Big guns come out to join the get-Clarkson-to-Roos campaign

Henderson attended the game alongside former Australian Test captain and influential Kangaroos supporter Ricky Ponting.

The Kangaroos are yet to reveal a coaching selection panel in the hunt for a longterm replacement for David Noble, with a belief that it will initially deal with Clarkson to gauge his interest in the job.

It is understood Hood intends to meet Clarkson – who has been overseas – soon.

Ponting, who is also managed by Henderson, said he planned to meet Clarkson this week in an effort to convince him of the benefits of becoming North Melbourne’s next coach.

He said on the The Believers: Tasmania’s AFL Journey’ podcast it would be “a perfect fit” for the legendary coach – a former North Melbourne player – to lead the Kangaroos’ footy fightback.

“Yeah, absolutely,” Ponting said. “If you’re looking for the right people at the right times, the most successful coach and noted as ... [the] best coach in the AFL for the last 10 or 12 years, there’s a lot worse decisions you could make than to go flat out to try and bring someone like him back to where it all began.”

“That’s the other part of that puzzle with him, obviously. There as a player then went to Melbourne [and] I think started his coaching career near Port Adelaide. I guess if you think about where the footy club is now, it‘s actually not dissimilar to where Hawthorn were when he first started there.

“I mean they – I think he’s on record as saying that he thought it would be a sevenyear journey and rebuild to a potential grand final.

“I think they won one after four [years] maybe.”

The cricket great said the fans would dearly love to see Clarkson back at the same club where he played 93 games at the start of his VFL-AFL career in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s.

“It would just brighten every member’s hopes up on where we’re heading as a footy club,” Ponting said.

“And it’ll also send just a lot of great signals to everyone else in the AFL that they are, you know, they’re not going to keep accepting what’s happened the last couple of years.

“They’re fair dinkum, they’re trying to bring the best people they possibly can and get this rebuild happening as quick as they can, so a lot of great messages would come as a result of it I think.”