"Take the biggest challenge."

When four-time premiership coaching legend Alastair Clarkson was locked in one of the most difficult decisions of his career, choosing between North Melbourne and Greater Western Sydney as his next destination, it was that piece of advice from Celtic manager and Australian football great Ange Postecoglou that helped him settle on Arden Street.

Postecoglou, the one-time Australian national team coach, two-time A-League champion and a manager now renowned as one of the best tactical minds in Europe thanks to his work at Celtic, has been a long-time confidante of Clarkson. They have shared messages and advice along their journey as both have come to be recognised as masters of their respective fields.

During a 12-month sabbatical where Clarkson toured the United States and Europe following his departure from Hawthorn in 2022, he spent a week with the Scottish champions, a club now moulded firmly in Postecoglou's image. It had followed stints with modern NBA powerhouse the Golden State Warriors and NFL giants the Green Bay Packers during his time overseas.

But before Clarkson had even arrived in Glasgow last October, Postecoglou had already helped shape the AFL great's coaching future. Deliberating on offers from both the Kangaroos and the Giants at the time, Clarkson turned to the Celtic manager for one last piece of advice. It proved pivotal in his ultimate return to the club where he had first started his football journey as a player almost 40 years ago.

"What I didn't fear one iota was North Melbourne's position on the ladder. If anything, that was what presented such a challenge and such an opportunity. I spoke to Ange Postecoglou and he said, 'Take the biggest challenge', and this is a great challenge," Clarkson told AFL.com.au in an exclusive interview at Arden Street earlier this week.

"As was GWS, I might add. To take on that challenge to try to be the first team from the new sides to win a flag, in that type of market – a really difficult market, a rugby league market – that would have been a huge challenge. But this one is a different sort of challenge, one that touches my heart pretty closely because this was the club that gave me my start as a 17-year-old way back in 1986."

Clarkson, a premiership coach at Hawthorn in 2008, 2013, 2014 and 2015, had spent almost an entire 12 months as the AFL's hottest commodity. Carlton had made a significant push to lure him as its next senior coach in September 2021, only to be told of his wishes to spend the next year of his life overseas.

North Melbourne and GWS were then locked in an even more intense battle for Clarkson to replace their previous leaders, David Noble and Leon Cameron respectively, towards the end of last season. Essendon made a late dash for his signature, having parted with Ben Rutten last August, but the 54-year-old reiterated this week that the Bombers had barely factored into his decision-making process at all.

Instead, as well as Postecoglou's advice, it was the location of the two clubs – and a desire to remain in Victoria – that had played a significant part in his final decision to sign for North Melbourne and not GWS. With the Clarkson family already spread across the country, keeping 'home' in Victoria was always at the back of his mind.

"It was really only two clubs that had coaching positions available at that point in time and they were the only two that I really explored, and that was North Melbourne and Greater Western Sydney," Clarkson said.

"I was so impressed with the GWS organisation. (Chairman) Tony Shepherd, (CEO) Dave Matthews and (football director) Jimmy Bartel, I had a lot to do with those guys over a period of time. It was a really tough decision, but in the end the whole move to Sydney for my family at that point just wasn't the right one for us. I had a son that was going to live in the Northern Territory, I had a daughter in Queensland, my other daughter was going to be here in Melbourne, then we'd be in Sydney. Where was home going to be?

"At the end of the day, despite our love for footy and our passion to be involved in the game, we couldn't put that ahead of our family. We wanted Melbourne, just at this point in time, to be our family home. Once we came to that decision, and it took a while to come to that because we were just so impressed with GWS, but there was only really one club here that was offering an opportunity and that was North Melbourne.

"That doesn't mean they were the last man standing, so that's all we took. I was enormously impressed with (president) Dr Sonja Hood, enormously impressed with the board, and I knew the history of the club."

Clarkson's appointment continued a period of total change sweeping throughout North Melbourne. In the last 12 months alone, the club has appointed a new president in Dr Hood, a new CEO in Jennifer Watt, a new coach in Clarkson, a new football boss in Todd Viney, a new football operations manager in Cam Matthews, has welcomed 10 new players through the door – including two top-four draft picks in Harry Sheezel and George Wardlaw, as well as Fremantle recruits Griffin Logue and Darcy Tucker, and ex-Hawthorn pair Liam Shiels and Dan Howe – and has also appointed two new captains in Jy Simpkin and Luke McDonald.

It comes amid an on-field stage of the club's redevelopment where it has claimed two straight wooden spoons, has won just nine of its last 61 games, and last October lost its prized former No.1 draft pick Jason Horne-Francis to Port Adelaide barely 12 months after he had first arrived at Arden Street.

So, given all of the uncertainty posed towards the football club this summer, what does a good season look like for North Melbourne in 2023? And how can the club's return to the top be measured during Clarkson's first campaign in charge?

"It's just showing the whole football world, but also our supporters, that there's some stability and continuity with what we're putting in place here. For a whole number of reasons, whether it's to do with our footy club or whether it's the wider world, there's been a fair amount of instability around football and our lives for the last two or three years. Mainly because of COVID-19," Clarkson said.

"Our footy club, in particular over the last four or five years, has had significant instability. Whether that's been at board level, administration level, or at coaching level, it's very hard. Whether it's a business, whether it's a sport, whether it's religion, whether it's the government, whether it's a family, if you haven't got continuity or stability, it's very difficult to have success. That's the main thing we're going to be working on.

"We know there's going to be a period of time where we need to gel together and work out how we can go on this journey together. But we've all got a really clear vision for what we want to do at this club and that's to take it back to the promised land of trying to win some silverware. We're all really strongly aligned on that.

"How quickly that happens is going to be anyone's guess. We've seen it happen very quickly, and we've also seen it not happen at all. In some instances, it takes a fair period of time too. We're under no illusions. We're prepared to roll our sleeves up and get to work."

Clarkson had arrived at Hawthorn in 2004 following a period in which the club had found itself in serious strife, having just finished second-bottom on the ladder with a dismal 4-18 record. But, over the next 17 seasons, he transformed the Hawks into one of the League's modern success stories, and one of its most feared teams.

Nearly 20 years on, he's back in a similar position. At a club that is languishing, desperate for success. Whether he can work his magic again, and how quickly it will take him to conjure better years at Arden Street, is a different question. But the motivation for Clarkson, and the energy and inspiration to start his work, remains on par with what it had been like nearly two decades ago.

"I'm really excited," Clarkson said.

"I'm right back at the coalface of coaching, which is really exciting. Over a period of time, you end up delegating. It's like being a parent, you end up delegating some of your responsibilities to your older children and for them to look after their younger siblings. It's a little bit like that at a footy club. You end up handing over so much responsibility that you actually hand over some of the things that you really love.

"What I love is the strategy of the game, the game itself, I love the relationships with the players and the coaches, and I love teaching the game. Over time, they were the things that you delegated to others. But being here at North Melbourne, right at this point in time, right at the coalface again, that's a great place to be."