Hawks not done yet: Clarkson
HAWTHORN coach Alastair Clarkson has delivered a message to his team’s doubters ahead of tonight’s cutthroat semi-final against Adelaide: We’re not done yet.
The triple premiership coach yesterday backed his team to hit back hard against the Crows before swingman Ryan Schoenmakers and speedster Billy Hartung were named to play at the MCG.
Jack Gunston (ankle) was a forced change but last year’s grand final hero Will Langford was dropped.
The Crows dropped Rory Atkins for Jarryd Lyons.
North Melbourne will take an unchanged line-up into their semi-final clash tomorrow against Sydney, who replaced Sam Reid (hamstring) with defender Nick Smith. Co-captain Kieren Jack (knee) is still out.
The Hawks have been forced to take the hard road in their quest for a third straight premiership after a 32-point qualifying final loss to West Coast in Perth last week.
“It was only six weeks ago that everyone was saying that we are unbeatable,” Clarkson said. “All of a sudden everyone has fallen off. It doesn’t worry us, we’ll back ourselves in and see how we go.’’
Clarkson said his team’s history of performing on the finals stage gave him confidence.
“They are a very proud group and we’ve played some good footy over a long, long period of time,’’ he said.
“We put in a bad one every now and again like every side does, but I reckon we’ve done it less than most sides in the competition for a long, long period of time. That gives us a fair amount of trust and faith that we’ll hopefully get a response this week.
“We expect a response (tonight), hopefully we play some good footy and all the negativity around our position and our era and are we still contenders and all that sort of stuff (disappears).
Having missed the finals just once in nine seasons, Clarkson dismissed suggestions the Hawks were battle weary.
But he conceded his team was well off its best last week Eagles and could not afford a repeat against the Crows.
“We gave the whole footy world a fair amount of ammo last week to have a crack at us, and rightly so,’’ he said. “We performed well below our expectations, but winning a final in Perth is no easy feat and we didn’t play anywhere near our best footy.
“But we’d won six finals prior to that, no mention of us not being a proud group or a talented group after any of those victories.
“We treat that one (as) if any group is entitled to have an off day it’s probably this group, but we can’t afford to be in that sort of nick tomorrow night otherwise we’ll get pantsed.’’
Gunston is the team’s leading scorer with 53 goals.
But Clarkson backed the Hawks’ forward line to cover the loss of their sharpshooter.
“We have had that right throughout the journey of our club,’’ Clarkson said.