THERE is a distinctly Hawthorn feel to North Melbourne.
With four-time premiership great Alastair Clarkson set for his first meeting against the club he spent 17 years coaching this Saturday, he has taken a Hawks flavour and used it to inspire the Kangaroos' remarkable 2-0 start.
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Speaking to AFL.com.au before round one, Clarkson said the emotional experience of facing Hawthorn would be "strange". It might be a similar feeling for the seven others with a Hawks connection this weekend.
From an on-field perspective, North Melbourne tempted three-time Hawthorn premiership player Liam Shiels out of retirement to secure him as a supplemental selection period recruit. It also nabbed 96-game Hawks midfielder Dan Howe as a rookie.
Off the field, though, Clarkson's Hawthorn fingerprints are even more prevalent at Arden Street. As well as the coach, there are five other backroom staff members that had previously worked at the Hawks.
Todd Viney was an assistant coach under Clarkson during Hawthorn's 2008 premiership victory, and now occupies the significant role as North Melbourne's new general manager of football.
Brett Ratten was an assistant coach under Clarkson during each of the side's premierships in 2013, 2014 and 2015. He has now joined the Kangaroos as a part-time assistant, helping with the team's midfield group.
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Damian Monkhorst spent 12 years working with Clarkson as a ruck coach at Hawthorn, and now performs the same role at North Melbourne, while Josh Gibson is the Kangaroos' defensive specialist coach after 160 games as a player at the Hawks.
Cam Matthews was Clarkson's most recent addition as North Melbourne's football operations manager, previously performing a similar role at Hawthorn having also worked as the club's player development manager for six seasons.
For Clarkson, this weekend presents the added unusual element of a return to Tasmania for the first time in a working capacity since he departed Hawthorn. It will provide another dimension to his first meeting with his former employer.
"It'll be a strange sort of day," Clarkson told AFL.com.au in pre-season.
"They were special years, the time we all spent together at the Hawthorn Football Club. I spent a third of my life there. I met some wonderful people and created some really, really special memories, not just around the triumphs but also around the struggles and the support that we needed to give one another through those struggles. I know through my struggles, there were a lot of people that supported me through it. I just can't turn my back on that in a heartbeat.
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"There will be part of me, when I go down to Launceston, that will want to acknowledge and thank the people of Launceston and the wider Hawthorn community that gave me and our club so much support in the time I was at the club. But there's also going to be another part of me, I'm wearing blue and white colours now. We'll be down there to try and win a game of footy.
"It's going to be a strange set of emotions, but it's one I'm looking forward to. Even if it was beyond my time at Hawthorn, I then spent 12 months working with Tasmania trying to work out how they can get a 19th team. Now I've come to a club that's also got a close association with Tasmania. Tasmania is pretty close to my heart, for what it did in terms of my connection with Hawthorn but also what it now does in terms of my connection with the North Melbourne Football Club."
