While much will again be made of the huge improvement of goalsneak Mark Williams - who kicked eight goals against the Dockers after racking up 63 goals in 19 games last year - Clarkson was more thrilled with the return of several key players from injury.
None made a bigger impression than vice-captain Sam Mitchell, who had 35 possessions in the Hawks' 17.7 (109) to 13.9 (87) victory - a result which flattered the Dockers considering they trailed by ten goals halfway through the final term before kicking the last six goals of the game.
Mitchell missed the last seven rounds last year due to a foot injury while on Sunday the Hawks also welcomed back the pacy Chance Bateman (just 12 games last year), key defender Danny Jacobs (15 games in 2005) and ruckman Robert Campbell (just one game in 2005) from injury.
All four played key roles in the win with Campbell a revelation in the ruck, where he not only thrashed Aaron Sandilands but enabled Clarkson to use veteran Peter Everitt sparingly off the bench at the start of a long season.
While Clarkson is not getting carried away with just one win, he said the Hawks - who finished 14th last year with just five wins - would improve significantly if such players remained injury free.
"That's where our improvement will come from, that core group (of players)," he said.
"If we can get those fellas on the park, who knows how far we can go?
"It's only round one and we are not getting ahead of ourselves and we know it will be a tough road but we were quietly optimistic that we could get a win on the board today.
"We had a good list to choose from and we got solid contributions from every player and if we have that every week, we will be around the mark."
Clarkson was thrilled with the performance of Williams saying it came despite pre-season preparations around spreading the Hawks' goal-scoring load more evenly this season.
"You are not going to challenge for a premiership in the years to come if Williams (who stands just 180cm) is the only focal point down there," Clarkson said.
"We had been working on that all summer (more forward options) but you wouldn't have thought so looking at today because he (Williams) has kicked eight, which was a super effort.
"But we had (Jarryd) Roughead up there as well and when we got the ball in quick they (Fremantle) weren't sure if we were going to go in to a fast lead to Williams or high to Roughead but we know if we get it in there and they are two on two they won't be beaten that often."
Clarkson said he expected a lot more people to sit up and take notice of the Hawks following their impressive first-up win but he quickly put things into perspective.
"There are still 21 rounds to go and a lot of teams got rolled last year and played finals," he said.
