AFL 2021: Alastair Clarkson pledges commitment to Hawks succession plan with heartfelt pledge

Alastair Clarkson considers his commitment to coach Hawthorn next season as unbreakable and the intensely private man explained why in a very public way.

Hawks coaching succession plan 2023

Alastair Clarkson has referenced the drink-driving death of his older brother and the loss of another family member to cancer to help illustrate why he regards his commitment to coach Hawthorn next season as unbreakable.

Clearly, the loyal and legendary coach decided enough was enough on Friday. It was nothing he hadn’t said before.

But this time the intensely private 53-year-old made it personal, opening Friday’s press conference with an unprompted 15-minute speech straight from the heart.

Clarkson said wife Caryn married him at a “particularly vulnerable” time following Andrew’s death in 1984, aged 24.

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Alastair Clarkson before the Round 17 clash with the Dockers when his players had become “dispirited”. Picture: Daniel Pockett/AFL Photos

Sam Mitchell will now have a bigger say on the coaching aspects at Hawthorn next season. Picture: Daniel Pockett/AFL Photos

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Clarkson wasn’t “in a great space” in his teens and early 20s as they embarked on their journey together.

In 2001, Caryn agreed to move to Adelaide for four years, despite knowing no one, as Clarkson coached at Central Districts and Port Adelaide, winning a premiership at both clubs.

In 2012, tragedy struck as Clarkson’s brother-in-law died from a brain tumour, aged 39.

“There’s been so many challenges we’ve had to address over a period of time,” Clarkson said.

“But once you make a commitment to someone then you follow it through to the end.

“My commitment to (successor) Sam Mitchell is through to the end of next year. That commitment is to Sam, Lyndall his wife, and his three children Smith, Scarlett and Emmerson.”

Carlton, Collingwood or any club thinking about making the call may as well put the phone down.

Clarkson has signed six contracts at Hawthorn and, like the first five, said he would see out this one.

“On every one of those occasions in sickness or in health we’re going to continue on until the end of the contract,” he said.

Even Hawthorn’s players believed Clarkson could leave this year as they became “dispirited” and unsettled in the lead-up to the 62-point loss to Fremantle.

Alastair Clarkson has pledged his commitment to his contract. Picture: AAP Image/Julian Smith

But Clarkson has now looked his players in the eye as many as four times and told them: “I’m staying, I’m not going anywhere”, and that helped ignite last week’s effort-based draw against Melbourne.

The Hawks have already had a second crack at defining Clarkson and Mitchell’s roles for 2022 after realising it was a “mistake” to isolate their powers.

The first attempt had Clarkson retaining control of gamestyle and tactics with recruiting and list management left to Mitchell, although that plan was devised in 20 minutes and Clarkson predicted it would evolve.

“The mistake that ‘Mitch’ and I made in hindsight, in the haste of just trying to keep things all as normal as we possibly could, is we said, ‘Mitch, I’ll look after the day to day’ and he said, ‘Yep, I’ll look after the future’,” Clarkson said.

“In theory at the time, it sounded pretty good. But what it what it created were little silos in the sense that he was going to look after the future and I was going to look after the now but there‘s just so much grey area between those silos that we’ve had to try to meet about.”

Suddenly, Mitchell will be allowed to put his fingerprints on gameplan while Clarkson will be invited to list management meetings.

At the start of the season Clarkson privately thought Mitchell needed a minimum of two years coaching Box Hill, and perhaps three, before he would be ready to coach at AFL level.

Clarkson spent three years (Werribee 2000, Central Districts 2001-02) coaching his own state-league team.

Mitchell wanted to be an AFL line coach but was talked into taking on the VFL job, where he has coached nine VFL games so far.

Despite redefining the 2022 roles, Mitchell is certain to remain at Box Hill in 2022 before his three-year contract as the main man begins (2023-2025).

Clarkson said their “healthy tension” was natural and threw his full support behind the man who is set to become Hawthorn’s 33rd permanent senior coach.

Originally published as AFL 2021: Alastair Clarkson pledges commitment to Hawks succession plan with heartfelt pledge