I’m delighted to announce that last night Alastair Clarkson agreed to coach the North Melbourne Football Club for the next five seasons.

Our former number 23, Shinboner #781, and four-time premiership coach will lead our talented, young group from 2023 until at least 2027.

This is a real watershed moment for our club, and I am writing to share it with members first – we’ll talk to media later today, but for now, this is a moment for all of us.  

I can’t speak highly enough of the professionalism of Alastair and his manager James Henderson over this past four weeks. We’ve had a crash course in getting to know each other and Alastair’s passion to drive our club back to where we belong is incredibly infectious.

Alastair officially begins with us on November 1, and I’m looking forward to welcoming him, wife Caryn and children Stephanie, Georgia and Matthew, to the Shinboner family.

In the meantime, I hope to see as many of you as possible at Marvel tomorrow to thank Leigh Adams and his team for the outstanding job they have done over the last six weeks of the season. 

I’ve lost count of the number of people who have remarked about how well Leigh has acquitted himself in the top job and we’ve been so blessed to have him. So to Patch, thanks for your hard work and congratulations on a job well done. 

Finally, a few final words on another favourite son – the one and only Ben Cunnington. How good was it to see Ben return to the field in Adelaide last Saturday? 

Now, this weekend, Ben plays on our home deck in front of our own people. Having been at Adelaide Oval last week, a few words of advice – wear lots of blue and white and remember to bring a hanky. 

We look forward to seeing you all there to thank Patch, support Ben and cheer on our players  in the last game of what has been an incredibly eventful 2022. 

Thank you as always for your unwavering support and love for our club.

Today is a good day. Alastair’s coming home. To our home.

Go Roos!