Noble: I’m here for big picture

NORTH Melbourne coach David Noble has declared he is at Arden Street “for the long haul” as he affirmed his commitment to his players and his approach to coaching.

Noble and chief executive Ben Amarfio were adamant on Thursday that the club is “united” and players and staff were happy, days after three members of the club’s recruiting team left the Kangaroos, with one understood to be related to a perceived lack of support.

Amarfio firmly backed the coach, with Noble saying he had been ready for a rocky road when taking the some 18 months ago.

“So our members and our fans understand, I took this job on understanding that there will be difficult times,” Noble said.

“I’m here for the long haul. I want our club to be successful and strong. You don’t take it on board thinking that it’s all going to be beer and skittles.

“It makes the end result all the more sweeter when you work through these (situations).

“You’ve got to create rigour. You’ve got to create debate. To create standards and an environment where success is maintained is bloody difficult.”

He maintained that his relationships with players and coaches were “terrific” despite reports of rifts, and while he hit out at those suggestions, said “I’m here for the challenge and I’m not going anywhere”. Noble said that:

Reports suggesting there are rifts with players and other coaches are “substantially untrue”.

He would go hard at his players again “in certain times and circumstances where if players don’t deliver performance, if I don’t create a standard … then I’m not doing my job properly”.

Top draft pick Jason Horne-Francis understands he needed to inform the club about a recent interstate trip to Adelaide.

The team’s defence remains a concern but the Roos are “probably where we should be in the sense of our build”.

Losing three members of the recruiting department on one day is “not ideal” but he would endeavour to sit down with those departing to “pull apart what (their) information is and how we can actually move better”.

There could be “parts of” this week’s drama that the team could draw upon on Sunday against St Kilda.

The team has a 1-9 record and an average losing margin of 56 points.

Noble said despite the horror numbers, the team would stick with its system that he backed to improve with better execution and synergy that he said came with time.

“We feel like the measures we’re putting in place and the things that we’re starting to tweak are coming to hand a bit better,” he said.

“We felt like we defended better on the weekend … we feel like we’re making ground. It doesn’t necessarily feel like that on the numbers, but it feels like that on the structure and the execution are getting better.”

Horne-Francis has parked contract talks until the end of the season, which Noble said was “not unusual”.