Alastair Clarkson believes both Melbourne and Hawthorn are miles from winning a premiership
Alastair Clarkson wasn’t too impressed with Melbourne after the Demons pulled off an upset win over his side, declaring both outfits were nowhere close to competing for the league’s top honours.
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Alastair Clarkson declared both Hawthorn and Melbourne were miles from premiership contention after Saturday’s heart-stopping loss at the MCG.
The legendary coach took the unusual step of grouping the Demons in with his error-riddled Hawks, pointing out the ugly match was reflective of both team’s lowly standing on the ladder.
“We need to be a hell of a lot better than that if we want to be a side that wants to compete anywhere close to a finals side,” Clarkson said.
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“(Melbourne) will be dancing from the rooftops tonight but they didn’t play outstanding footy either.
“They’re going to need, just like us, to play a hell of a lot better footy than that.
“Neither side showed anything today to suggest they’re going to be any threat come the end of the year.
“Both sides have got some work to do. I genuinely believe our ladder positions are pretty reflective of what we’re seeing on the park at the minute.”
Clarkson lashed his team’s outside game and said plenty of the unforgivable mistakes came without any pressure applied by the Demons.
“Fumbled handballs, dropped marks or poor execution by foot,” he said.
“We had some quite clean opportunities to make the Melbourne defence pay and we didn’t take those chances.
“We were out on our own (and) just dropping balls. There’s no excuse for that.”
Vice-captain Jack Gunston slotted 3.1 after travelling a month without a goal while recruit Tom Scully — the Demons’ No. 1 draft pick a decade ago — was booed 14 times by his former fans.
Fellow recruit Chad Wingard was targeted inside 50m by Liam Shiels in the final minute but couldn’t hold on to a mark that would’ve had him kicking for victory.
The Hawks lost the inside 50 count 50-63 and Clarkson said it was always hard to win while giving up that discrepancy.
Clarkson said it wasn’t like Hawthorn to sit in “the middle of the road” but conceded coaching a fifth premiership in 2019 was now “unlikely”.
“We always sit here and judge who are the players that are going to help us win our next premiership?,” he said.
“We’re a middle of the road side (now) so we can keep going down that track and end up a middle of the road side for the next four or five years.
“But that’s not the way we go about it. We’re not a side that sit around and wallow in the middle part of the ladder for too long.
“It could be 10 years (until our next flag) or it could be 10 months (2020). I don’t think it’s going to be four months … given we’re 3-4 now.”
Originally published as Alastair Clarkson believes both Melbourne and Hawthorn are miles from winning a premiership
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