Kennett’s calm on Clarkson

HAWTHORN president Jeff Kennett says he won’t be “losing any sleep” over the prospect of Collingwood poaching Alastair Clarkson.

Kennett, pictured, said the premiership coach was contracted at Hawthorn until the end of 2022.

Responding to the departure of Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley, who will coach his final game for the club on Monday, Kennett said the vacant Magpies coaching job would have no bearing on the Hawks’ timeline for discussions on Clarkson’s future.

Clarkson is contracted at the Hawks until the end of 2022 and Kennett said the club would stick to its plans to sit down with the four-time premiership coach at the end of this year to discuss his future at the club.

“(Buckley’s departure) does not affect Hawthorn at all,” Kennett said.

“It’s another club, they’ve got issues they’ve got to deal with.

“Clarko and the club (Hawthorn) have had a contract in place, which remains in place and we have always said we’ll sit down and talk about the contract and the future at the end of this season and what happens at other clubs doesn’t affect what we do at Hawthorn.

“We’ve got a contract until the end of 2022 so we sit back like the rest of you … but we are more focused on our own administration and governance and what happens at other clubs doesn’t affect us.”

While Clarkson’s name was almost immediately thrown up as a possible candidate for the vacant Magpies job, the Hawks also have another potential contender with assistant coach Sam Mitchell, who is coaching the club’s VFL team Box Hill this year.

Kennett said Hawthorn’s position on discussions about the future of Mitchell, who is widely considered to be Clarkson’s heir-apparent at Hawthorn, was the same as the senior coach.

“The same applies. What happens at other clubs doesn’t affect us,” Kennett said.

“It doesn’t change anything. “We have got a very clear strategy in place and what happens at other clubs doesn’t affect us.”

Asked if he expected Clarkson and Mitchell to be targeted, Kennett said the Hawks were comfortable with the plans they had in place with their coaches.

“They may, but again we know what we have got in place and we know the people that we employ so we are not losing any sleep,” Kennett said.

Collingwood’s general manager of football Graham Wright has links to the Hawthorn pair after previously working as the Hawks head of football and in recruiting and list management at the club before that.

After slipping to 15th last season – the club’s lowest position since Clarkson’s first year at Waverley Park, the Hawks are on the rebuild path and will blood their sixth debutant in 2021 this week.