Let us now praise Alastair Clarkson and Adam Simpson.
Let us start with Clarkson. Football, like every sport, has its what-ifs, its sliding doors if you will. After a 43-point loss to the Essendon in round six back in 2010, a fuming Jeff Kennett tramped into the Hawthorn rooms to berate his coaches.
As detailed in the late Michael Gordon’s Playing to Win, Kennett drew a rough, upside-down pyramid on the whiteboard in the pre-match briefing room, listing the coach, CEO and himself at the bottom.
“It’s not about the president and it’s not about the board and it’s not about the coaches or even the players,” Kennett roared, before pointing to the top of the inverse pyramid. “We’re here for these people!”
When the dressing-down was done, Clarkson was asked if what Kennett had drawn on the whiteboard was a box. “I think it was a coffin,” was the reply.
What if Kennett had sacked Clarkson in 2010? Or in April last year, when one of Australia’s most excitable drummer boys for the scorched earth policy called for a complete rebuild?
More than once has Kennett questioned Clarkson’s capacity to coach the Hawks, but through it all, Clarkson has been profoundly unflappable and quiet in the way those you want to have beside you if a brawl starts going down are quiet. It’s almost as if he and Kennett were on a see-saw, the ballast of the President’s barbs lifting Clarkson to more success.
And so it was late last week, when much of the country’s political journalists were luxuriating in the lurid details of another leadership spill in Canberra, as Kennett took the opportunity to stoke the flames of an altogether different rivalry when speaking about former Hawk Lance Franklin on Nova.
“I’ve known Lance for many, many years, he’s a great guy and he’s grown tremendously over the years, but he’s never played well against Hawthorn,” said Kennett. “He’s never played well.”
For Clarkson, Kennet’s timing was again less than ideal coming just days before Hawthorn and Sydney played each other for a spot in the top four. “It was just a little bit like our footy club, the gold is pretty good but the brown is a little bit dark sometimes,” Clarkson said. “I think it’s all part of the intrigue of the game. I don’t think he [Franklin] needs any motivation to play against the Hawks.”
As it turned out, it wasn’t a concern as Franklin was a late withdrawal with a groin injury, which isn’t to say that Clarkson didn’t have anything to worry about. Sydney had the run of play for the first half, and early in the last quarter led by two goals. But the Hawks kicked the last three goals of the game to secure the double chance for the seventh time in eight years and will play Richmond in a final for the first time since, well… ever.
Clarkson now finds himself in charge of a team that is composed and precise, with terrific players across every line. But when asked to explain Hawthorn’s greatest strength, former premiership player and Fox Footy analysit David King said: “It’s not Isaac Smith, Jaeger O’Meara or even Luke Breust. It is sheer tactical brilliance.”
Hawthorn’s current five-year strategic plan that takes in 2018-2022 is titled “Dare to Be Different”, but for the Hawks, it’s largely same as it ever was. While the fortunes of most football teams are cyclical, the evidence indicates that last year may simply have been a caesura in another successful Hawthorn era.
As for the top of Kennett’s inverted pyramid-slash-coffin: show me a fan of the Hawthorn Football Club and I’d grant that I was looking at someone who enjoys football with the pure delight of a child.
And now of Adam Simpson, and the delight of coaching the Eagles to second spot on the ladder (and two home finals) despite losing Nic Naitanui to a knee reconstruction, Josh Kennedy to a shin injury and Andrew Gaff to a moment of madness.
“We started the year really well, went through a bit of adversity in the back half – obviously losing some games and losing Nic [Naitanui], and then the whole Gaff incident was difficult,” said Simpson who was a senior assistant to Clarkson at Hawthorn. “There seems to be a really good spirit amongst the club, and the players are driving that.”
Certainly, the players have performed above anyone’s expectations. There were no footballing Cassandras over summer saying beware the Eagles, despite their sixth-place finish in 2017.
Like Clarkson, there is something blunt about Simpson that tells you not to touch anything without his permission, particularly the character of his team. This was evidenced when broadcaster Basil Zempilas asked him if the Eagles had an “arrogance issue” and if his players were able to “do what they want to do” in the wake of the Andrew Gaff incident.
“I think you’re getting caught up in the media storm mate, so I think we’ll leave it at that,” said Simpson.
The prevailing take-no-shit style of Simpson befits one of the more no-nonsense teams in the AFL, led by the 100-gamer Jeremy McGovern who on Sunday afternoon took his 77th intercept mark of the season, breaking the AFL record. Up front, the Eagles are no less arresting, with Jack Darling kicking four goals on Sunday, the exciting Liam Ryan three and Simpson all but confirming that full-forward Kennedy will be available for the qualifying final against Collingwood.
Oh, and then there’s Nathan Buckley…
