Coach Clarkson has left the building

[Cyril says]

Agree this was when the club started treating players like cattle and us as members should have been more out spoken, legends of the club were treated poorly.

Derm, Tuck and co say hello.

 

[killerspud]

My take:

We wanted him to take another gig to avoid the payout. Hence succession announcement to buy time for this.

He wanted his payout.

Leaks started. I've got my views from where. Most likely the Clarko camp, to force the payout.

Payout comes, and he'll walk to another club.

I'd be staggered if he's not coaching elsewhere next year. Staggered.

I would be staggered if he was coaching.

He's just been paid out around a million after having coached for more than a decade. Not only has he had a clear income stream for all that time he's established himself in a way he can get a high paying prominent job without the pressures of being a senior coach.

He has a young family and now has the luxury to spend time with them for a year before making a decision. If it were me there's no way I'd be coaching.

I'd look to Queensland - get a job as football manager at the Lions or Suns (get to hang out with Fages and Evans again) live off 350-400 k a year in the sunshine and not worry about the stress and strain of being a senior afl coach.

Surely coaching next year would compromise the payout - Carlton won't have him (on good authority those Blues who played in the battle of Britain game still have a massive grudge against him and are loyal to Aitken) Collingwood would be a poisoned chalice - board shennanigans - dealing with Eddie after dealing with Jeff. Nah, If I were him I'd wait out a year - do some special comments and write a column.

 

[stillahawk]

A lot of that has merit. Of course it's 100% wrong to say he single handedly delivered those flags though.

Let's not get into semantics. The record books will read: Alastair Clarkson - Head coach of Hawthorn Hawks 2004 - 2021, won 4 premierships. That is a fact.

 

[offtherails9]

If Clarko has played the club to an extent, already having a job lined up elsewhere (and that makes sense as to what some and Dermott suggested that the board became aware of), why have they protected him so much here? They've let themselves look incredibly stupid and have all the attention and vitriol on them. Not sure why they would do that?

 

[hawkheart]

Highly likely we’ll be fixtured prime time v Tigers for Clarko’s final game as coach.

 

[Birdofprey]

If Clarko has played the club to an extent, already having a job lined up elsewhere (and that makes sense as to what some and Dermott suggested that the board became aware of), why have they protected him so much here? They've let themselves look incredibly stupid and have all the attention and vitriol on them. Not sure why they would do that?

This is a good question in regards to this conspiracy theory. Aspects of it can make sense, but that question is hard to solve. I guess in time we might learn more of this whole messy drama.

I am the biggest Clarko fan, but suspect there is some degree of blame and responsibility to be shouldered on all sides, including the great man himself. That is usually how real life goes, regardless of how much we like to see some people as faultless (including ourselves).

 

[SammyC]

If Clarko has played the club to an extent, already having a job lined up elsewhere (and that makes sense as to what some and Dermott suggested that the board became aware of), why have they protected him so much here? They've let themselves look incredibly stupid and have all the attention and vitriol on them. Not sure why they would do that?

who gains from this being positioned as a mutual pragmatic decision, rather than Jeff and his board being played for fools. Answer is everyone.

Give it a couple of weeks, clarko is unencumbered taking a job he’s likely already been offered, and Jeff doesn’t look like an incompetent fool who’s engineered outcome has blown up in his face.

carlton coach by September.

 

[MinerBoy]

Let's not get into semantics. The record books will read: Alastair Clarkson - Head coach of Hawthorn Hawks 2004 - 2021, won 4 premierships. That is a fact.

That is. The earlier comment wasn't.

 

[tommyk72]

Worth stating that I doubt Clarko has been ‘paid out’ already. I reckon a bit will play out in that space still.

 

[tommyk72]

Saying Clarko pulled the pin Tuesday night.

Surely he's got a gig elsewhere.

Paywalled. Any insights you can share?

 

[rei154]

Paywalled. Any insights you can share?

He plans on sticking through and seeing out his contract.

 

[stillahawk]

That is. The earlier comment wasn't.

Ok. So are you happy with:
Alastair Clarkson with the help of his assistant coaches, his players, wife and kids, uncles and aunties, BOB his grade 6 teacher that told him he would one day achieve great things and a dog called blue has all contributed on his journey to becoming a four time premiership coach.

Serously mate, I'm not here to argue.
Clarkson, a singular entity/ person has delivered 4 premierships - there's no other way to distort that fact.

 

[Mercy Seat]

Saying Clarko pulled the pin Tuesday night.

Surely he's got a gig elsewhere.

So he pulled the pin Tuesday and then a board member leaks it to Caro on Friday and they spend the day trying to create a digestive narrative and land with the players making the call? I just don’t trust a single word coming out of the club, particularly Jeff.

 

[Brant]

HFC would only have to pay the difference in salary if he coaches elsewhere next year

Maybe.

Depends on the terms of the severance/pay out.

We could just as easily include terms that prevent him coaching elsewhere. This statement will confuse a lot of people with agenda/s, so they can focus on the 'could'.

Every chance.

No chance.

 

[SammyC]

Why would he agree to being paid less than his alleged contract of $1.2m, agree to it being spread over two years and agree to the release of commitment to employ 2023 and 2024.

Commensurate terms would have been negotiated in his favour. Clarko had the leverage.

 

[MistyAvalon]

One of the things that I find sad about this website is that some posters seem to think that number of posts equals football insight. Sadly, its doesn't.

ya gotta love the ignore button.

 

[deanc]

The only thing that makes sense of why it all happened is this:

1. Clarko did not feel that he had another 5-10 years in him at Hawthorn and was getting tired.
2. Clarko brought Sam Mitchell back to take the reins, eventually - although no timeline planned.
3. Collingwood sacked Buckley and Pies wanted Mitchell.
4. Clarko knew the club were in a bind. Clarko was not prepared to commit beyond 2022 and he did not want the club to lose out on Sammy if Clarko decided to walk at the end of 2022. Nor could the club expect Sam to reject an offer from Pies.
5. Clarko told the Board that it better make a decision because Pies were coming after Sam. So if they wanted to keep him, they needed to act. I don't think Clarko said that he was prepared to coach another 5-10 years and would have been non-committal. .
6. Board brings in handover plan so that they don't have to pay out Clarko but keep Sam.
7. A few weeks later, it becomes clear that it is unworkable because Sam wants to play guys in different positions and Clarko can't coach to someone else's thoughts (which is fair enough).
8. Clarko's demeanour to me has shown relief more than anything. I think he is relieved that he leaves the Hawks in a sound position with a good coach to take over.
9. Media use anything to attack Hawthorn, so prepare for constant press that Sam is no good.

I actually think it is as simple as that.

I imagine we will get totally slaughtered tomorrow.

All fine. We need pick 2 (or pick 1) and we need to build again. This may take a few years, but our list is not that bad. Backline is in place for a decade, Reeves looks good ruck prospect, forward line and midfield need some pace and class - which should come from the next 2 years of good draft picks.
Also, as much as Clarko is the Messiah and I love him, bear in mind that our team has essentially played a pretty ugly slow defensive brand of footy for 3-4 years now.

Agree with some of that and while plausible most remains purely speculation - at the end of the day I think we will only really know what took place when certain 'biographies' are written...

 

[Steven Tyler]

Ok, now you’ve edited it to make sense, thank you.

Are you now also suggesting in your other most recent post that Clarkson was already pursuing players for his next(rival) club?

3rd time he’s edited it
No wonder nobody can understand it

 

[Cyril says]

Unsurprisingly Matthews speaking a lot of sense and Malthouse a lot of crap.

Missing out on Matthews (to Collingwood) has driven some of the desire to not miss out on Mitchell, for sure.

 

[Steven Tyler]

Are #savagelunchbox and #openspositions the same poster?

 

[TylerDurden]

Maybe.

Depends on the terms of the severance/pay out.

We could just as easily include terms that prevent him coaching elsewhere. This statement will confuse a lot of people with agenda/s, so they can focus on the 'could'.

No chance.

Kennett said himself today, that Clarko is free to do as he pleases. Payout has already happened. It's dusted.

 

[Glacier]

I honestly dont understand why people are getting so bent out of shape
The club needs a freshen up and hopefully this is it

 

[MinerBoy]

Ok. So are you happy with:
Alastair Clarkson with the help of his assistant coaches, his players, wife and kids, uncles and aunties, BOB his grade 6 teacher that told him he would one day achieve great things and a dog called blue has all contributed on his journey to becoming a four time premiership coach.

Serously mate, I'm not here to argue.
Clarkson, a singular entity/ person has delivered 4 premierships - there's no other way to distort that fact.

Look mate you just made a definitive statement which was wrong. You said single handedly won us 4 flags. I agreed with a lot of your post but didn't agree with that. No biggie.

We don't need paragraphs of re-phrasing now. It's all good. Move on.

 

[stillahawk]

Look mate you just made a definitive statement which was wrong. You said single handedly won us 4 flags. I agreed with a lot of your post but didn't agree with that. No biggie.

We don't need paragraphs of re-phrasing now. It's all good. Move on.

What part do you take issue with? Care to explain? What is wrong with stating that Alastair Clarkson has single handledly delivered 4 premierships?
What part of that is not fact?

I'm happy to move on, I'm just confused on the point that you're trying to make.

 

[killerspud]

I honestly dont understand why people are getting so bent out of shape
The club needs a freshen up and hopefully this is it

Its how we got here to this point that is unprofessional and shows problems with the club hierarchy. We start now with a new coach but are not in a position to give him a support team - the swirling media speculation and the sight of football pundits knowing more of whats going on at the club than they should was unedifying. This was always going to happen - why they couldn't come out 3 weeks ago and say that this will be Clarko's last year with Sam taking over - lets celebrate this era, instead of the farce that's happened...well that's why I'm bent out of shape.