The Hawks' 11-point victory over Port Adelaide on Sunday propelled them into the top half of the ladder for the first time since round two.
But despite his charges improving their win-loss record to 5-6, after the side was languishing at 1-6 just four weeks ago, Clarkson was not becoming over enthusiastic about September's prospects just yet.
“It’s just probably a message for the whole footy world, not just our footy club, that you’re never out of this game as long as you’re mathematically a chance,” he said.
“But being in the eight at this stage of the season makes no difference. You need to be in the eight at the end of round 22 so we’ve got a lot of work to do.
“We need to play better footy if we want to gives ourselves any chance of even making it, let alone figure prominently deep into September.”
The Hawks will welcome back star forward Lance Franklin from suspension when they travel to Launceston to meet Adelaide next Saturday.
Clarkson said the goalkicker's return will settle team balance after he was forced to push players around the ground against Port to cover the holes.
“We had to use Hodgey up forward for a fair part of today’s game to try and compensate because we didn’t have another tall target”, Clarkson said.
“[Buddy] will obviously come back in … and hopefully we can keep him there for a little while.”
The only problem to come out of the win over the Power was a quadriceps injury suffered by dashing wingman Clinton Young.
While confident the injury was not serious, Clarkson was unsure about Young's prospects of making the trip to Tasmania next week.
“He just got tightened up and soreness at half time,” he said. “We’re unsure whether he’ll be right to play next week or whether he might miss one or two games.
“It’s not a great sign if you can’t come back onto the ground but he didn’t have an event of any significance.
"How it settles down over the next couple of days will determine whether or not he plays again this week.”
