HAWTHORN coach Alastair Clarkson insists he'll take his time to make a decision on his future as he prepares to lead the Hawks two more times.

The four-time premiership coach will depart at season's end after the Hawks scrapped their Clarkson-Sam Mitchell succession plan.

Clarkson has previously been linked to the vacant Collingwood head coach role, David Teague's position at Carlton and more recently, Gold Coast, but indicated he would "step away" from football to consider his future.

"I've said all along that it's looking very likely that I'm going to take a breath and explore what the second half of my life looks like," Clarkson said on Friday.

"That might be in or out of footy. I am yet to determine that but I want to use the fullness of time, if I get the opportunity to, to just sit back and consider my wife and family and some close friends what my next chapter might look like.

"But that's going to take some time I think and the best thing I can do is step away from the game for a period of time to do that.

"It may mean it's a step away from the game altogether. All the options are available in terms of what the next phase of my life looks like."

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Clarkson said talk of any offers he'd already received was "best left alone".

Hawthorn faces the Western Bulldogs in Launceston on Saturday in what Clarkson expected would "more than likely" be his last game in Tasmania.

After winning their past two games, the Hawks are keen to take it up to the second-placed Bulldogs, who are coming off an upset loss to Essendon.

That task was made sterner when midfielder James Worpel withdrew from the game through injury on Friday, replaced by Jai Newcombe.

"(Essendon have) shown us a path on how you can beat the Dogs - but only four or five sides have been able to do that for the year," Clarkson said.

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"So we're not pretending it's going to make it any easier for us but it does show us that it is possible.

"We've got a pretty young group, their midfield's very, very powerful and we need to at the very least match them in that area - but be at our very best just to match them in that area.

"If we can then we give ourselves the chance of knocking them off but we know that the challenge is significant and we're going to need to play some of our best footy."