HAWTHORN coach Alastair Clarkson is unsure if he will lead the Hawks past his current contract which expires at the end of the 2019 season.
Newly installed president Jeff Kennett has endorsed Clarkson’s continuation in the role he had taken over in 2005 after Peter Schwab’s departure.
But the four-time premiership coach will wait until the middle of next year when he will have greater clarity about his passion to coach the team into a 16th season and beyond.
“I welcome the endorsement from (Jeff) that he thinks I’m the person to lead the club, but I think we have to move with baby steps over the next 12 months to two years,” Clarkson told the AFL’s website.
“The next 12 months to two years is pivotal to see whether I’ve still got the passion and desire to drive this group and whether the new group of players coming through is going to respond to that coaching.
“I think we need to take every bit of the next two years as a club to decide where we want to go and what we want to do.”
The Hawks have endured an uncharacteristically unsettled period of late.
Short-lived chief executive Tracey Gaudry, president Richard Garvey and on-field stalwarts Luke Hodge, Sam Mitchell and Jordan Lewis are among the senior figures to have departed in the past year or so.
The return of Kennett, despite the at-times tense nature of his relationship with Clarkson, is a huge boost to the club’s off-field stability.
Clarkson has always been adamant he would leave the club better off than he found it and getting the timing of his departure right was key to his thinking on that front.
“If I feel that, for whatever reason, the message isn’t getting through, I’ve had an enormous opportunity to coach this club and, as has been the case with all those who have served our club, I’ll pass the baton,” he said.
“Will that be after my 15th year, or will I continue longer? That’s a discussion we will share together rather than one of us having the whip hand.
“That’s what makes it unique and pleasing because we can sit down and have those chats about what’s best for the footy club.”
