ALASTAIR Clarkson remains comfortable with his contract situation despite Adelaide now being in the market for a new coach.

Clarkson, a premiership coach who fits the preferred criteria of the Crows, will not enter contract negotiations with the club until the end of the current premiership campaign.

However, he has already been linked to the South Australian club in the media following the departure of Neil Craig.

When asked on Friday if he still wanted to remain at the Hawks next year, Clarkson branded the query "a silly question", and appealed for he and fellow out-of-contract coaches like Rodney Eade and Brett Ratten to be left to concentrate on the task at hand.

"It's just a bit of a media circus for everyone else out there. We've got jobs to do and that's what we want to do," Clarkson said from Melbourne airport shortly before boarding a plane to Perth for Saturday's clash against Fremantle.
 
"We know the process that we're going through at Hawthorn and we're all very comfortable with that.

"I was the one who actually initiated that last November, so I've got more comfortable about it than even the club has, but we'll deal with that as time goes on.

"I'm very happy with the way that we're tracking through the season, we've got a very exciting period ahead, and we just want to make sure that we keep all that in perspective and the coaching stuff will work itself out in due course."

Clarkson's coaching stocks have risen as the season has progressed, having guided the Hawks into third place on the ladder heading into round 19 despite a heavy injury toll, which has seen important defenders Ben Stratton and Stephen Gilham miss most of the campaign.

Although reluctant to buy into the discussion about the coaching position at Adelaide in terms of how it affects his own future, Clarkson did praise the Crows and Craig for the "class and dignity" with which all parties handled the delicate situation.

He went on to back caretaker coach Mark Bickley to continue in the role beyond his six-game game audition.

"I think what's important now is that we certainly allow Mark Bickley to get into his role," he said.

"The history of guys who come in and fill in for six or seven weeks is pretty good in terms of those guys going on and [getting] the job.

"We can talk around in circles and get a different comment or a different angle on it, but I think we've said enough about what we want to do. We want to play Fremantle this week and get the job done.

"All this stuff about coaching … I think it's disrespectful to Mark Bickley and the Adelaide Crows.

"I think everyone should just let it be a little bit and let Adelaide do what they need to do and let the coaches who have contracts at their current clubs do what they need to do, which is win games of footy and focus on the now and not what's going to happen in the future."