Mark Williams believes Alastair Clarkson should move on from Hawthorn to keep flame burning

PORT Adelaide premiership coach Mark ‘Choco’ Williams has a major regret from his time in coaching. And he doesn’t want his one-time assistant to make the same mistake.

Hawthorn Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson (left) looks on during their Round 3 game against the Gold Coast Suns at Metricon Stadium on the Gold Coast, Sunday, April 9, 2017. (AAP Image/Dan Peled) NO ARCHIVING, EDITORIAL USE ONLY

HEY Clarko, it’s your mate Choco.

The time has come for you to leave Hawthorn. Not right now, but really soon.

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I’m telling you this because I only wish I got the same advice at Port Adelaide.

Back in 2007 we played off in a Grand Final in my ninth season in charge. We then languished in 13th, 10th and 10th over the next three years and my coaching career was dead on the vine.

One of my great regrets was not getting out at the end of ‘07. The offers came from rival clubs, but I ignored them. If I’d acted, I’d probably still be coaching today.

Former Port coach Mark Williams says he stayed too long at the Power.

As I look at a rapidly-declining Hawthorn, my advice to Clarko is to get out at season’s end. You reached the summit an incredible four times in eight years, you’re a career coach, you’ve done a wonderful job and no one will ever forget you or talk badly of your decision if you do leave.

How long do you stay in a job? Because it is a job. Even though he’s passionate, he loves the people there and the fans love him, it’s still a job.

There is a finishing line at a club. Why not you pick it rather than the suits?

As time marches on in the wake of success a lot of people start to feel they’ve got the expertise as well. It becomes a thing you need to manage. Suddenly, every little thing gets questioned.

Alastair Clarkson is trying to resurrect the Hawks. Picture: AAP

Clarko will be romanced by the thought of ‘Can I get them up again?’ On the other side of that there’s people at other clubs saying: ‘Let’s get Clarko’. There’s no doubt that’s happening.

He loves records and he’s very much aware of the history of clubs and everything around them. If they are all ticked off, believe me, when the opportunities come he’ll be looking very carefully at the alternatives.

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He will break John Kennedy’s record for most games coached (299) at Hawthorn this year. That could be a bigger factor in what happens next than most people assume.

At the same time, the Clarko I know and worked with for two years at the Power, is an astute, fiercely driven man.

I think of him as the King of Challenges. Call it small man mentality or whatever, but he wants to prove to absolutely everyone that he can do it.

Mark Williams talks with Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson at the draft camp in 2005.

At Port Adelaide when he was my assistant, we were playing Fremantle in Perth and we had a bye the next week. I was completely unaware of it, but he’d booked to fly to England from Perth to visit some soccer teams and to get back for the next game. That’s how driven he is to find any skerrick of information that might assist him. It was unbelievable.

He has an ability to form relationships with influential people. He can play the political game really well and he knows where the influencers are and he works that angle brilliantly.

The other thing you have to consider — and this was a difficulty for me — is kids. My eldest were 17, 15, and 13 at the time and if they’re going into those really delicate years of schooling you have to factor that in.

The Hawks are struggling after three rounds. Picture: Getty Images

So would Clarkson go interstate? Would he have to uproot the kids from their social network and schooling? You don’t only think about yourself, you think about your family.

Alastair Clarkson has become a coaching legend not only for his fighting spirit and tenacity, but for his ability to read the tactical tea leaves.

It’s the off-field tea leaves he needs to read now. Your currency can fade quickly in this caper.

Stay and run that risk or leave and keep the flame burning.