Clarkson says Hawks' resolve is strong

Hawthorn's winless start to the AFL season has led to speculation about Alastair Clarkson's coaching future.

Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson

Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson has brushed aside sudden speculation about his future. (AAP)

He's boss at Hawthorn and Alastair Clarkson quoted The Boss as he brushed aside sudden speculation about his AFL coaching future.

If the Hawks lose to Geelong on Easter Monday, they will have made a 0-4 start to the season for the first time in Clarkson's time as their coach.

It led to former Port Adelaide coach Mark Williams saying last week that Clarkson should consider leaving the Hawks.

Former Geelong and Essendon coach Mark Thompson also speculated that the four-time premiership coach might consider walking if the right offer emerged.

This comes after Clarkson swung a wrecking ball through their list last October, trading out Sam Mitchell and Jordan Lewis in a stunning bid to stay ahead of the curve.

And on Sunday, Clarkson quoted from Bruce Springsteen's song Wrecking Ball as the coach said Hawthorn's only focus was recovering from their slump.

"We've worked our way through tough positions before,": Clarkson said.

"Bruce Springsteen has a great song - hard times come, hard times go.

"We're going through a hard time at the minute, but we're really, really strong in our resolve to pull ourselves out of this pickle we're in and get ourselves back on the winning list."

Clarkson said he had not read Williams' column, but a friend had told him about it.

He also noted that after bad starts, Fremantle and Gold Coast have improved to 2-2 after Saturday's wins.

"Whenever your side is going through a tough patch, there's going to be external noise and opinion and that's the game we're in," he said.

"All we need to do is bunker down - it's a collective effort of our footy club, it's not about any one person.

"As we've seen, it's clearly been demonstrated by a couple of sides in the last couple of weeks in Gold Coast and Fremantle, who have turned their seasons around very, very quickly."

Despite the new-look side and a barren start to the season, Clarkson also has supreme faith in the Hawks.

"It can happen, as long as we continue to have faith in the processes we have in place here and the people we have in place here," he said.

"That's been the case for a long period of time and I don't expect it to be any different in our approach in the next few weeks."


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Source: AAP


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