Ex-Hawthorn gun Jordan Lewis says Sam Mitchell is the right man to succeed Alastair Clarkson as coach and lead rebuild
A Hawthorn premiership star has questioned whether long-serving coach Alastair Clarkson has the energy to lead the Hawks through another rebuild – saying it could be Sam Mitchell’s time to shine.
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Four-time Hawthorn premiership player Jordan Lewis has questioned whether Alastair Clarkson has the “energy” to complete a full-blown rebuild of the club or whether the Hawks could follow other sides in setting up a coaching succession plan.
The Hawks sit 13th on the ladder with a 3-3 record after suffering a 32-point loss to Collingwood last Friday night, in which they fielded the second-oldest team of Round 6 with an average age of 27 years and two months.
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Only Geelong (27 years and four months) fielded a team with an older average age.
While the Hawks have managed to continually rebuild on the run and missed finals for just the second time in 10 seasons last year, Lewis said that strategy appeared to have run its race.
Hawthorn assistant coach Sam Mitchell is seen as a senior coach in-waiting, Lewis pointing to his former teammate as an ideal candidate to be part of a coaching succession plan with Clarkson.
“No doubt he (Clarkson) is the best coach in the league, but whether you want to go back down that rebuilding phase (I don’t know),” Lewis said.
“Because it’s not quick. It’s a three-to-five-year process, so whether he has that type of energy in him or whether it’s a Sam Mitchell that’s sitting in waiting that has that energy and has the smarts and the football IQ to take over the reins and take that club forward through that transition period.”
Lewis said the decision fell on the shoulders of Clarkson and whether he wanted to go through a rebuild or not.
The four-time premiership coach has been in charge of the Hawks since 2005.
“I think you’ve got to look over your list demographic, you’ve got to look at the inconsistencies of the season and their best players right now are Isaac Smith who’s 31 and I still think he’s got a few years left in him, you can’t keep rolling out the same players,” Lewis said on SEN radio.
“The hardest thing to accept is ‘okay we may not be successful for the next two to three years, but we need to go down a path of getting in youth’.
“That’s the decision I think Alastair Clarkson and the Hawthorn Football Club needs to make because the worst position to be in is to be between 10th and 6th where you’re not really challenging, but you’re not getting high-talented draft picks in.”
Mitchell oversaw West Coast’s midfield in its 2018 premiership season before rejoining the Hawks as an assistant last season, where he helped transform James Worpel from a fringe midfielder to a best-and-fairest winner.
Mitchell decided against applying for vacant coaching positions at Carlton and North Melbourne last year.
“At some point I would love to be able to sit in front of a CEO or a president and say ‘I am your man’,” Mitchell said last June.
“Could I do that right now? I couldn’t say I know I am absolutely the right man for a head coaching job at the moment.”
Essendon is completing a coaching succession plan between John Worsfold and Ben Rutten this year, while Paul Roos handed over the reins to Simon Goodwin at Melbourne after the 2016 season in a successful succession plan.
HAWKS NOT BRINGING THE HEAT
Hawthorn legend Dermott Brereton says his old side are “losing without any threat to the opposition” after a dismal loss to Collingwood.
The Hawks kicked just 3.9 (27) at Giants Stadium on Friday night in the 32-point defeat, their lowest score under coach Alastair Clarkson and worst overall as a club since Round 9 in 1964.
Brereton said Hawthorn’s 3-3 record after playing Brisbane, Richmond, Geelong, GWS, North Melbourne and the Pies was an OK standing but said there were major worries for the Hawks.
“They are losing terribly, they are losing without any threat to the opposition,” he said on Fox Footy.
“They just don’t threaten, if somebody is organised against them they just don’t score.
“The way I see them at the moment is they want to move the ball forward and you put a bit of a lock on Isaac Smith they have to go to a kicking game and Collingwood shut them down from moving the ball forward with a kicking game and they went sideways.”
North Melbourne champion David King said Hawthorn’s back six needed to be changed.
“They are too tall, there is no run,” he said.
Brereton said there were other issues that needed to be fixed.
“Their midfield cannot run down the tackle,” he said.
“As soon as there was a metre step or so to a Collingwood player at a centre bounce Hawthorn could not shut that down, could not even pressure that ball carrier or kick.
“They don’t have pressure on the opposition coming out of the middle.”
Brereton did say Hawthorn would have the fixture run to turn this around, starting with Melbourne next week.
PIES PUT HELLISH WEEK BEHIND THEM
Nathan Buckley stared out blankly over Giants Stadium when the siren sounded on Collingwood’s crushing win over Hawthorn.
The Magpies rose into the top four and Buckley looked emotionless. He should have looked ecstatic, because this was a victory that must’ve been dripping in satisfaction.
The build-up focused on Collingwood’s two weeks in football hell, where back-to-back losses were only the backdrop to deeper off-field issues that even engulfed president Eddie McGuire.
Lost in the discussion was the fact that Buckley entered with a 1-11 (8.3 per cent) record against Alastair Clarkson, and a superstar missing from every line in Jeremy Howe, Steele Sidebottom and Jordan De Goey.
But it was Clarkson’s turn for an unwanted record with Hawthorn’s 3.9 (27) not only its lowest score under the master coach, but its smallest total since 1964 … albeit in reduced game time.
Last week Essendon outscored Buckley’s team by 31 points from stoppages, the Pies’ worst differential in three years.
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On Friday night the Magpies won the first seven clearances and shot to a 19-0 lead.
McGuire once described western Sydney as “the land of the falafel” and against the Hawks, the Magpies were as hungry as a customer in a souvlaki shop at 2am.
Buckley spun the magnets and it worked.
Struggling forwards Jamie Elliott (four clearances) and Jaidyn Stephenson were shifted to the centre square and wing respectively and the Magpies lowered their eyes going inside 50m.
Brody Mihocek booted 3.1 in the first half – all from marks in space. The clever hit-ups limited Ben McEvoy’s intercept game as Collingwood won the territory battle.
The Hawks are now 0-5 at Giants stadium with a date against Melbourne at the venue in Round 7.
FOUR KIDS SPARK IT UP
Buckley called Craig Kelly on Monday to tell him to drive to Sydney because son Will Kelly would be making his AFL debut.
The 1990 premiership player opted to stay at home with a bottle of red wine and just three minutes in Kelly’s glass was raised in celebration as Will slotted a brilliant goal on the run from 50m.
Sadly, the cork would’ve gone back in the bottle in the last quarter when Kelly clutched his arm, finishing the game injured in a sling.
Coach Nathan Buckley said the initial diagnosis was a dislocated elbow, but he couldn’t rule out a break. He said Kelly would fly to Perth and have treatment there.
“He looked like he was enjoying himself and he was part of a solid team performance,” Buckley said.
“The early diagnosis is a dislocated elbow, we don’t know if we can rule out a fracture at this point, but it seems like he might have escaped that, he will get a scan tomorrow morning.”
The rangy forward was one of four debutants for the Pies and it was teammate Atu Bosenavulagi who shone brightest with his blend of pace and punch.
Buckley described the Fijian as a “little bowling ball – he hits to hurt” and the kid’s 16 disposals were largely damaging.
He sang the praises of the former Australian rugby sevens junior representative.
“Atu was fantastic … he found a lot of the ball, showed a lot of energy around the ball, that was a pretty impressive debut,” Buckley said.
Hawthorn’s No.13 pick Will Day – the grandson of 1971 Hawks premiership player Robert Day – needs a few long days in the gym but looks to have a razor-sharp right foot while fellow South Australian Josh Morris showed his hard edge.
WILD, WILD HAWKS
This season, the Hawks have either been as hot as the cooking oil that scalded Jon Patton’s foot or as cold as the Canberra snow they beat GWS in last year.
They beat up on top-four teams Brisbane Lions and Richmond at the MCG and have now been beaten up by Geelong, the Giants and Collingwood.
There seems to be no middle ground and those wild fluctuations would frustrate Clarkson. On Friday night they simply couldn’t get their hands on the ball.
Playmaker Chad Wingard would be leading the best-and-fairest with his golden ball use going inside 50m ranked No.1 in the AFL.
But against the Pies, Wingard spent the entire first half playing in front of the ball and he had just three disposals. The game’s best ‘money kick’ was nowhere to be seen and that proved costly.
SCOREBOARD
COLLINGWOOD 5.1 6.5 7.8 8.11 (59)
def
HAWTHORN 1.0 2.1 2.2 3.9 (27)
GOALS
Magpies: Mihocek 4, Hoskin-Elliott 2, Kelly, Cox
Hawks: Smith, McEvoy, Gunston
SAM LANDSBERGER’S BEST
Magpies: Treloar Mihocek Moore Grundy Elliott Adams Wills Maynard
Hawks: Sicily Mitchell Smith McEvoy Day
SAM LANDSBERGER’S VOTES
3 — Adam Treloar (Coll)
2 — Brody Mihocek (Coll)
1 — Darcy Moore (Coll)
INJURIES
Collingwood: Kelly (left arm)
Hawthorn: Patton (right hamstring)
EMOTIONAL PATTON FELLED BY INJURY CURSE
Hawthorn recruit Jonathon Patton was disconsolate and on the verge of tears after his luckless run with injury continued in the opening term of the club’s Friday night clash with Collingwood at Giants Stadium.
Having just returned to the Hawks line-up after missing two games due to a bizarre injury suffered when he was cooking at home, Patton went to ground early in the game after spilling a mark.
The shattered Hawk’s frustration was evident when he appeared to have words with the club’s medicos after the incident.
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Hawks footy boss Graham Wright confirmed Patton had “nicked” a hamstring, but hoped it wasn’t a long-term injury, given the former Giant has missed 40 of the past 49 games.
“He has nicked it and he will miss the rest of the game,” Wright said on Channel 7.
“He continued on for a minute or so and then came off the ground.”
Patton was disconsolate and on the verge of tears on the sidelines but Wright was hopefully it wasn’t a significant injury.
The 27-year-old has endured a cruel run with injuries after missing almost 100 games in his career due to three knee reconstructions with the Giants and in his first year at the Hawks.
Patton was returning to the senior team for his third game with the Hawks after suffering one of the most bizarre injuries late last month when he scalded one of his feet when cooking fish at home.
He had underestimated the amount of oil he was pouring and not even the socks he was wearing at the time could mitigate the damage.
That meant he had to sit out two matches as a result of the infected wound, costing him the chance to take on his old teammates at GWS last weekend.
Originally published as Ex-Hawthorn gun Jordan Lewis says Sam Mitchell is the right man to succeed Alastair Clarkson as coach and lead rebuild