AFL 2022: Giants sound out Alastair Clarkson’s interest in coaching next year
The race for Alastair Clarkson is heating up and he looks to be on a club’s radar. Will he end up there next year?
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GWS Giants have sounded out Alastair Clarkson’s interest in coaching next season as the race for the four-time premiership mentor heats up.
It’s understood the Giants have asked Clarkson’s cricle about his intentions for next year and if he wants to coach again.
It’s not known if they’ve received an answer.
It’s believed the club has had no formal discussion with the man himself, but that is expected to happen in the future.
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Leon Cameron left the Giants about two months ago.
Attracting the signature of the coaching great would arguably be the biggest coup in the short history of the AFL’s 18th club.
Clarkson last week revealed his “excitement” at discovering whether his Hawthorn success was “lucky” or could be repeated elsewhere may drive his return to the coaches’ box.
Clarkson said his curiosity of whether he could deliver success to another club after leading Hawthorn to four flags was of “appeal” to him.
“The most significant intrigue for me is ‘was I just lucky to have that group of people at that point in time at that particular club?’” Clarkson said on ‘The Believers: Tasmania’s AFL journey’ podcast.
“The excitement for me is ‘can it be done elsewhere with a different environment and a different group of people and see how we go?’
“That holds some appeal, but just doing what I’ve been doing in the past six months with a bit more farm time and a bit more friends time has got some appeal as well.”
He said he’d only enter a club where everyone was on the same page with “shared values”.
“It makes it sound like I’ll be picking or choosing and there might not be opportunities to come back into coaching, and it might be that I don’t want to,” he said.
“I had an opportunity with both Carlton and Collingwood, not necessarily to be accepted to coach those clubs but certainly go into the process as an option, but it didn’t suit me.
“Strangely enough that had not so much to do with their direction and that sort of stuff as I could see they were both on a direction of where they wanted to go.
“It was just around mine and (wife) Caryn’s and our family’s needs at that time.
“We wanted to make those decisions at the end of this year in terms of what our future will look like and not six months ago.
“And we’re still not ready to know what we want to do beyond 2022.”
Giants reveal James Hird’s coaching future
— Jay Clark
Former Essendon senior coach James Hird has ruled himself out of contention for the GWS Giants’ senior senior coaching job.
Hird has told the Giants he is not interested in the position but backed interim coach Mark McVeigh to take over the reins permanently next season.
Hawthorn premiership mastermind Alastair Clarkson, former Adelaide boss Don Pyke and McVeigh are considered the frontrunners to replace Leon Cameron who was moved on earlier this year.
Talks with candidates have already begun.
GWS football manager Jason McCartney said some “conversations were occurring” and confirmed Hird was out.
“He (Hird) is actually not interested in the senior position here at the Giants,” McCartney said on Triple M.
“We want to methodically work our way through it and find whoever is the best person for this role.
“It is quite unique, too. We have got to understand it is a different market (in Western Sydney) we are working in and it is a bit broader than an ability to just come in and coach the footy team.”
McVeigh said he wasn’t surprised by Hird’s decision.
“James is in a position where he’s got a lot of things going on and he just wants to help the Giants and become the club that we all think we can be,” McVeigh said.
“I’m not surprised but it’s nice to have him back in coaching, it’s really good.”
Clarkson has been working closely with Tasmania’s bid for a 19th team licence while Pyke has been lauded for his work at Sydney as an assistant helping coach the Swans’ slick ball movement.
Pyke took Adelaide to a Grand Final in 2017 and has enjoyed being out of the limelight in Sydney after a stressful exit at the Crows.
Ross Lyon said Pyke would be a “nice fit for them”.
“He’s changed the way the Swans play, offensively they open it up and they are more outside,” Lyon said.
“He’s a great person and I think he will be better second time around.”
Hird, speaking on Channel 7 on Sunday, said he was “not sure” about his own senior coaching aspirations, but backed McVeigh to stay in the GWS hot seat next year.
“I’m here purely to help Mark McVeigh and the Giants,” Hird said.
“He would be a fantastic coach for the GWS Giants, who are backing him fully and wholly.
“You think about the story of Mark McVeigh, a New South Wales boy, he went to Essendon and has came back.
“He’s been an academy coach and coached every role at the Giants, whether it be a line coach or senior assistant and now being the interim.
“I’m here to hopefully get him the job and help the Giants go as far as they can .”
Hird started out at GWS in a leadership role but has partnered with Dean Solomon to serve McVeigh as in assistant coaching roles since Cameron’s exit.
Hird was at the helm of Essendon throughout the supplements scandal which saw 34 players banned for one year over an injections program.
‘Was I just lucky?’ Intrigue pulling Clarko back to coaching
The spectre of the four-time premiership coach is looming large over the AFL landscape as he weighs up a return to senior coaching next year.
A public declaration he coveted a senior role next year would send numerous clubs into a spin, but Clarkson said his future beyond this year remained undecided.
Although, Clarkson admitted his curiosity of whether he could deliver success to another club after leading Hawthorn to four flags was of “appeal” to him.
“The most significant intrigue for me is ‘was I just lucky to have that group of people at that point in time at that particular club?’” Clarkson said on ‘The Believers: Tasmania’s AFL journey’ podcast.
“The excitement for me is can it be done elsewhere with a different environment and a different group of people and see how we go?’
“That holds some appeal, but just doing what I’ve been doing in the past six months with a bit more farm time and a bit more friends time has got some appeal as well.”
Clarkson said he held back from entering the process to coach Collingwood or Carlton last year because it “didn’t suit” him at the time.
He said he’d only enter a club where everyone was on the same page with “shared values”.
“It makes it sound like I’ll be picking or choosing and there might not be opportunities to come back into coaching, and it might be that I don’t want to,” he said.
“I had an opportunity with both Carlton and Collingwood, not necessarily to be accepted to coach those clubs but certainly go into the process as an option, but it didn’t suit me.
“Strangely enough that had not so much to do with their direction and that sort of stuff as I could see they were both on a direction of where they wanted to go.
“It was just around mine and (wife) Caryn’s and our family’s needs at that time.
“We wanted to make those decisions at the end of this year in terms of what our future will look like and not six months ago.
“And we’re still not ready to know what we want to do beyond 2022.”
Clarkson has been an active supporter of Tasmania’s bid for the 19th licence this year.
He said he was not sure if he’d be more interested in coaching or administration at the proposed club, but admitted he’d like to see a Tasmanian coach.
“I’d love Chris Fagan to coach the Tassie side or a Brendon Bolton,” he said.
“Guys are Tassie born and bred, I think that would be pretty special.”
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