Embattled Hawthorn coach Alistair Clarkson has vowed to keep the faith with his proven premiership players.
Clarkson backed a group of those struggling experienced Hawks to rebound against improving Melbourne at the MCG on Sunday.
The four-times premiership coach said the warning of impending "catastrophic change" was a throwaway line immediately in the aftermath of a crushing loss to St Kilda in Launceston last Saturday.
"I probably got wound up in the emotion a bit," he 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 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, if we could roll up the sleeves and get straight back into it.
"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.
"They're pretty handy players those two and we think our side is better balanced with them in it.
"We went through 2014 with a horrific run of injury and were able to get the job done.
"So it's not just about personnel, it's the application of the group and at various stages that has been inconsistent this year," Clarkson said.
Share
