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Opinion
Four-time premiership-winning coach Alastair Clarkson has a fair idea of how to assemble and then deploy a successful AFL team.
Across 390 games at the Hawks from 2005-2021, Clarkson steered his troops to ten finals campaigns, missed September action seven times, and qualified in the top-four on eight occasions, before temporarily hanging up the clipboard for a well-earned break.
Sam Mitchell took over the rebuild at Hawthorn in 2022 and has shown promise as a mentor capable of turning the current crop into a premiership force in the medium term.
Away from the game for the first time in decades, Clarkson has travelled the world, rested, researched, spent valuable time with family, and added further layers of sporting and competitive knowledge to his grey matter.
It now appears – through rumour and his own comments – Clarkson is back, hungry and looking for a coaching role that suits both he and his family for 2023 and beyond.
The 54-year-old has been clear he will not take the reins at a club in turmoil and requiring an extended period to become competitive. Clarkson’s statement on Fox Sports’ AFL360 that his return to the coaching ranks would be to “win it all”, reflects the competitiveness within the man and his single-minded determination.
As such, rumours suggest that a host of AFL clubs sitting less than comfortably on the 2022 ladder are sniffing about and wondering whether the coaching legend could be gettable and able to reverse their fortunes in the short term.
Sadly, Clarkson’s mere existence has done severe injustice to others currently coaching, with a constant pall being cast around the futures of a number who are performing as well as can be expected considering the cattle at their disposal.
What Stuart Dew has built at Gold Coast is to be envied by other clubs looking to embed culture and establish something that will result in sustainable success.
Unfortunately for the Suns’ head coach, rarely an interview has gone by without the insinuation that his board, or the AFL as an overseeing influence, could replace Dew with Clarkson in an effort to guarantee a successful future.
(Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
While the Suns have eventually seen sense and re-contracted Dew, frankly, any such talk was disrespectful to Dew in the first place, and the class and grace with which he has handled such questioning is a credit to him.
It is not just the Suns’ mentor who has felt pressure from the semi-retired coach, with St Kilda legend Nick Riewoldt expressing a view some weeks back that the Saints should open a line of communication with Clarkson, considering the speed hump that appeared to have halted the progress of Brett Ratten’s team.
Reportedly, the Saints were within days of renewing Ratten’s contract after an 8-3 start to the season, before baulking and subsequently inviting the hounds to speculate around their coach, with Clarkson once again the main topic of conversation.
Greater Western Sydney has also been included on the list of possible destinations for Clarkson, with a talented playing group an obvious attraction for any coach.
There has been the odd piece of scuttlebutt around Ben Rutten at Essendon, after what has been a season of disappointment thus far, and as the Kangaroos continue to drift from bad to worse, Herald Sun journalist Mark Robinson appeared to allude on Monday night that North Melbourne may have already reached out to Clarkson.
With current coach David Noble seemingly about to resign as the Shinboners’ season slips further into embarrassment, one wonders whether Clarkson would be even remotely interested in taking the bridge of a briskly sinking ship.
It appears that as soon as any team begins to falter, and the subsequent speculative commentary around their coach increases, Clarkson’s name jumps into the narrative, serving only to undermine the people working furiously to improve the fortunes of their current clubs, and placing unreasonable stress upon them.
Little blame can be attributed to Clarkson. He does not write the articles, steer the discussion nor provide the rumours that create obvious stress for the coaches under the microscope.
Yet the shadow of the greatest of modern coaches is making life difficult for those currently battling – and one day hoping to scale his heights and lift a premiership trophy.