Clarkson keeps faith as Hawks look for redemption

EMBATTLED Hawthorn coach Alistair Clarkson has vowed to keep the faith with his proven players.

Clarkson backed a group of those struggling Hawks to rebound against improving Melbourne at the MCG today.

“I probably got wound up in the emotion a bit,” Carkson said.

“It was a poor choice of words by me knowing full well that would probably be referenced a fair bit during the week.

“Our club has never been about dealing with things in a catastrophic manner.

“Given the review of the game, I was disappointed we played so poorly and I didn’t actually say there would be catastrophic changes this week.

“If we are guilty of anything, it’s backing our players and that has held us in good stead over a long period of time and that’s what we’ll continue to do this week.

“They are a proud group and they have gone to the coalface for us so many times.

“We’re disappointed in our performance last week, but on reflection, we were outstanding the previous week against West Coast.

“So, we’re backing the capability of our group as we saw the week before and it’s just bringing it on a consistent basis.”

Clarkson said he didn’t consider resting senior players or sending them back to the VFL to regain form and confidence.

“Most of those guys want to play the next day when they have performed poorly,” he said. “It’s no different with the coaching staff.”

“Every club is the same when they have a poor performance, they just want to get out there and redeem themselves individually and as a team.

“That’s certainly the case with our guys too,” he said.

The Hawks coach believes the inclusion of defender Grant Birchall and forward Cyril Rioli will aid the team structure for the contest with the Demons.