THE "CATASTROPHIC change" Alastair Clarkson referenced after his side's 75-point loss to St Kilda last week was an emotional overreaction, the Hawthorn coach says.
Following the Hawks' third belting through the first six rounds of the season, that time in Tasmania against the Saints, Clarkson said changes would be necessary if his side's poor form continued.
However, he played down that suggestion at Waverley on Saturday.
Hawthorn made two changes to its side this week, with Cyril Rioli and Grant Birchall returning from injury for Will Langford and Kaiden Brand, both of whom were dropped from the team to face Melbourne at the MCG on Sunday afternoon.
"I probably got wound up in the emotion a bit. It was a poor choice of words by me, knowing full well that (it) would be referenced a fair bit throughout the course of the week," Clarkson said.
"Our club has never been about dealing with things in a catastrophic manner. Given the review of the game, (I was) just disappointed right at that point in time that we'd played so poorly.
"I didn't actually say that there was going to be catastrophic change this week … just somewhere down the track.
"It's never been in our manner to deal with things in that way. If we're guilty of anything, it's just backing in our players and that's held us in really good stead over a long, long period of time and that's what we've continued to do this week."
The Hawks were also on the end of consecutive 86-point losses to Gold Coast and Geelong earlier this year.
Clarkson said he would back his players, with some of them having helped deliver the club four flags.
"They're a proud group and they've gone to the coalface for us so many times. We're really disappointed in our performance last week but on reflection, we were outstanding the week before against West Coast," Clarkson said.
Hawthorn posted a 50-point win against the Eagles in round five.
Dropping some of those premiership stars could come eventually, but not yet.
"There comes up a point in time where it's hard to accept but we're not in that space at this point in time, where we throw everything up and change everything just for the sake of it," Clarkson said.
Jonathan O'Rourke, who was the second selection from the 2012 NAB AFL Draft, collected 27 disposals and 10 contested possessions for Box Hill against Williamstown last Sunday while playing as an inside midfielder but wasn't able to force his way back into the side.
O'Rourke was sidelined by a hamstring injury in March.
"He's played the last three games but he's just been a little bit disrupted with various little ailments. Last week he got a knock and had to come off the ground and the week before, believe it or not, he had a crook tooth that hampered his preparation and then performance," Clarkson said.
"He's getting pretty close."
