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Robbo: Where Clarko won’t coach next year
Mark Robinson
Alastair Clarkson is more likely than not to coach next year, but it won’t be at Essendon, Port Adelaide or West Coast.
Scuttlebutt that one of those three clubs could make a late play for the four-time premiership coach can be put to bed.
The Bombers won’t make an official announcement on Ben Rutten – he is contracted for 2023 after all – but it’s understood the drawn-out review has determined he will coach next year.
Changes will be made around Rutten, which will include the appointment of a senior football figure to the coaching department, someone like a Mark Williams.
The Eagles have been deplorable this season, notwithstanding Covid and injuries as an excuse, and coach Adam Simpson has probably escaped white-hot criticism from the east-coast.
Not that he’s been missed in the west.
The Eagles, however, are backing Simpson. He has two losing seasons in his nine years at the helm – they are 2021 and 2022 – and has an overall winning percentage of 57.7.
Clarkson, in contrast, has coached almost double the number of games as Simpson – 390 to 201 – and has a winning percentage of 58.5. He has six losing seasons in 17.
The Eagles have committed to Simpson for the next three seasons.
“He already had a contract until the end of this year and we then recommitted for the next three years,’’ Eagles chief executive Trevor Nisbett told the Herald Sun. “It was at the end of 2021.’’
Nisbett said Clarkson was not on the club’s horizon.
“Adam is all in, we’ve committed to him, we’ve absolutely committed to him,” Nisbett said.
“There’s no doubt there will changes and a few other things we have to do.’’
Port Adelaide president David Koch is expected to honour Ken Hinkley’s final year of his contract, despite letting his ego suggest otherwise in a radio interview on Monday morning.
Koch is not shy when on the hustings and despite him not guaranteeing Hinkley’s position for 2023, he awkwardly tried to protect Hinkley from being the centrepiece of a supporter witch-hunt at season’s end.
But Koch missed the mark. He threw petrol on a fire which didn’t need it. “It’s not just about one individual person, it’s the whole program. Turn it around or watch out,” Koch said.
They are fighting words with two weeks until the end of the season, and words Hinkley did not need.
Port insists, however, Koch’s comments were not an invitation to Clarkson to give the club a call.
So, unless Koch goes entirely rogue in the near future – which would stun all club officials – Hinkley will be at Alberton next year.
Speculation linking Hinkley to North Melbourne exists because if Clarkson says no to North, Hinkley would appear to be a ready-made candidate: Experienced, good with people, can lead a program.
But Hinkley would have to go back on his word to join North. He said on AFL360 on Monday he wants to coach Port next year. “We all get there’s a finish line for everyone at some point, but as I sit here tonight, I’m more than confident that that won’t be at the end of 2022.”
That leaves North Melbourne and the Giants in contention for Clarkson, as it has been for a month now.
As of Tuesday, neither club was confident or pessimistic about their chances, although conjecture about ambassadorial money being available to Clarkson has flung a fly into the ointment.
If you were a North official, you’d have to wonder if in fact it was a level playing field in the pursuit of Clarkson, or have the Giants the advantage of offering Clarkson a wink, wink nudge, nudge ambassadorial deal on top of his coaching contract money?
For what it’s worth, an answer from Clarkson is expected within 10 days.
