Clarko: We'll have another crack

Coach Alastair Clarkson: "We know if you are in this caper, you have just got to keep presenting." Picture: Andrew Brownbill Source: Herald Sun

Alairstar Clarkson is confident that reports Luke Hodge will not be ready for Round 1 are off the mark. Picture: Wayne Ludbey Source: Herald Sun

LAST year, it was suffocating. Every time one of them spoke, it inevitably spilled out. The hurt was so overwhelming.

Even when the new season came around, Hawthorn was seemingly still getting over the three-point preliminary final loss to Collingwood.

Given that precedent, you'd expect a narrow Grand Final loss would have them headed for padded cells.

But an event in September that changed the lives of many Melburnians is shaping the mindset of Hawthorn's recovery from its Grand Final loss to Sydney.

The death of Jill Meagher in the week before the Grand Final rocked Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson.

He referred to it immediately after the game and two months on he again talks about it to illustrate how losing a football game, albeit an important one, should be put in perspective.

"We can't be too fussy and cranky because that's the nature of the game," he said.

"It's tough and, as I said after the game that particular week, it was just on the back end of Jill Meagher getting murdered in Brunswick and you talk about tragedy ... there are plenty more than just losing a game of footy.

"My post-game discussion with the players behind closed doors was nearly exactly the same as what it was with the press after the game and then when I had to address the Hawthorn faithful at the Saturday night wake.

"It was all the same thing. (Experiencing hardship) is what this game is all about.

"We were disappointed that we lost, but we know that the nature of the game is that you have just got to roll up again, work hard and give yourself a chance again next year."

Clarkson points out the remarkable coaching record of one of his mentors, the late Allan Jeans.

"I mean someone like a 'Yabby' Jeans, who was such a successful coach, he went to nine last days in September and he won four, which is incredible," he said.

"But he lost five and he just had the attitude, and (Denis) Pagan was the same, their attitude was you just keep presenting and the opportunities will come. The same happened with Geelong and they are still up there fighting hard. Some years it doesn't work out. In '08, they were the dominant side for the whole year.

We know we are a club in that phase where we can seriously challenge. Our attitude all along is that you work hard, you try to present. Some days and some years the door opens for you and others it closes. It got slammed shut pretty quickly in the Grand Final against us. Sydney were a deserved victor and they played the better footy on the day.

"They were a very, very good side right throughout the course of the year and perhaps they snuck under the radar like they so often do a little bit in terms of the general media rating of them as a side.

"From early on, as soon as we played them in Round 5 when they beat us down in Tassie, I knew that they were a very, very serious contender for premiership honours.

"And that's the way it turned out. We back ourselves to give it another crack next year but, in terms of seeking retribution or using it as a motivational spur, it's no different to bowing out in an elimination final against Fremantle two years ago or a preliminary against Collingwood last year and now a Grand Final against Sydney.

"We know if you are in this caper, you have just got to keep presenting.

"If you present often enough, it's usually pretty stiff that the door doesn't open for you at some point in time."

To ensure they present again, the Hawks went out and secured full-back Brian Lake from the Western Bulldogs in the trade period.

"He was probably unfairly savaged a little bit on the basis of his 2010 year," Clarkson said. "That off-season he has come off an All-Australian season in 2010 and then had three post-season surgeries.

"While he rocked up ready to start the season in terms of fitness (for 2011), he had no base. He was playing catch-up for the whole of 2011 and this year he didn't play too bad of a season.

"The Bulldogs side has changed a fair bit over the last two years and perhaps he couldn't play with the same poise and anticipation as when he had Dale Morris around him, Robert Murphy and those others.

"He's 30 years of age, but we think, if he could keep himself injury-free, we're not looking at, 'Let's just see how it goes for 12 months'. We're hoping he will be a three or four-year player for us and if he can be we give ourselves a real good chance of being able to challenge seriously.

"If he can't, well, we're no real worse off than what we were without him."

Clarkson knows his two best players will be the topic of much discussion in the lead-up to next season, with Lance Franklin's contract and Luke Hodge's knee to dominate.

Franklin comes out of contract at the end of next year and, with free agency, speculation already has started about his future following his good friend and housemate Sharrod Wellingham leaving Collingwood and returning to the pair's home town of Perth.

"That (free agency) has been a part of the landscape in the US for a long period of time," Clarkson said.

"That is the nature of the game and we are trying to learn and cope with it on the go."

He is confident that reports Hodge will not be ready for Round 1 are off the mark, although the Hawks will handle their captain with great care.

"I'd be staggered if he wasn't right for Round 1," Clarkson said. "He is at training already, doing all the rehab really well and he is such a competitive beast.

"We just want to make sure that we are pretty conservative with it and he gives himself every chance to get it right.

We originally thought it was reasonably minor when it first happened, but it really just crucified his season. We just want to be ultra-conservative and make sure that he's right. We would expect if he has no hiccups he is going to be around the mark for the commencement of our program.

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