Alastair Clarkson is one of the great coaches in AFL history, guiding his all-conquering Hawthorn side to four flags across his widly successful 17-year stay with the Hawks.
Yet almost three seasons into his tenure at North Melbourne, the 59-year-old has so far failed to replicate anything like the level of progress he achieved at Hawthorn.
Taking over the Hawks from Peter Schwab in 2005, Clarkson picked up five, nine and then 13 wins respectively across his first three years before claiming his first flag in 2008.
At the Kangaroos, he has won just three matches in each of his first two seasons and has four wins and a draw in 2025 with four matches remaining.
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Baby steps forward have regularly been met with shuddering halts, culminating in last Saturday's 101-point annihilation against Geelong, and Dockers great Paul Hasleby has seen enough.
Hasleby, an All Australian and four-time best and fairest during his 208 games with Freo, believes it's time for Clarkson to "walk away".
“They gave up 150 points on the weekend, 77 inside 50s, 27 marks inside the forward 50 -their system does not work,” Hasleby said on SEN WA's The Run Home.
“Jeremy Cameron kicked 11 goals and that’s got to be on Alastair Clarkson. He has been there now for three years, there has been no improvement from this group.
“They brought in Jack Darling, Luke Parker … Caleb Daniel has made not one bit of difference to their team.
“In my opinion, Clarko should do the right thing by North Melbourne and walk away from his contract.
“He has got two more years left, he cannot honestly look them in the eye and say I’ve made improvement to this team.
“He won’t be the answer for this football club in my opinion, because the defensive woes are just in-built with his coaching style.”
Minor highlights, such as a round two belting of Melbourne and a round nine draw with the Brisbane Lions, have been offset by a series of one-sided defeats.
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Clarkson is the latest in a long line of AFL coaches to have success at one club and find the going much tougher at another.
Garry Lyon believes Clarko is yet to repay the faith shown in him by the North board.
“What we’ve got to assess, which is hard, is to try and pass judgement on one of the all-timers,” Lyon said on AFL 360.
“It’s happened before. It’s (Mick) Malthouse, it’s (Dennis) Pagan, it’s these great, great coaches who owned their eras and got premiership success off the back of them, who then went, for different reasons, to different clubs down towards the bottom.
"Their capacity to impact there wasn’t what it was, understandably, and that’s where we find this modern-day great (Clarkson).
“He’s a stubborn man and he’ll dig in ... I'd suggest he has (still got the faith in himself), but he’s got to prove that and his club’s got to prove that.”