As well as pocketing the four premiership points, the Hawks managed to get through the match unscathed by injury - an unusual event given their poor recent run.
"It's been a little bit foreign to us," Clarkson said of having no injury concerns following the win. "We've come out of games the last couple of months a bit sore and sorry."
Clarkson praised the Lions for their effort across four quarters but suggested the Hawks may have taken their foot off the pedal a couple of times during the middle stages of the contest.
"We knew it was going to be a tough battle," he said. "We had a really good start to the game but we just let them back in. It made it a lot tighter contest."
The Hawks entered the match with spearhead Lance Franklin under an injury cloud, with the big forward carrying a sore ankle onto the training track following last weekend's loss to Collingwood.
But Clarkson said Franklin was always going to play.
"He's (Franklin) such an optimistic character and he thought he was going to be right from early in the week," Clarkson said.
"He had a really good first quarter and that got him into the game and helped us get away to a flying start.
"We just lost our way a little bit through the middle of the game and it was really pleasing that we finished hard at the end."
The other player to earn particular praise from Clarkson was versatile defender Josh Gibson, who was impressive early in harnessing Lions skipper Jonathan Brown.
"(Gibson) battled really well for us and repelled a lot of Brisbane attack," he said. "We thought that for Brisbane to win the game Brown had to have a five- or six-goal game and for Gibbo to restrict him in that regard was really pleasing for us."
