North Melbourne issued an apology to Essendon after Alastair Clarkson made an inappropriate comment to a group of Bombers AFLW players.

The incident happened in the Sydney hotel that the Kangaroos men and Essendon women were sharing for their SCG double-header on August 23.

It must be noted that the exchange played no part in Clarkson’s sacking as North coach.

But sources said Clarkson was in a lift with the female players when he made a poor attempt at humour referencing the Swans’ hotel scandal being investigated by Victoria Police’s sex crimes squad.

The North Melbourne men and Essendon women were guests of the same hotel chain.

The four-time premiership coach threw his hands in the air in the lift and said words to the effect of: “Keep your hands up” in a clear reference to the sexual assault allegations stemming from the Swans incident a week earlier.

Clarkson was said to be extremely remorseful, immediately regretted his comments and was quick to apologise to the Essendon contingent.

That apology was accepted and the matter was resolved between both clubs without AFL involvement.

While the incident in no way played a part in Clarkson’s dismissal as coach today, it was the last in a long line of verbal incidents that plagued his Arden Street tenure.

He was fined $20,000 and received a suspended ban for a homophobic slur in an exchange with Saints players Jimmy Webster and Dougal Howard at quarter-time of a 2024 pre-season game. He threatened a female reporter at training in 2023, telling her “Your time will come”, which lead to another apology.