ALASTAIR Clarkson has reflected on Hawthorn's difficult season, tipping his club to emerge from its slide down the ladder as a flag contender quicker than most rivals.
The four-time premiership coach appeared as pleased as he has been all year after his side beat Collingwood by 24 points on Sunday to register consecutive wins for just the second time in 2017.
The Hawks, premiers between 2013 and 2015, improved to a 6-8 win-loss record – after starting 1-5 – leaving them two games and significant percentage off eighth-placed St Kilda.
Second-year defender Ryan Burton continues to be a beacon of hope with his stellar play as a 20-year-old, while Blake Hardwick, James Sicily, Kaiden Brand and Tim O'Brien again showed promise.
Five talking points: Hawthorn v Collingwood
"We're trying to build a group of players who are going to hopefully challenge seriously for our next piece of silverware, and we think that's highly unlikely to be this year," Clarkson said.
"But we're giving some guys some opportunities and they're enjoying those opportunities and they're acquitting themselves really well.
"Where does it take us for this year? I have no idea. All I do know is we're going to continue to invest in these players and teach them the way we need them to play to give us a chance.
"We're going to have some hiccups along the way, (but) our last two weeks have been really good."
WATCH Alastair Clarkson's foll post-match press conference
This was a win for Clarkson's canny coaching, which has as much to do with what goes on off-field as on it.
Two players who contributed to Sunday's cause, Taylor Duryea and Ryan Schoenmakers, are premiership players under Clarkson, but spent many weeks in the VFL this year.
Duryea returned to his days as a forward and kicked two goals in a shutdown role on Magpies interceptor Jeremy Howe, while Schoenmakers – also in attack – kicked two of his own in the opening term.
"It's hard for those players, because they've been really important players for us over the journey," Clarkson said.
"We made a conscious decision over the summer that we needed to give some opportunities to our next wave of players coming through.
"They've been really patient and tolerant while we've been in that real high-performance mode in the last four or five years and some of those younger players needed to get the priority.
"Both those lads handled their time at Box Hill with real class, knowing full well that at some point in time they were going to come back into the side and continue to acquit themselves like they have in past years."
Clarkson said he foresaw his club's tumble as far back as 2015, the last year of the club's three-peat, but owed it to the players and supporters to hunt a historic fourth-straight premiership.
"In doing so, we've probably set ourselves back in terms of our next opportunity for silverware a little bit, but gee, I couldn't explain it to our players nor our supporters (if we didn't try)," he said.
"We fell short, because I just thought, ultimately, we weren't quite good enough. There were some sides that were better than us last year and there are some sides that are better than us this year.
"That's why it's highly unlikely we're going to significantly challenge in the last part of the year, but … our supporters would be delighted with some of the young players coming in and (we are) giving them hope that the next wave of success for our footy club isn't far away."
