How Graham Wright and the Pies forced Hawthorn’s hand on Alastair Clarkson and Sam Mitchell

With Alastair Clarkson now seen as gettable, has Collingwood been lucky or rat cunning? Mark Robinson assesses whether it was their plan to make the Hawks blink.

There’s plenty of luck in football, but has Collingwood been lucky or rat cunning?

Alastair Clarkson might yet be at Hawthorn next year, he may even take a gap year — a consideration which is gaining momentum if you believe second or third-hand noise — or he might end up at the Magpies.

If it is Collingwood, the Pies may have played it superbly.

At the very least, they have given themselves a shot — which is perhaps what they always planned.

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Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson with former Hawks footy boss Graham Wright (right, now at Collingwood) and ex-assistant Adem Yze (who is at Melbourne). Picture: Michael Klein

Is it a coincidence the most successful and respected coach this century just happens to be “gettable’’ when the Pies are looking for a replacement for Nathan Buckley?

Ever seen the movie, The Sting?

Paul Newman and Robert Redford hustle a rich dude with a fake horse racing scam, the backdrop being a completely believable pop-up betting shop front.

At the end of the movie, the rich dude didn’t even know what happened, no fingerprints, per se.

Has this week been the Great Collingwood Sting?

Successful stings need a plan.

And a plan was set in motion when the club sacked Buckley.

Paul Newman and Robert Redford in the movie The Sting.

The Pies formed a coaching recruiting committee, as clubs do, and the Pies will have drawn up a list of coaching candidates, as clubs do.

They probably had five groups of candidates:

1) Current coaches: Clarkson and Damien Hardwick.

2) Former coaches: Ross Lyon, Don Pyke, Mark Williams and Gary Ayres.

3) Experienced assistant coaches: Rob Harvey, Jamie Graham, Adem Yze, Adam Kingsley and Blake Caracella.

4) Less experienced assistant coaches: Mitchell, Steve Johnson and Andrew McQualter.

5) Completely left field: Brian Goorjian, Lisa Alexander and Darren Lehmann.

That’s a snapshot of candidates because Collingwood’s list would be far more expansive.

Let’s assume their No.1 target was Clarkson, so the next question was: How do we get him?

And while this week’s events were a shock to the footy world, maybe they weren’t a shock to Collingwood.

Did Pies footy boss Graham Wright have a grand plan when Nathan Buckley was ousted? Picture: Michael Klein

Everyone knew the Hawks brought Mitchell back to succeed Clarkson, and no one knew that more than Graham Wright, the former Hawks footy boss now at Collingwood.

Maybe Collingwood’s plan was to make Hawthorn blink.

Approach Clarkson maybe, approach Mitchell definitely and see what is shaken from the tree.

When Buckley was sacked, Clarkson said to the Hawks he wanted clarity on his future.

When Collingwood approached Mitchell, he being a loyal and professional character would have told the Hawks — which Collingwood would have expected — and it further shook the tree.

It forced Hawthorn’s hand.

They needed to make a decision on Mitchell to keep him from the clutches of Collingwood and, bingo, the succession plan was in stone.

And who half fell out of the tree?

Three weeks ago, Clarkson was not in play.

Now, because of the Pies, Clarkson is seen to be gettable.

It could be a coincidence or it could’ve been Collingwood’s master plan all along — that is to make a play for Mitchell, who they knew would stay at Hawthorn, and hope and pray the Hawks pull the pin on Clarkson.

The coaching committee is not full of dills.

Mark Korda is a hard-nosed businessman, Peter Murphy is highly intelligent and Wright knows the workings and thinkings of Hawthorn.

It could be political skulduggery at its most stunning if Clarkson coaches Collingwood next year.

In essence, go after Mitchell to land Clarkson.

Sam Mitchell spent time as player an coach at West Coast as part of his coaching apprenticeship.

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His manager James Henderson told the Herald Sun on Thursday he expected his client will be at Hawthorn next year.

The Pies will make their pitch regardless, which was always part of the plan.

If you heard Clarkson’s great mate Jason Dunstall on Wednesday night on AFL 360, talking about Clarkson’s passion to want to continue coaching and how club’s should go after him, you’d agree Clarkson is gettable.

The final piece of the sting — if indeed there was one — is to convince Clarkson his future at Collingwood.

If he agrees, the Pies have either been very lucky or very cunning.

And in the manner of a great sting, very few people will know if it’s one or the other.

Originally published as How Graham Wright and the Pies forced Hawthorn’s hand on Alastair Clarkson and Sam Mitchell