THIS was the season it was meant to pop at North Melbourne.

Instead, it proved one where Alastair Clarkson's own balloon burst and will be remembered as a campaign where the Kangas have been forced to appoint a fifth senior coach in eight years and find a different path towards success.

Clarkson was officially relieved of his duties on Tuesday, with players then called into an unscheduled meeting on Wednesday morning where they were told the news of their coach's sacking.

The North Melbourne board had met last Thursday and again in recent days to hold discussions on Clarkson's future heading into what would have been a contract year in 2027, following another campaign where the team flickered between mediocrity and outright disappointment.

After 11 wins in Clarkson's first three seasons, and having amassed only 20 wins total across the last six seasons, the Kangaroos board represented a supporter base desperate to not only see improvements but significant ones.

It's undeniable North Melbourne did improve – the Kangaroos won nine games, almost doubling their output from last season – but as for whether the team improved significantly was an entirely different matter and ultimately one that cost the coaching great his job at Arden Street.

Those raised expectations were in part a result of the puzzle pieces seemingly aligning leading into 2026. The Kangaroos had talent, reflected in the 10 first-round picks brought through the doors across the last four drafts, while they also had some luck in the form of a cookie-cutter schedule to open the season.

But what should have been the defining element to North Melbourne's future was also having the coach they'd brought back to the club for moments like this, to guide a developing outfit through the next phase of its journey at a rapid rate just as he'd done at Hawthorn from 2005-2008 and again from 2009-2015.

But where Clarkson's Hawks had leapt, his Kangas laboured. The signs of such struggles were evident early, like when they dropped a 30-point lead to a West Coast side that would ultimately win just four games for the year in round two.

That scuppered what, on paper, should have been a 5-1 start and meant North Melbourne was behind the eight-ball from the outset. When other winnable games were dropped – like ones against Greater Western Sydney, Port Adelaide and St Kilda – it compounded the side's inability to claim a scalp.

The club's 2-10 record against finalists was among the League's worst and was masked further by the fact one of those two victories came against a Carlton side mired in a disastrous 1-8 start to the season. The other was 22 matches in the making and came against a banged-up Western Bulldogs when their finals chances were already all but over.

Against the very best, the Kangas went 0-8 against top six teams and had an average losing margin of 44.9 points. A 124-point defeat to Fremantle was the worst of those and exposed the clear gap between Clarkson's nearly-men and the League's genuine contenders.

They played a brand of football that excelled in the 2010s, as Hawthorn's did, but looked basic compared to more modern coaches. Where first timers with fresh ideas like Steven King and Josh Fraser have brought innovative and exciting thoughts to the table, the brand of football under Clarkson was stale and unable to compete with the competition's best.

In a ruthless press conference on Wednesday afternoon, football boss Todd Viney – who will remain at Arden Street, despite his close relationship to Clarkson – said "gaping holes" were evident in the team's gameplan and were a direct reason why the side had been unable to take the next step in its evolution this year.

North Melbourne president, Dr Sonja Hood, later said the club's next coach needed to be one that could "coach the modern game". Whether inadvertent or intended, combined with the earlier comments from Viney, they made for one giant backhander to Clarkson on his way out the exit door.

Dr Hood had earlier said Clarkson "no longer had the belief" of enough people at the club. Players, whose feedback directly contributed to North Melbourne's Clarkson call, were undeniably chief among those who had lost confidence in the four-time premiership winner.

Viney suggested players had been confused by Clarkson's message and had been stunted by a lack of cohesion, while right across the campaign there had been whispers of lengthy meetings that had failed to resonate with a playing group that remains the fourth youngest in the competition.

His usage of those young players, particularly some of the top-end talent, had also caused friction internally – as well as externally, where rivals both scratched their heads and also picked up the phones – with some even considering their futures at Arden Street as a result.

The club's former No.4 pick Zane Duursma ended the year in the VFL and has continually rebuffed the side's offer of a two-year extension as he nears the end of his contract, instead courting rival interest from Melbourne where it has appeared as though he is likely to land.

Fellow former first-round pick Riley Hardeman also seriously considered rival interest this season, having played just seven games for the year and having missed out on selection to veterans like Luke McDonald, transitioned forwards like Cam Zurhaar, and others in a shaky backline across the campaign.

Fellow first-round picks like Lachy Dovaston, Matt Whitlock, Taylor Goad, Wil Dawson and Tom Powell also spent significant chunks of the season in the VFL, despite the club's heavy investment into their potential.

The culmination of such factors led to North Melbourne's decision this week and could also provide a heavy dose of caution as it looks to the future. Where the likes of coaching greats such as John Longmire and Adam Simpson hold obvious appeal as Kangas legends and premiership winners elsewhere, they have also spent two years out of the system.

Clarkson – himself a player at North Melbourne and a premiership-winning coach elsewhere – had also spent two years out of the game before returning to Arden Street in 2023. He found the adjustment to a more modern game difficult to manage, just ask Viney and Dr Hood.

But regardless of who does take over, it's a prime job. Of the club's best players, Luke Davies-Uniacke at 27 is the oldest while Harry Sheezel, George Wardlaw, Finn O'Sullivan, Colby McKercher and Paul Curtis are all 23 or under. The ceilings are just as high for others like Hardeman, Goad, Duursma, Dawson, Whitlock and Dovaston.

Most, Duursma aside, are also contracted for their best years. O'Sullivan (2029), Nick Larkey (2029), Tristan Xerri (2031), Sheezel (2032), Davies-Uniacke (2032), Curtis (2033) and Charlie Comben (2033) are among those to have committed to long-term extensions in recent years.

It's that nucleus that will have plenty of top-level assistants like Fremantle's Jaymie Graham, St Kilda's Corey Enright, Geelong's James Kelly, Adelaide's Murray Davis and Hawthorn's Daniel Giansiracusa – and perhaps Longmire and Simpson as well – keen to prove they can excel where Clarkson couldn't.

Maybe it will be one of them who can finally make the Kangas pop in 2027.