{"id":96364,"date":"2021-07-07T07:30:35","date_gmt":"2021-07-07T07:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=96364"},"modified":"2021-07-07T07:56:24","modified_gmt":"2021-07-07T07:56:24","slug":"hawks-great-rubbishes-clarkson-speculation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=96364","title":{"rendered":"Hawks great rubbishes Clarkson speculation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hawthorn great Shane Crawford<\/a> has hit back at suggestions Alastair Clarkson<\/a> will walk out of the club without completing the coaching transition to Sam Mitchell<\/a> next season, saying the legendary coach is not one to "desert" the club.<\/p>\n

After rumours surrounded Clarkson's future all year, Hawthorn finally made the coaching succession plan official yesterday<\/a>, with Clarkson to coach the team for one more season before Sam Mitchell takes over in 2023.<\/p>\n

MORE:<\/strong> How Clarkson helped Crawford fall back in love with Hawthorn<\/a><\/p>\n

Clarkson has been linked with a number of big clubs in the last six months, particularly Collingwood, but has continually professed his loyalty to Hawthorn.<\/p>\n

However, with the succession plan now set in stone, Hawks great Leigh Matthews suggested Clarkson's "moral obligation to Hawthorn" had been broken by the club.<\/p>\n

\"Alastair<\/p>\n

While Crawford says "all clubs would ask themselves the question" of Clarkson's availability for next season, he backed the four-time premiership winner to hang around.<\/p>\n

"Knowing what he's like, he'll put everything into it and he's put the club first in this situation," he told Wide World of Sports.<\/p>\n

"He wants to leave the club in a better position, he doesn't want to leave it sitting on the bottom of the ladder passing it on.<\/p>\n

"He wants to leave the club in a position where it's going to improve and they'll hopefully get back to the finals.<\/p>\n

"He's not being selfish with what he's doing, he didn't have to take on a rebuilding phase, which he's done really well this year by playing a lot of kids.<\/p>\n

\"Sam<\/p>\n

"He's just not that type of person who's going to desert the footy club while it's at its lowest. He'll want to help set it up on its path and leave his legacy being an unbelievable one."<\/p>\n

Crawford, who is close with Mitchell, admitted that he thought his premiership teammate would take up the Collingwood job before the Hawks succession plan was announced.<\/p>\n

"It was a little bit of a shock because [of] Alastair Clarkson's standing, but he's always been ahead of the game from a coaching point of view," Crawford said.<\/p>\n

"Even with the way he would encourage older players to go elsewhere if they want to play longer, he would always facilitate that.<\/p>\n

\"Sam<\/p>\n

"It sounds like he got on the front foot as well in this situation because there is a lot of talk and speculation about whether or not [Sam Mitchell] was the next person to take over.<\/p>\n

"Obviously Collingwood are looking for a new coach and I have no doubt Sam Mitchell was probably one of the top three going for that position.<\/p>\n

"I really thought Sam was going to go to Collingwood, I just thought he was a really good fit and Graham Wright obviously worked with Sam at Hawthorn. My understanding is [Hawthorn and Mitchell] might've even had a conversation at the start of the year about maybe some roles moving forward.<\/p>\n

"The Collingwood situation has obviously intensified things, but they were probably going to run the risk of losing Sam Mitchell in a few more months. They obviously feel that he's the right person to take the club forward."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hawthorn great Shane Crawford has hit back at suggestions Alastair Clarkson will walk out of the club without completing the coaching transition to Sam Mitchell […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96364"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=96364"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96366,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96364\/revisions\/96366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=96364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=96364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=96364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}