably going to happen. We just have to be ready for that. "Everything is in the open, everything is obvious, everything is known between us. "We both want to win, we both want to beat each other, but at the end of the day there can only be one person, and that will be whoever performs the best over the course of the year. "I think Andrea (Stella, McLaren team principal) said it, it's not an 'if', it's a 'when' and we'll see when that time comes. "We'll try and avoid everything as much as possible, but it's inevitable that it happens in racing." Piastri and Norris wouldn't be the first F1 teammates to come to blows on the track. In 2018 former Australian racer Daniel Ricciardo was involved in a high-speed crash with a then-young upshot Max Verstappen. The two had banged wheels multiple times on the Baku City Circuit at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, before Ricciardo eventually ran up the back of Verstappen at the end of the main straight. Lewis Hamilton also had numerous volatile confrontations with former Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg, with Sebastien Vettel also locking horns with Mark Webber at Red Bull. Piastri, managed by fellow Aussie Webber, conceded that Norris poses a larger threat than reigning four-time champion Verstappen. Red Bull heavyweight Verstappen has won two races and is 39 points behind the McLaren pair. "Lando is the main opponent, but I'm not going to rule out Max," Piastri said. "The gap is obviously a bit bigger now, but it's not insurmountable by any stretch of the imagination. "We're going to keep pushing to try and make our car even faster, make myself even faster, but yeah, I think the main opponent, let's say, is Lando." Piastri is keeping a lid on the championship hype after joining Hamilton and Ayrton Senna in holding eight consecutive podiums. The 24-year-old has only missed the podium once this season - his home race in Melbourne. "I mostly blank it out. I know exactly why I'm here. It's to try and win a championship," Piastri said. "I think all the other stats that go along with that - yeah, OK, they're cool. "The coolest one by far is putting myself in the list of world champions."
Herald Sun
an hour ago
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Rob Heathcote says Stradbroke win with Rothfire would top everything he has achieved
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News.com.au
an hour ago
- News.com.au
Trainer Maddy Sears says Yellow Brick ‘well over the odds' for Stradbroke Handicap
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