Footy used to be run by blokes with big egos who slashed and burned coaches as they saw fit.
North Melbourne president Sonja Hood didn’t fully step into those smoke scented suits of the 1970s and 1980s on Wednesday, but she wasn’t far off.
The Alastair Clarkson sacking was not a blood soaked coup solely run by Hood.
It was a show of strength even if it left her holding up her own grenade.
There was a certain frankness and direct style to Hood and footy boss Todd Viney in their press conference on Wednesday, something that has become more and more of a relic of that by-gone era in these modern, sugar-coated times.
Here was the honest and clear Hood laying out the reasons a four-time flag winning, hall of fame coach had to go:
• “There is not enough belief from the key people on or off the field that he is the right person to drive that (push for a flag).”
• “Alastair has been around football long enough to know the reality of heading into the final year of his contract would look like.”
• “We’ve got a termination clause in Alastair’s contract and we have met that obligation.”
• “This club needs a coach who can coach for the modern game.”
• “(The new coach) will be a coach who knows what they are doing and will be the best fit for this club.”
Hood was at pains to pay tribute to Clarkson’s efforts at the club but wouldn’t hide behind why she and Viney had to march into his home on Tuesday night and swing the axe.
Despite Luke Beveridge’s protestations on Wednesday, few sports give as much rope to their coaches as footy.
Almost inevitably, the default is to give the coach one extra year rather yank them when it is not working.
Carlton was too cautious last year, giving Michael Voss one last crack at it only for his assistant to come in and prove how wrong that call was.
In hindsight, it could have cost Carlton a top four finish.
Hood clearly didn’t want North Melborune to sleepwalk into Clarkson’s final year and potentially waste a season in which the Roos should finally return to finals for the first time since 2016.
She sniffed out the problem and acted.
It clearly wasn’t just her call.
Viney shrugged off his friendship with Clarkson – he is unsure how long it will take to repair – to take part in the fact finding mission, one that likely was only going to end one way.
Hood knew the risks if she led this axing.
It was her as a new president who picked out Clarkson and appointed him, crowing about a coup that would turn sour only months later when Hawthorn’s racism row knocked the stuffing out of the coaching great.
Other presidents would have wedged their own sword so far into the ground they would have had to fall on it, but Hood pivoted and chose what was right for the club.
All amid persistent murmurings about challenges to her position at the top of the club.
She was dragged into a meeting featuring Roos figures demanding improvement at the start of this year.
Hood has also been touted as a future AFL commissioner.
That comes amid the inevitable online commentary that will likely forever remain tinged by those who struggle to understand a female leader in a still male-dominated football world.
The comments sections were divided on Wednesday afternoon, many asking Hood to resign and the board to go.
Hood knew that commentary would come and she knows it will become too much if her next big call is a misfire.
North Melbourne can’t afford another failed coach, and neither can Hood’s regime.
But she clearly won’t stand around waiting for things to change.
As she herself said: “To not make these decisions is a failure of leadership”.