Alastair Clarkson’s family inspires the great Hawthorn coach
He’s one of the most successful coaches in AFL history, but despite coaching Hawthorn to four premierships, there’s another role in Alastair Clarkson’s life he puts ahead of all others.
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Juggling fatherhood and work/life can be no easy task — just ask Alastair Clarkson.
As one of the AFL’s top coaches, his stellar footy career has often taken him away from his three children: Steph, 20, Georgia, 17, and Matt, 15.
“It can be a really tough industry,” the four-time Hawthorn premiership coach said.
“But all our jobs take us away from our main job of nurturing our family.
“Fatherhood for me is the most exciting and challenging mission.
“I know everyone thinks I’m a football coach, but first and foremost I’m a father. The reason you work is to nurture your family.”
He said when he and his wife Caryn started a family they knew they would have to integrate home and footy life.
“You have to find the balance,” he said. “It’s important to make time for family.”
Hawthorn Football Club also holds regular family days for its players, he said.
It helped, he said, that he had a good role model in his hardworking builder father, Tom.
“My father was an Englishman who came here in the 1950s,” he said.
“He left school at 13 or 14. He had to do it really tough.”
Despite an early life “of significant hardship and adversity”, Clarkson said his father ensured his five children had the strong education that he had missed.
“He was a huge inspiration and influenced the way I wanted to provide for my children,” Clarkson said.
While Waverley Park in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs is the home of the Hawks, for Clarkson’s children it was “like a second home” as they grew up.
But they have no complaints.
“He’s a great dad,” Georgia said.
Steph added: “He’s always made time for us, even with footy.”
He supported and encouraged his eldest daughter to spend a year in China last year on completion of her secondary studies.
When they were younger, Clarkson also always ensured he was home for dinner “most nights”, and special family nights in — playing cards and other games — were cherished.
Trips away to the family’s shack were also a treat, despite it not having a toilet, his kids laughed.
The three children described their father as “hardworking”, “loyal” and “witty”.
Clarkson, 51, has spoken about fatherhood in support of the launch of The Fathering Project in Victoria.
The not-for-profit organisation has successfully supported fathers and father figures with its Dads’ Groups programs in primary schools in Western Australia and New South Wales.
It provides resources, practical tips, online support and events for dads to help them engage and be a positive influence in their child’s life.
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Professor Bruce Robinson, a WA-based respiratory physician, established the project after hearing his terminal patients speak of regretting not spending enough time with their kids and wishing someone could have helped them.
Federal Government funding has allowed the program to be extended to Victoria, with plans to roll it out into 100 primary schools across the state by the end of 2020.
To raise further funds for the Victorian rollout, men are urged to host a camping adventure — whether going away, or simply a lounge room fort or backyard campsite — with their kids on the October 19-20 weekend for its “The Big Camp In: Home or Away” campaign.
For more information or register head to thefatheringproject.org