SEN’s Garry Lyon and Tim Watson have weighed in on reports that North Melbourne coach David Noble conceded he went too far in a post-match address that left his players “visibly shocked”.
The Herald Sun reported late on Monday that Noble sprayed his players after the club’s Round 3 108-point loss to Brisbane, however he’s believed to have reflected in the following days and apologised to his side for going over the top.
With the Roos sitting 1-7 and in their second year of a rebuild, Melbourne legend Lyon believes it’s “not a big deal”, but said it’s imperative Noble doesn’t lose the playing group.
“I think it’s okay, I think David Noble, maybe he wouldn’t have wanted this to be public, but the fact there’s a level of self-awareness in amongst that, that’s the relationship you have with your playing group,” he told SEN Breakfast.
“Whether it was Jack Ziebell (captain) who may have come to him… whether he picked up on it, I don’t really mind, it’s not something you can do regularly obviously and now they’re at a situation (we liken to Melbourne under Mark Neeld).
“I imagine Kangaroo fans have this sense of doom and gloom and the world is going to end, that’s exactly what was the feeling around Melbourne, and how do you get out of it?
“The fact that David Noble has been outed now as someone who had to turn around and go, ‘I might have gone too hard’, I don’t think is big a deal. It’s what happens from here… this is the challenge for coaching, particularly for young coaches, is whether you’ve still got your playing group.
“He’s got a tough job, it’s a really tough job and he’s trying to get the best out of the group when they’re in a rebuilding phase.”
SEN Breakfast co-host and Essendon 307-gamer Watson suggested the next phase of the story revolves around whether Noble can win back his players.
Noble is in just his second year of senior coaching at the struggling club and is tasked with returning the Roos to the finals for the first time since 2016.
“What you’ve then got to look at is do you win the players back, can you get them back?” he said.
“What type of relationship do you have with those players where you can say, ‘okay, I’ve got to own this, I made a mistake, I went too hard on the group, I’ve got to address that, but is my relationship such with this group of players that they’re going to accept that, or are other behaviours that have already exhibited to the player going to deter that from happening’.”
Meanwhile, Port Adelaide great Kane Cornes believes Noble would have no case to apologise given his players’ dreadful performance.
“It’s madness, we say this because we weren’t in the room, something very personal must have happened for him to need to apologise for this,” he told SEN SA Breakfast.
“If David Noble has given the players instructions and they’ve gone outside of the instructions and they have been uncompetitive and their contest work has not been up to the level, why isn’t a coach allowed to tear strips off them?
“A I said, it must have got incredibly personal.
“But it is a sign of how far we’ve come in sport that you need to apologise for giving your players a spray, and what it does do it, it removes a lot of the power of the coach and the art of coaching.”
The Roos are chasing their second win of the year when taking on Port Adelaide in Hobart on Saturday.