AFL 2021 Carlton v Hawthorn: Alastair Clarkson admits journey back will be long as Blues inflict eighth loss
Eight losses in 10 games this season, the road back for the rebuilding Hawks will be a long one. But if can anyone can get the job done, it’s Alastair Clarkson.
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Alastair Clarkson is the ultimate competitor, but the four-time premiership coach knows he and the rebuilding Hawks are in the fight of their footy lives right now.
But the man who shaped modern coaching as much as anyone else across the past decade and a half is certain the wheels of fortune will ultimately turn for Hawthorn.
Speaking after the club’s eighth loss from 10 games this season, and only the third time he had lost to Carlton in 17 seasons as coach, he admitted he can’t put a time frame on when that wheel might start moving.
He knows there is no magic dust that can be sprinkled on the Hawks to speed up the process to turn them into a modern force again.
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But he is looking to the past and the future as examples of why it can — and will.
Clarkson has an elevated status in the game where he doesn’t need to brag about his many achievements.
But he was happy to point out on Saturday night this is the third time he has had to reshape the Hawks’ list.
“This is the third time I have been through it since I have been at the footy club,” Clarkson said when asked if he had the energy for a rebuild with a contract that runs out at the end of the 2022 season. “We were down and out as a club at the end of 2004, and found a way to get ourselves back into contention.
“We did so again after the 2008 victory, by the start of 2010 we were down and out again, and injected a lot of young players into the side at that point in time.
“They ended up being three-time premiership players, a lot of those guys, for our footy club.”
His point is that while other clubs have failed to turn rebuilds and regenerations into premierships, the Hawks have made an art-form of it across the past 60 years, which has made for a jam-packed trophy cabinet at Waverley.
“Our club has been able to do it consistently for a long period of time. But it is never easy, that is why literature has been written about our club called ‘The Hard Way’.
“It is all a part of the journey and unless you actually absorb the struggles and the tough nature of it, you don’t actually acknowledge how good it is when you finally get there. We have to start somewhere and for this group of players, we have to find some young guys who are going to take us to the next piece of silverware.”
No one can say if Clarkson will still be there when that happens. Sam Mitchell looks like a star coaching-in-waiting, and rival clubs will be looking to him and to Clarko as prospective options.
But the one certainty is that Clarko will bust a gut trying to make the Hawks’ wheel turn fast.
As much as he looks frustrated in the coaches’ box, he insists he is trying to absorb the small wins that the young side is having on the field and not being obsessed by the losses – as unpalatable as that might have been in the past.
“We have to continue to search for those little wins and hopefully get enough of them over a period of time that will culminate in more consistent performance and secure more wins for our side and get ourselves going again,” he said.
The Hawks showed glimpses against the Blues, but ultimately didn’t have the polish to execute when it mattered most.
He was pleased by the debut of big ruckman Ned Reeves, he consoled young forward Jacob Koschitzke for a key moment when he played on and was caught after marking in the goalsquare, he was encouraged by the improved centre work stoppage and clearance efforts of the midfield, and he acknowledged more game time will boost the confidence of the kids.
OPEN TO TRADE
Hawthorn hasn’t ruled out trading out senior players in order to chase more elite draft talent in its quest to become a premiership force again.
Rob McCartney said on Saturday the club was looking to use all player levers to bring in the best talent on offer, including trade and free agency options.
“There is no doubt there are a number of mechanisms (the club could use),” McCartney said on ABC radio.
“There are three levers to pull – there is the draft, there is trade and there is free agency and we are not shying away from (the fact) we will use all three to better our football club … and give our supporters the chance to come to this ground in September.”
The Hawks could potentially move on one or two of their senior players in an effort to further improve their draft hand in the coming years.
In the past, through their successful era, the Hawks had gone the other way and looked to bring in experienced talent at the expense of modest draft options.
WILD ABOUT HARRY
Carlton has insisted it has enough salary cap scope to suitably reward Harry McKay for his outstanding start to 2021, with chief executive Cain Liddle confident the Coleman Medal fancy will commit long-term to the Blues.
McKay only had six disposals but kicked two goals, including the sealer to effectively quell the challenge of Hawthorn in the final term.
He confessed after the game on Fox Footy that his injured shoulder was still causing him some discomfort, but coach David Teague said he expected the 23-year-old would keep improving physically in the coming weeks.
Liddle said the Blues had been preparing long-term to ensure their young stars would stay and was confident it would happen.
“Ultimately, we have prepared for that, from a TPP (Total Player Payment) perspective,” Liddle said on ABC radio before the game.
“We have no reason to think he (McKay) won’t be a long-term Carlton player.”
He said Walsh, who was dominant in the first half against the Hawks, was already locked away until the end of next year, but would also feature in discussions in the coming months.
“Sam is contracted for next year, and when time is right, (Blues list manager) Nick Austin will talk to his manager,” he said.
“I have great confidence in that group and I don’t fear that any of them are going elsewhere. I think they can see what I can see … it is going to be a really exciting place to be around.”
HOW TEAGUE’S SPRAY TURNED AROUND BLUES
Carlton coach David Teague delivered what he said was the biggest blast of his coaching career to his players at halftime at the MCG on Saturday when too many Blues “weren’t getting the job done”.
Teague conceded he wasn’t sure how the team-wide spray would go but saw the results he was hoping for as Carlton outlasted Hawthorn to win by 23-points.
Three Hawthorn goals late in the second-quarter, to bridge the gap to three points at halftime, moved Teague to deliver the “team message” which zeroed on defenders unwilling to commit to crucial contests.
Teague said the game “wasn’t a classic” but hoped the will of his players to reset after the break and then run away again could be a “great learning moment”.
“I think they scored quite a few of their goals just from long kicks in and winning it at ground level. It was as hard as I have ever gone at them and I wasn’t sure how it would go,” Teague said of the halftime spray.
“It was a team message. It wasn’t one or two individual players, it was just too many of us.
“You are going to have times when the ball goes in there and one guy can’t get the job done on his guy.
“But there was one we showed at halftime, there were four of us out there and had a chance to defend with serious intent and we chose not to. Until we do that, we are not going to be a great side.
“We need to get better in that era, and to the player’s credit, in the second half, we did it, and it shows, we protected the scoreboard.
“Hopefully it’s a great learning moment for our group, to get the win, it wasn’t pretty, but these games hurt even more when you don’t win.”
Teague gave credit to big-money recruit Zac Williams who was one of those players in the gun at halftime, after which he responded, finishing with 26 disposals and a goal.
Williams and Adam Saad provided the right amount of run and carry for the Blues, but Teague said it was the defensive aspects of their game which eventually came to the fore.
“I thought (Wiliams) was part of a group that didn’t defend hard enough at the end of the second (quarter),” Teague said.
“We got beat at the fall of the ball and some of the decisions were made by guys who are some of my more experienced leaders in the group and he was a part of that group.
“On the flip side, his ability to win some important contests after halftime was strong.
“We need to make sure if you are going to have that flair you have to have that defensive intent and purpose and full credit to them after halftime they brought a bit of both.”
Teague said he “can’t explain” the poor kicking from his men, but conceded it was an area they would need to address.
“I thought our ball us particular in the first half wasn’t at the standard we have done in the past,” he said.
“I just thought some of the field kicking and decision making throughout the game wasn’t at the level we need to be at, so there’s room for improvement for us.”
SIGH OF RELIEF FOR WAYWARD BLUES
If Carlton is pondering getting some new help for coach David Teague club bosses might want to start with signing up a kicking guru as soon as possible.
On a perfect day for football at a sun-soaked MCG, Carlton butchered the ball by foot and despite giving up a four-goal lead their ball-winning dominance proved too strong in a scrappy, but ultimately gutsy 23-point win over Hawthorn.
Quiet all day, Coleman Medal leader Harry McKay sealed the victory with a roost from outside the forward 50m which helped Teague exhale a sigh of relief as his team notched its fourth win for the season.
Hawthorn again dished up loads of effort but still finds itself lacking in that full four-quarters of grunt work needed to make up for their key position shortcomings.
Carlton’s on-ball stars Sam Walsh and Patrick Cripps proved the ultimate difference between the two teams early but despite dominating possession and inside 50s the Blues couldn’t put their opponents away.
Instead the Hawks, less than a week after losing to the last-placed Kangaroos, mopped up constant Carlton kicking-errors, brought a renewed intensity and kicked four goals to one either side of halftime to take the lead in the third quarter.
Alastair Clarkson’s men were hardly perfect themselves by foot and then the Blues, who should have put the game away before halftime, steadied again and with the last three goals of the third term regained control.
Carlton’s goals were coming via unstructured means, unable to find McKay in any sort of threatening way as Hawks defenders defused a long-string of long-bombs.
But the prolific ball-winning of Walsh and Patrick Cripps in tight situations and Jacob Weitering’s unwavering resistance in defence stood out on a day where the better scrappers won out.
NO KOSI NO
In tight games the simplest of mistakes can prove telling.
With Hawthorn behind by three points in the third quarter young forward Jacob Koschitzke snaffle took a strong mark just to the left of the goalsquare after a lob from teammate Luke Bruest which should have been a shot at goal.
Instinctively, Koschitzke played on, thinking he was walking in to an open goal, only to be cut down by a desperate tackled from Carlton defender Nic Newman.
The missed opportunity was costly. Rather than Hawthorn getting the lead back, Carlton kicked the next three goals and were never headed again.
STAYING ALIVE
Coaches talk about not just playing to the whistle, but playing to the siren, but sometimes that means going beyond the blast when the ball is still alive.
That was the case just before halftime when Daniel Howe launched a scrubby speculator towards the Hawthorn goals from outside 50, close to the boundary line, with just seconds left in the term.
It found a gap among a bunch of player’s hit the ground and took a massive bounce 15m from goal as the siren went.
It kept bouncing, past the outstretched and desperate hands of blues defender Jacob Weitering, and went through for an unbelievable goal.
It was Hawthorn’s fourth goal in the final five minutes of the quarter and made the gap at the long break just three points.
BIG BLUE BREWING NICELY
The potential double-threat young Carlton big man Tom De Koning is going to present in coming years has to be exciting for Carlton fans.
Playing just his 10TH AFL game, and first for 2021, the 21-year-old was out to make an impact and did it in the middle of the ground as well as in the air around the MCG.
At one stage he out-marked high-flying teammate Liam Jones just in front of the Carlton bench, reaching over from behind Jones to snaffle the ball.
Jones ended up on the ground, no idea who had been able to leap higher than him, only to see De Koning standing tall with the ball in his hand.
De Koning also kicked a goal and if the Blues had offered up some better delivery going forward, he could have had more.
SCOREBOARD
CARLTON 4.1 8.3 12.4 13.8 (86)
HAWTHORN 2.3 7.6 8.9 9.9 (63)
GOALS
Hawthorn: Bruest 3, Morrison 2, Koschitzke, Lewis, Howe, Moore
Carlton: Owies 2, Mckay 2, Betts, Silvagni, De Koning, Williams, Walsh, Pittonet, Gibbons, Murphy
BEST PLAYERS
Hawthorn: Worpel, Bruest, Mitchell, Wingard, Scrimshaw
Carlton: Walsh, Weitering, Cripps, Docherty, Williams, Curnow, Betts
CROWD: 45,741
INJURIES
Hawthorn: O’Meara (TBC)
Carlton: Nil
PLAYER OF THE YEAR VOTES
3 Sam Walsh (Carlton)
2 Patrick Cripps (Carlton)
1 Sam Docherty (Carlton)
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