Clarkson: I was prepared to walk

HAWTHORN coach Alastair Clarkson has revealed he invited the Hawks to seriously consider his position after his side’s poor start to the season.

But he said he never offered to resign.

The Hawks suffered successive 86-point beltings as they slipped to an 0-4 start to their 2017 campaign.

The pressure on the club was such that even the fourtime premiership coach felt his tenure needed to be put under the microscope.

“There’s no one in our organisation who should be bulletproof,” Clarkson told Talking Footy.

“Our footy club, and all clubs, are now bound by a salary cap in terms of football department spending of which a reasonably successful senior coach will be one of the highest spends in the football department.

“So what I offered to our football sub-committee is ‘Let’s not be afraid to have the conversation, when we’re performing poorly, let’s assess every part of our football club including my position’.

“So it wasn’t offering a resignation, it was just saying ‘Let’s be prepared to be transparent and talk about all things’. I thought that it was only fair with an 0-4 start.”

A lengthy injury list cruelled the Hawks’ campaign, but also allowed the club to get games into some youngsters. Hawthorn’s season eventually got moving to the point where they were a finals chance until the last round.