Stinging text message from Alastair Clarkson almost pushed Sam Mitchell out of Hawthorn

Sam Mitchell was close to quitting Hawthorn in 2011 after Alastair Clarkson’s lack of empathy at his family situation.

Hawthorn President Jeff Kennett

A stinging text message sent from Alastair Clarkson to Sam Mitchell during the 2011 finals series so infuriated Mitchell that he considered quitting Hawthorn at the time.

The incident, revealed in Mitchell’s 2018 autobiography, Relentless, came towards the end of his most challenging AFL season when he and wife Lyndall endured personal hardships, believing they had inadequate support from the coach and the club.

This is completely separate to the disturbing allegations made in a club-commissioned external report into the treatment of First Nations players and their families, claims which Clarkson has emphatically and strenuously denied.

When asked about the allegations made in the report last week, Mitchell said his heart had been “torn into pieces” for the First Nations footballers and their families.

Mitchell’s own, at times, tense relationship with Clarkson - the man he took over from as Hawks coach late last year after a messy succession plan unravelled - was detailed in his autobiography four years ago.

Mitchell said Clarkson sent him a text criticising his finals record after the Hawks lost the 2011 qualifying final to Geelong.

Alastair Clarkson and Sam Mitchell. Picture: Tony Gough

It was almost the final straw in a year in which Mitchell’s wife Lyndall had to undergo an emergency caesarean for the delivery of their twin girls Emmerson and Scarlett, with further complications causing concerns for a time. Lyndall’s mother was also diagnosed with early on-set Alzheimer’s disease in that same year.

“(Two days after the 2011 qualifying final) Clarko sent me a text message, expressing his feelings,” Mitchell wrote in Relentless.

“It went something along the lines of ‘When was the last time you played well in a final?’ I was holding a screaming child at the time and Lyndall was holding the other. Smith (their son) was crawling on the floor, and I was getting this message. It didn’t seem fair.”

Mitchell added in the book: “Our life was lost in a thick fog which seemed to blur everything.

“At times it felt as if Clarko and others at the club weren’t providing the empathy we required.”

“I didn’t want to leave Hawthorn … but I couldn’t stay without clearing some things up. I called Clarko and arranged to meet him … to sort it out.

“I knew driving there it was a line in the sand moment. If it didn’t go well, I would be leaving.”

The pair came to an agreement and the Hawks went on to play in four successive grand finals, including a three-peat of premierships from 2013-15.

Mitchell said Clarkson acknowledged “he had been too hard on me and promised to be fairer the following year. It was the closest I came to leaving the club before I ultimately did - under different circumstances - five years later.”

Alistair Clarkson at a Hawthorn best and fairest. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

KENNETT’S FIERY TV INTERVIEW OVER HAWKS ‘CRISIS’

Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett has stood by his claims that the club is not in “crisis”, adding the Hawks have “nothing to hide” as WorkSafe today (Monday) launches an investigation at Waverley Park.

In a fiery television interview on Monday morning, Kennett said he had attempted to make contact with one of the players who was interviewed as part of the club’s cultural safety review but that the issues were now tied up in a web of lawyers.

He maintained that he hoped mediation could resolve the matters “by Christmas”.

Asked why he believed Hawthorn was not in “crisis” – as he twice claimed in his speech at the club’s best-and-fairest on Saturday night – Kennett was defensive.

“Well, these allegations took place six to 12 years ago and they are shocking, I accept that,” Kennett said.

“We had a process in place to try and work out whether in fact and to what weight we should put to those allegations. But can I tell you, to me a crisis is something I experienced some years ago when premier when I was driving back from the country and was rung up and told that the Langford Gas Plant had had an explosion, people had died, people were injured, and the gas supplies to Melbourne had been cut off. That to me is a crisis.”

Pushed on whether he deemed this not to be a crisis because no one had died, Kennett said that was not the case but “the way to deal with this is calmly, maturely” and “allow all parties now to have their say”.

Hawthorn President Jeff Kennett speaking at The Peter Crimmins medal ceremony at Crown

“We are all working to try and bring about resolution,” Kennett said on Channel 9.

“I hope - this is my wish - that all parties will agree to mediation quickly so that this can be resolved as quickly as possibility and I hope it could be done by Christmas. Otherwise there is going to be a whole number of families who are going to continue to hurt for a period of time. Now, whether that is achievable or not I don’t know, but that is what we are working on and please be assured Hawthorn has nothing to hide. We started this process. We are proud of what we have at the club.”

Kennett said on Saturday night that the leaking of the review to the media was “unfair” to those who serious allegations had been levelled against given it was “a confidential survey”.

The review, conducted by Indigenous former Richmond player Phil Egan, revealed allegations from Hawks players and their partners that claimed they had been subjected to “bullying and intimidation tactics … used to isolate First Nations players from their families and communities”.

The president said his attempts to contact one of the players who was interviewed as part of the report had been fruitless.

“To my knowledge, they are not talking to anyone at Hawthorn or anyone at the AFL at the moment,” he said.

“It is all going through their lawyers, as it is with the other parties. As you are seeing the reaction from all people involved, it is becoming a very legalistic process.”

As first revealed by the Sunday Herald Sun, WorkSafe Victoria inspectors were poised to visit Hawthorn headquarters on Monday morning, having already seized a range of materials in the fallout to the club’s cultural safety review.

“We are not trying to protect ourselves at all,” Kennett said.

“We have nothing to hide, which is why we have conducted this survey. We are not protecting Hawthorn. We protect all our employees. But, again, understand it was a survey to get life experiences from a group of players. We got that.

“A result of the survey was that it should go to AFL integrity for the next stage and we handed it to AFL integrity.

“The AFL have now said because natural justice has not been done because of the publication of this material that it should go to a higher level and the AFL are now working to do that.”

Kennett served as Hawthorn president from 2005 to 2011 before returning to take back the reins in 2017.

He is due to end his tenure in December.