After watching his team slump to its fifth straight loss - this time against Essendon - Clarkson admitted the 2008 premiers were lacking hunger and the current opposition simply had more desire.
Like last season, early injuries have again derailed the Hawks' campaign, but the coach wasn’t using that as an excuse.
Instead, he says he is likely to wield the axe as he tries to find a winning formula for his team that has slipped to 1-5 after six rounds.
“We’ll sit down over the course of the week and try to work out the best side that we can put on the park to travel to Perth to play West Coast next week,” Clarkson said after Saturday night’s 43-point loss to the Bombers.
“But we’d be naïve if we think we’re going to run out with the same 22 and expect that it’s all just going to turn around.
“We’re going to have to rattle the cage a little bit and try to find a group of guys that will have the confidence in one another to execute the game plan.
“We know when we’re confident in one another we can do it particularly well but we just can’t get it on a consistent enough basis at the present time.”
Clarkson knows he has ample talent in his squad, but says early-season losses have crippled confidence levels.
That, in turn, may have affected his team’s appetite for the contest.
“The bulk of this side have performed outstandingly well for our football club in times past but that confidence in one another and in their own form isn’t there at the present time and it’s our job as coaches to try and identify that,” he said.
“We need to find guys that have got a greater hunger and desire to play and we might need to make some changes to the side.
“We’ve got to explore ways in which we can try to get our mojo back, because it’s not there at the current time.”
The coach knew it wasn’t there during Saturday night’s loss, the latest in what he labelled a disappointing three weeks.
The Bombers smashed the Hawks at the clearances, winning that battle 41-19.
“We were out-tackled tonight, out-muscled and they had a much greater determination and desire to put their body on the line to win some real tough balls,” he said.
“We were second to the footy and 40-something clearances to less than 20 tells you a fair story about who wanted the footy more tonight, and it wasn’t the brown and gold side unfortunately for us.”
