Remember …….. no club since the VFL was founded in 1897 has won both seniors and reserves flags two years running except the practitioners of ROOBALL !!!!!!!!!
Ellie Is Untouchable:
CHARLOTTE SEALS THE GAME AGAINST ESSENDON IN THE FINAL QUARTER:
Geoff Fox, 27 June, 2026, Melbourne
(Trigger Warning: In this piece of writing I make the bold assumption that AFL and AFLW football are equally important. Anyone with a fragile ego who disagrees is advised that they might get upset if they continue reading.)
I can only see two viable modern day candidates to be the next Jock McHale.
Both are senior coaches.
Amazingly, both are currently coaching at the same club.
Since I cannot decide which one has the biggest chance of surpassing Jock McHale in terms of career echeivement, I am going to rely on the outdated principle of ladies first to describe my assessment of the AFLW coch before the AFL coach.
A. DARREN CROCKER
If I am not mistaken, there is only one club in VFL/AFL/AFLW/VFLW history (which began in 1897) to have won both seniors and reserves premierships in consecutive years. North Melbourne Football club in 2024-2025. Collingwood did not win a single reserves premiership in any of the years in which Jock McHale coached successive premierships.
So in the most successful club over a two year period category, CROCK IS AHEAD OF JOCK.
In the category of winning premierships in a row at AFL/VFL/AFLW level Jock has a fourpeat and a twopeat whereas Crock, at this stage, only has one twopeat.
But if the very strong North Melbourne AFLW side wins the next two AFLW flags and if Crock is the senior coach in both victories, then Crock will be the only coach in VFL/AFL/AFLW history to equal Jock McHale’s fourpeat.
Not everyone will be quick to give Crock the credit for an acheivement equal to Jock’s.
But I will.
As a man who was a Registered Midwife in the state of Victoria for 3 decades, I state unequivocally that I believe that the only fields of endeavour I can see in which the human rights of men and women are different are A. carrying life in the womb B. giving birth to that life and C. breast feeding babies.
As footballers, men and women have just as much right to recognition for equal achievement. To me it would be patently sexist to say that an AFLW fourpeat in 2024-2027 would not be the equivalent or perhaps even better than Jock’s fourpeat in 1927-1930. (Jock won in a twelve team competition which included three expansion teams, whereas Crock beats out seventeen longer established opposing teams every time he wins a flag.)
B. ALASTAIR CLARKSON
I have already proved on this blog that Alastair Clarkson’s premiership winning achievement’s make him the equal second best coach in AFL/VFL history.
The scores under my new system (click above link for details) for evaluating the success levels of coaches across different eras of AFL/VFL/AFLW history are:
The GOAT is Jock with 84 points.
In equal second are The Red Fox, Norm Smith, and Clarko tied on 66 points.
If Clarko can pull off a flag with his fast improving young side before the Tassie team starts playing, he goes one point behind Jock.
If Clarko wins his fifth flag when Tassie is playing in the AFL, Clarko ties with Jock McHale to be men’s footy’s GOAT at senior coaching.
Will Kane Cornes comment on this on The Agenda Setters before Eddie Maguire enters the debate?
If Kane is first and backs Clarko, will Eddy back Jock the following night on Footy Classified or admit that Kane makes lots of good points?
It is beyond the scope of this small blog of an old marginalised man to host any major part at all of that debate.
But is not beyond the footy community as a whole.
Especially the Grand Final Breakfast.
I hope I am not wrong.
Geoff Fox, May 27, 2026, Melbourne, Australia
This is a list of the men who have coached the most premiership winning teams in VFL/AFL history:
8 – Jock McHale
6 – Norm Smith
5 – Jack Worrall, Checker Hughes
4 – Dick Reynolds, Tom Hafey, Ron Barassi, Allan Jeans, David Parkin, Kevin Sheedy, Leigh Mathews, Alastair Clarkson
According to the above list, Jock McHale is the most successful coach ever and Norn Smith is second best.
This is unfair to modern coaches because it is much harder to win a flag in an 18 team competition than it was to win a flag in the 10 team competititon of 1917 and 1919 (McHale’s first two flags) and the 12 team competition of the rest of McHale’s victories and all of Norm Smith’s victories.
I address this unfairness by allocating one point per non premiership winning team in the competition in each season in which a coach won a premiership.
Under this scoring system the top three coaches of all time are:
84 – Jock McHale
66 – Norm Smith, Alastair Clarkson
This raises two very important questions:
Is Alastair Clarkson already a better coach than Norm Smith was?
Is the talented young list at North Melbourne good enough to make their beloved leader catch up with current GOAT Jock McHale or even go ahead of him in the coming years.
I’m backing Clarko.
Who wants to help?
Geoff Fox, 21st May, 2026, Melbourne, Australia
(I do not know if a bloke as old as I am – 68, turning 69 on Saturday – can become a True Blue Roo, but I want to ……..)
A chance meeting last week with North Melbourne Kangaroo’s Irish AFLW players lead to me creating this today for the ‘Roos men’s team using the Scottish Gaelic origins of North Melbourne’s theme song:
At the moment the North Melbourne women are the best team in the AFLW competition, whereas the men are beginning to climb the ladder after consecutive wooden spoons in 2021 and 2022.
What can the guys learn from the girls and from Ned?
Geoff Fox , October 17, 2025. West Footscray, Australia
One reason the North Melbourne Football Club women are on top of the ladder underfeated with a percentage of 331.5 is because they work hard at training doing things to make them react quicker than their opponents.
Look at Blaithin Bogue’s brilliant tap into the goalsquare for proof:
And look how Tahlia Randall’s Richmond opponent is left flat-footed by Tahlia’s evasive skills:
This is beautiful.
Geoff Fox, October 13, Melbourne, Australia
One of the reasons North Melbourne is such a strong favourite for this year’s AFLW premiership is the effectiveness of their training.
They engage in lots of match practice and exercises to sharpen their skills and speed.
Yesterday against Essndon at Windy Hill, the Roos overcame a three goal deficit at quarter time to win convinvingly by five goals – an eight goal turnaround.
In the third quarter Tess Craven took possession on the fly leading to a goal against the wind that gave North a crucial nine point lead.
Gaelic football junior champion Blaithin Bogue halted an Essendon attacking thrust with this great tackle:
Best on ground in last year’s Grand Final against Brisbane was veteran Jas Garner. On Friday she kept control of the ball under tackling pressure from Essendon:
Geoff Fox, September 27, Melbourne, Australia
Since I first started following Aussie Rules footy at the age of 9 in 1967, the qualities I have most loved seeing are courage at the contest and skill, speed and flair.
Outstanding players I have seen in this regard are Barry Price, Keith Greig, Robbie Flower, Wayne Schimmelbusch, Garry Ablett Senior, Eddie Betts, The Krakouer brothers and the current Number 5 of the North Melbourne Kangaroos AFLW team, Tess Craven.
As a human being Tess is modest, kind, friendly and helpful and always puts her team ahead of herself. The strength, skill and determination she shows above in tackling a Melbourne opponent about one and a half times her size are awe-inspiring.
What’s not to love?
Geoff Fox, June 8, 2025, Melbourne, Australia
Women are rising in western society in all spheres of life. In the picture above North Melbourne defender and co-vice captian Nicole “Flash” Bresnehan points her fellow players to move forward attacking the goal.
If the rise in women means a rise in misandry, then men should be very very concerned. But if it means better sharing and caring, we will all be better off.
And when it means that football is becoming more beautiful, more collaborative and more impassioned, then I love seeing the shared leadership of women like Flash.
Geoff Fox, 7th June, 2025, Melbourne, Australia
FOOTY FOR FREEDOM 