ALASTAIR Clarkson says commentators who suggested he could have a profound influence on Hawthorn's qualifying final against Richmond are "sheep", arguing that successful teams are built on sound systems rather than brilliant matchday moves.
Clarkson has established himself as one of the League's coaching greats in a 14-season career at Hawthorn that has produced four premierships.
His standing as his generation's undisputed best coach prompted some commentators to suggest he could dream up some left-field tactics to catch the Tigers and his former assistant Damien Hardwick off-guard.
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But after watching his team go down by 31 points at the MCG on Thursday night, Clarkson said such commentary was naïve.
"I don't mean to be too unflattering, but you guys were like a bunch of sheep. Someone (who) brings up the fact that Clarkson is going to tactically have an impact on this game hasn't watched the way I coach for 14 years," Clarkson said.
"We're a system-based coaching side and that's why Richmond are so strong at the moment; they're system based. Every side that has won premierships, they're system-based, none of it is tactics.
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"You'll occasionally win a game of footy with something spectacular, but not usually in finals. And all of the successful coaches over the journey have all had a really, really strong system.
"Everyone knows what it is, (but it's) bloody hard to break it down and that's Richmond right now. And we were unable to break it down."
The Hawks were just 14 points down at half-time on Thursday night and could have been closer but for several blown opportunities, including missed set shots from point-blank range from usual dead-eyes Shaun Burgoyne and Luke Breust.
WATCH Alastair Clarkson's full post-match press conference
But Clarkson did not hide from the fact that Richmond, in recording its third consecutive win over the Hawks, had again underlined the gap between the two teams, saying his side did not appear to have bridged that gap since their most recent defeat in round three.
However, the Hawks coach said his team would quickly lick its wounds and then get ready for a cut-throat semi-final against the winner of Friday night's Melbourne-Geelong elimination final.
"We know where we're at as a footy club. We think we've worked really hard, got ourselves a top-four position. We give ourselves some exposure to a couple of finals and hopefully some more," he said.
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"I've gone on record quite regularly saying we're going to need a hell of a lot of things to go right for us to be able to win it this year, but we're in there fighting hard.
"We just didn't handle the conditions anywhere near as well as a more polished and experienced unit did tonight in Richmond.
"We'll learn a lot from it and hopefully get ourselves better, whether that's in the space of one week for our opponent next week or in the space of the next 12 months on where we need to go as a footy club."
