Coach Clarkson has left the building

[deanc]

I love Clarkson for all that he’s done, always will, but you’re spot on.

In a Foxsports article today.

“Maybe Clarkson has never been more determined to stick a virtual middle finger up, specially at a certain president on his club’s board. Maybe he’s treating this as an audition for a future coaching role. Maybe he’s giving the club he’s already given so much to just a little more love.

Maybe it’s all three.”


Maybe give some credit to the players and the list, or perhaps question why it’s taken until now for Clarkson to be so driven?

I mean we lost to North and the Crows, it must be remembered, with a healthier list.

Or maybe people just ignore the opinions of 3rd tier journo's who have never played the game, but are increasingly producing articles which are predominately pub-talk type drivel and/or often simply based around recent comments from their TV show presenting colleauges...?

I do however acknowledge the fantastic creativity with some of Foxports's recent click-bait style headlines, although it is bordering on being branded tabloid type nonsense which I doubt is their objective..?

Moreover, the recent article on Clarkson speculatively being involved with up to 'ten AFL clubs' just shows how small-minded some of our AFL scribes are - as it ignores the likelihood that AC may also head overseas to undertake a role with a prominent sports organisation for three or four times the salary (that any AFL club could afford), and thereby never coach another AFL team again..?

I mean, the manner in which our club has poorly managed his exit and the related media circus, (aside from his love for the game) he probably can't wait to get away from this relatively pissant league operating in a remote corner of the World...

 

[theiaofseed]

I mean the manner in which our club has poorly managed his exit and the related media circus, he probably can't wait to get away from this relatively pissant league operating in a remote corner of the World...

He's shares equal blame in that, he demanded the board to bring their decision to the forefront, he refused to negotiate a payout, clearly wasn't dedicated to working with the succession plan.

 

[deanc]

He's shares equal blame in that, he demanded the board to bring their decision to the forefront, he refused to negotiate a payout, clearly wasn't dedicated to working with the succession plan.

While that maybe 100% true or just your best guess, it's somewhat irrelevant to my point that our media buffoons are conveniently ignoring the fact that Clarkson, a highly educated and motivated inspirational leader, unlike Plumber Sheedy and Matthews who barely finished high school, has other options outside the AFL or a related media role, for his future career...

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

Or maybe people just ignore the opinions of 3rd tier journo's who have never played the game, but are increasingly producing articles which are predominately pub-talk type drivel and/or often simply based around recent comments from their TV show presenting colleauges...?

I do however acknowledge the fantastic creativity with some of Foxports's recent click-bait style headlines, although it is bordering on being branded tabloid type nonsense which I doubt is their objective..?

Moreover, the recent article on Clarkson speculatively being involved with up to ten AFL clubs just shows how small-minded some of our AFL scribes are - as it ignores the likelihood that AC may also head overseas to undertake a role with a prominent sports organisation for three or four times the salary (that any AFL club could afford), and thereby never coach another AFL team again..?

I mean the manner in which our club has poorly managed his exit and the related media circus, (aside from his love for the game) he probably can't wait to get away from this relatively pissant league operating in a remote corner of the World...

Not sure what any of that has to do with my post.

 

[Jazzfan]

Clarko stole the corridor from The Dogs, that's him no one else, and this modern game as you say is not real football to the extent that all we see is whack it on the boot hope for the best defending ball generally comes back, kick to kick, up and down the boundary for unending ball ups and horrid looking locked down packs and the packs and the flooding from Eade's and Roosy's days was a menace brought in for winning at all costs, and the AFL allowed it then pumped it up with rukle fiddling until we get umpires picking frees from deliberate out of bound reading players minds, free 50 metre penalties for straying inside a kickers "space" for crying out loud. Because of non flowing the AFL decide to bring in the statue "stand" rule did open up the game at times but 50 metre penalties for running inside a space you are not even aware of is a joke, a free kick against you because under pressure you kick it and it rolls out of bounds bingo free kick, how many people in footbal;l circles of memeberships and following this game cannot see the stop start innihilation of this unique supposedly open running sport like no one else on the planet plays, yes we still see a handful of brilliant high marks, we used to see chamopions swap high marks once upon a time, now you've all heard me whine about the game and the time frame, since early 2000's the AFL began to crucify the rules to eventually help as they knew they were diluting the competition and lowering the standard , with two new clubs in a 25 million people population, SO HERE'S THE CLARKO PRAISE FOR THIS ERA, OF GAME DESTRUCTION.
Here was a bloke who demanded good people around him who demanded good character from his men and boys , who invented a teamship unlike any other by the Kokoda track pre season stuff, here is a bloke that trained and trained and trained his men so they could not just read their opponents they read each other like well worn books, they knew exactly what to do where to go and they got instilled into them by this man the need for the flag in 2008 and you know what in ROUND17 V Cats that year I said to my sons when we lost by around a goal to Geelong "we can win the flag, we just proved it today" I bet thats what Clarko said to himself we can get this mob! Then the relentlessness of that Grand Final victory.
After that Alastair Clarkson simply improved the knowledge of each player with another team mate and those blokes looked unbelievable because they were untouchable 95% of the time in a game, "keepings off" was Hawthorn speciality, thats how they got away with 5 grand finals and four premierships 3 in a row!!!! And dodged the rule murdering!
Other clubs tried but couldn't match them , then when the older ones began to slow up in their near past peak, Clarko started moving them on you know who?
He began a new rebuild when Sam went to the Eagles, this year HE has by the last game set up with depth another group with something different to anyone else, a Clarko platoon.hope Sam can keep it up. We beat a top side and draw another and beat another , we avoided being free kicked out of games because no one could get the ball off us in important parts of the game, they looked like they just knew where the team mate was, some have tried to equal that in other clubs , well , no one will ever ever equal it for ten years or moreover his career at Hawthorn, no other club will ever in this mashed up misture of a game ever win 3 peats, and WE HAVE GIVEN THE MIND MACHINE AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Who is happy about this, on top of it Sam has a hell of a proving job to do when he should have waited 3 more years for what he was always going to get! Hawthorn Coaching Job CLARKO should have had another chance and I will never forgive my club for this, but I won't desert them either. GO HAWKS!

Paragraphs please mate.

 

[deanc]

Not sure what any of that has to do with my post.

You queried why a FoxSports article didn't credit our players or provide reasoning related to our recent performances - I responded with my view of why that is the case...

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

You queried why a FoxSports article didn't credit our players or provide reasoning related to our recent performances - I responded with my view of why that is the case...

No, I was making a point about the continual narrative that when we win it's because of the 'master coach', without any queries or nuance as to how we got to be in this spot in the first place. The foxsports paragraph was just an example.

 

[deanc]

No, I was making a point about the continual narrative that when we win it's because of the 'master coach', without any queries or nuance as to how we got to be in this spot in the first place. The foxsports paragraph was just an example.

Noted, please assume my first para also covers that. Moreover, AC the 'master coach' narrative has been cut and pasted into media articles since 2008 - and after our three-peat has been regularly used in bi-lines usually after a Hawks upset victory. As for related nuances or explanations, refer my first para again...

 

[grumbleguts]

 

[Hodgey 15]

I think it is reasonable to say that Sam is currently driving the bus for team selection and positioning of players.

I wouldn't put it pass Clarko to go to Sam and say look my gig is just about up so how about we begin the process of me handing over the reins to you now and you start to have a lot more input into what essentially is your team now.
Either way, I'd love to be a fly on the wall in the club right as this moment to see how things are playing out.

 

[Steven Tyler]

I wouldn't put it pass Clarko to go to Sam and say look my gig is just about up so how about we begin the process of me handing over the reins to you now and you start to have a lot more input into what essentially is your team now.
Either way, I'd love to be a fly on the wall in the club right as this moment to see how things are playing out.

Sam should’ve said “nah mate you coach out the season, I cant wait to add Horne to the midfield rotations next year!”

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

Thread has been reopened as it inevitable there will be talk and speculation about what Clarko will be doing next year, and it won’t belong in the thread celebrating his achievements at the Hawks.

 

[TylerDurden]

 

[Milkshaker]

Probably pretty fair.

 

[TheFourPillars]

One of the greatest footy minds in the history of the game.

 

[Hawker55]

No, I was making a point about the continual narrative that when we win it's because of the 'master coach', without any queries or nuance as to how we got to be in this spot in the first place. The foxsports paragraph was just an example.

I posted something similar in another thread - I love Clarko and he is a magnificent coach. That said, a rookie coach who took our list from 20/21 to the positions we got would be looked at very closely. The Premierships bought him a lack of scrutiny.

Personally I think losing so many strong voices at the club over the last 5 years has meant Clarko had an outsized role that didnt' help him. At his best he had plenty of people pushing back on him in the coaches box and the football department.

 

[toomanysquibs]

What a friggin guy, what a coach, and what a level above most people's understanding his performance this year has been.

Not one iota of negativity from him, and nothing but success in the face of skullduggery and the curtain being drawn when he wasn't ready to go.

But the most important cog seemingly missing when peeps are suggesting it's not Clarkson responsible for the team's post bye success, is that the team saw natural improvement during the course of the year. He and McCrae both discussed looking at defensive structures post bye. CJ went up another level this year, so did Scrimshaw, Day as well.

Not many didn't improve.

Would he have played Nash as a mid I hear you ask? Maybe not, but he got Sam to the club as a talent development guru, and the results followed. Mitchell was put into that role by Clarkson to champion the likes of Nash and Newcombe.

It was also Clarkson who persisted with Nash when plenty of others would have given up, including hordes of voices on these boards. He'd been at the club for a LONG time prior to this year, with seemingly no direction. AC kept him there.

Under his tenure our young players have improved. Our defense started to gel. We got the benefit of Mitchell's work at Box Hill in the midfield.

Clarkson was behind all of that.

He was also going to leave and hand over the keys to Mitchell down the line.

He hasn't said a word about it. He is pure class. Four time premiership winning, unapologetic genius who generated results in all directions while he was at the club.

We're going to miss him at some point. We all hope Sam has the same success. But we've just seen the curtain go down on the greatest coach of the modern era, and the biggest catalyst for change at Hawthorn since Kennedy.

 

[Pessimistic]

I posted something similar in another thread - I love Clarko and he is a magnificent coach. That said, a rookie coach who took our list from 20/21 to the positions we got would be looked at very closely. The Premierships bought him a lack of scrutiny.

Personally I think losing so many strong voices at the club over the last 5 years has meant Clarko had an outsized role that didnt' help him. At his best he had plenty of people pushing back on him in the coaches box and the football department.

then ‘those people’ should be leaving too.

 

[Pessimistic]

What a friggin guy, what a coach, and what a level above most people's understanding his performance this year has been.

Not one iota of negativity from him, and nothing but success in the face of skullduggery and the curtain being drawn when he wasn't ready to go.

But the most important cog seemingly missing when peeps are suggesting it's not Clarkson responsible for the team's post bye success, is that the team saw natural improvement during the course of the year. He and McCrae both discussed looking at defensive structures post bye. CJ went up another level this year, so did Scrimshaw, Day as well.

Not many didn't improve.

Would he have played Nash as a mid I hear you ask? Maybe not, but he got Sam to the club as a talent development guru, and the results followed. Mitchell was put into that role by Clarkson to champion the likes of Nash and Newcombe.

It was also Clarkson who persisted with Nash when plenty of others would have given up, including hordes of voices on these boards. He'd been at the club for a LONG time prior to this year, with seemingly no direction. AC kept him there.

Under his tenure our young players have improved. Our defense started to gel. We got the benefit of Mitchell's work at Box Hill in the midfield.

Clarkson was behind all of that.

He was also going to leave and hand over the keys to Mitchell down the line.

He hasn't said a word about it. He is pure class. Four time premiership winning, unapologetic genius who generated results in all directions while he was at the club.

We're going to miss him at some point. We all hope Sam has the same success. But we've just seen the curtain go down on the greatest coach of the modern era, and the biggest catalyst for change at Hawthorn since Kennedy.

I have a horrible feeling Jeff won’t give mitchell the support he needs in tough times

 

[Charchi]

I have a horrible feeling Jeff won’t give mitchell the support he needs in tough times

This same person is being lambasted on this forum for choosing Mitchell over Clarkson, I would have though that is a pretty big level of support at the outset.

Unless Mitchell is removed as coach in his first two years (highly unlikely given the circumstances of his rise to the top job) then it will not be Kennett's problem, it will be a new president's.

 

[Roger Rogerson]

Why cant he come back and coach Hawthorn again in the future?

 

[JoondalupJ]

I feel like a few wins on the trot means the world is not ending with Clarkos demise.
Much to be optimistic about.

Yes Clarko's team optomistic about! Not the club right now!

 

[JoondalupJ]

This same person is being lambasted on this forum for choosing Mitchell over Clarkson, I would have though that is a pretty big level of support at the outset.

Unless Mitchell is removed as coach in his first two years (highly unlikely given the circumstances of his rise to the top job) then it will not be Kennett's problem, it will be a new president's.

Rumours and Kennett created the problem and Kennett saw a chance to get rid of the bloke he never really fitted with, but Hawthorn is about football its a footy club and these board people with the help of an over the top control person, has gotten rid of the best. Its like chucking the pilot of a 2 seater plane.

 

[Cheersquad71]

Wherever he goes, I hope he doesn’t take Wingard with him.

 

[MrPremiership]

Wherever he goes, I hope he doesn’t take Wingard with him.

Unless he wants to pay a first rounder, second rounder plus Paddy Dow....