Alastair Clarkson quits: The man who saved Hawthorn and changed the game will be back coaching very soon, writes Shane Crawford

In an exclusive column, Shane Crawford shares the magic of Alastair Clarkson and details why his former coach will be turning another club around very soon.

Hawks head coach Alastair Clarkson.

Christmas looks like coming early this year for Collingwood or Carlton.

Alastair Clarkson said on Friday that he might take a break after he gives his all to the final four games of his esteemed coaching career at Hawthorn.

If I know Clarko, a one-month break post-season will be more than enough.

He’ll be back coaching somewhere soon and I’ve got no doubt that he will turn another club into a super-consistent, and high-performing, side just as he has done with the Hawks.

When Clarko took over Hawthorn in 2005, we were rudderless and close to rock bottom.

He not only saved the club and got it back on its feet but took us to premiership glory – four times.

Clarko has changed the game with his coaching style and innovation and the game simply cannot afford to lose him.

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Shane Crawford and Alastair Clarkson after the 2008 grand final.

Collingwood would be crazy not to knock down his door and, if Carlton decides not to continue with David Teague, then the Blues should be at that door as well.

The polished press conference on Friday announcing Clarkson’s departure at season’s end helped clear the air after a messy few weeks.

However, there is no excuse for the turmoil which had seen a great club become the laughing stock of the AFL.

Ever since the announcement of the coaching succession plan – which I thought could work – there had been mixed and confusing messages coming out of the club and leaks to the media which normally indicates a sinking ship.

The members who keep the club afloat deserve better and that will be the lesson to take out of this chapter.

In the end, it appeared Clarkson didn’t want to hang around like a bad smell, sitting in the driver’s seat but having handed over the keys to the car.

He is someone who has always put the club first and this is yet another example of that.

I’m glad Clarkson will coach out the final four games this season, which will hopefully give him the send-off he deserves after 17 years in the hot seat at Hawthorn.

He is not only one of the Hawks’ greatest ever coaches but also one of the game’s greatest ever coaches and there is no doubt there will be a statue of him carved out one day down the track.

We can only hope that crowds return in Victoria before the end of the home-and-away season so the Hawthorn faithful can cheer him from the ground one last time and acknowledge his outstanding contribution to the club.

Crawford says the game simply cannot afford to lose Clarkson.

Sam Mitchell is going to be a really good next coach of Hawthorn, but 2022 will be a baptism of fire.

Interruptions to the VFL fixture this season have meant Mitchell has not had the full experience of coaching his own side at Box Hill this year, as much as he has been running the show there.

He was looking forward to again coaching the VFL side next year, which would have been icing on the cake to ensure he was ready to take over at AFL level.

If there is anyone that could be thrown in the deep end next year and learn to swim though, it’s Mitchell.

It will be hard watching Clarkson coach elsewhere, knowing what an asset he will be to another club. But with Mitchell, the Hawks are in good hands.

Shane Crawford is a former Hawthorn captain and played four years under Alastair Clarkson, including in the club’s 2008 premiership

Ralph: Real cost of Hawks’ shambolic own-goal

- Jon Ralph

As Hawthorn was kicking butt and winning premierships for fun in the past 13 years, it used to mock clubs that self-destructed like Hawthorn has in the past 26 days.

Like any elite sporting organisation, the Hawks kept their dirty laundry away from prying eyes and made a series of blindingly smart decisions that powered them to a premiership dynasty.

The strategic misfires, comedy capers, doublespeak and outright deceit of the last month means that Hawthorn will have to spend the next few years proving it is not a very mediocre club.

Hawthorn has gone and sacked the modern-day Norm Smith, no matter how Jeff Kennett might want to spin it.

And we all know how that turned out for Melbourne, which is still trying to live down that curse.

Then, instead of brokering a cohesive and sensible peace deal, they have replaced him with an untried, unproven rookie coach who is a long way from winning over the senior core of players.

Then, to top it off, they have had to pay the greatest coach of the modern era for the privilege NOT to coach them.

It is high farce of the kind that would have Kennett firing off a string of rage tweets demanding the head of the organisation that came up with it if it were not his own club.

How would those people who tipped so many millions in bequeaths and donations for the Hawks’ new Dingley headquarters feel about the club setting fire to up to $1 million for a contract Clarkson will not fulfil?

Hawthorn has made a mess of Alastair Clarkson’s exit.

The minimum requirement of a succession plan should be that the man who is handing over the cudgels has even a vague interest in being part of that arrangement.

Instead, Hawthorn effectively sacked Clarko then threw him into a succession plan that on face value it would seem he was desperate to get out of from the very first day.

Clarkson never had his heart in it, Mitchell clearly believed the two-coach, one-club model had whiskers, and in the end the club used the premise of flustered players to blow the whole deal up.

So what is the dramatic fallout for all parties after the dust settled on this shambles?

Hawthorn has to find a way to absorb Clarkson’s salary next year — or spread out in coming seasons — in its soft cap without having to sack staffers or nobble its footy team.

The Hawks plan to spread the payout figure over two seasons and are suggesting they can still pay as little as $75,000 of tax for the Clarkson payout given it will take them $100,000 over the cap in each of 2022 and 2023.

FULL STORY: HOW A SURREAL MORNING UNFOLDED AT HAWTHORN

But as a rival footy boss said on Friday, by the time they give Mitchell a hefty pay rise and hire another assistant coach it will be an extraordinary juggle that will require sacrifices elsewhere in the footy program.

Rival clubs are already up in arms over that deal given their expectation a coaching payout had to be included only in the following year’s soft cap, not spread out over two seasons.

Clarkson immediately becomes the hottest property in coaching for both Carlton and Collingwood, with his denials about wanting to coach next year as flimsy as the previous statements about loyalty turned out to be.

The issue for Clarkson is that he would effectively be coaching for free given any money he earns from a rival club would be taken off his Hawthorn payout.

But the wishy-washy manner in which he said he wasn’t coaching next year — “right at the present time my commitment is to have a spell” — would not have put off his suitors in the slightest.

The only real challenge for Clarkson is to win another flag elsewhere — a fifth premiership would put him in rarefied air — or take an expansion side such as Gold Coast to its first finals series.

So Carlton will await the results of its football review while simultaneously assessing Clarkson’s interest in taking over the Navy Blues.

Even Jeff Kennett couldn’t spin this story.

He has always told friends he didn’t rate the manner in which too many outside forces ruled the roost at Carlton, but surely he would see the talent on show at the Blues and believe he could transform it into something special.

Especially if Charlie Curnow’s body can stand up in the next month to show he might one day be the star we hoped he would become.

And Mitchell, who should have been lauded when he eventually rose to the rank of senior coach, starts Round 1 next year with a target on his back just as Nathan Buckley did when he inherited the job at Collingwood.

Hawthorn might rebuild and rebound and find the clear air for Mitchell to be the coaching genius they believe he is.

But, just like Buckley this year, after the Pies turned their own summer into an endless series of own goals, Mitchell will have to wade through the baggage of what has gone before instead of securing his own honeymoon period.

Clarkson said senior players such as Ben McEvoy and Jaeger O’Meara had expressed doubt about the future ahead, which played a key part in the decision for him to move on.

Had anyone at Hawthorn considered the reality Clarkson is as ill-suited to a succession plan as any coach in modern history?

Clearly not, but to pin the decision on the players is grossly unfair. Surely someone should have considered Clarkson and Mitchell’s compatibility in the first place.

However, this decision has eventuated, Clarkson gets to walk away with a fat cheque and the coaching world at his feet.

The Hawks are left with furious fans, the football world questioning their every word after 26 days of confusion, and a senior coach who has fewer than 20 games of VFL experience.