In the second instalment of our exclusive three-part series, Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson tells of his long-term plans for the side’s forward structure now that Mark Williams is injury-free, and considering the recruitment of Port Adelaide star Stuart Dew. Clarkson also tells of the reasons behind the resurgence of Shane Crawford as a vital player, even though he’s entering his 16th season.
What were some of the major things you learned when you carried out your review of the 2007 season?
We probably focused a fair bit on some of the internal measurements that we put in place in terms of the recruiting of players; how much game time they got; how much body weight they put on. A lot of our thinking has been geared toward giving as many players as we can exposure to the level, so they were the main things we’ve been focusing on in our review and we’ve been really pleased.
This group of players has got a real appetite for success. They want to be part of something special and create their own piece of history for the football club. We couldn’t be more pleased with how they’ve gone about it, but we’re all wanting it to happen quickly and it doesn’t always happen as quick as you’d like it.
The return of Mark Williams from long-term injury and the recruiting of Stuart Dew gives you a couple of new weapons up forward. Are you likely to stick with the four-pronged attack you implemented last season?
We’ve got so much more flexibility now. Mark Williams will come back into the mix, Stuey Dew, Cyril Rioli and Michael Osborne and also young Cameron Stokes; they’re all guys who can have an impact in our forward structure.
But what has evolved over the past five or six years is a change in the way that forward lines structure up, a change in the reliance on one particular forward to kick the bulk of your goals and that’s what we’ve been working towards the most; sharing the workload.
Despite the fact that Buddy kicked 70 goals last year, what we were pleased with was that Roughead kicked 40, Ben Dixon kicked nearly 30, Hodgey kicked mid-20s, so there was a real sharing of the load through our forward structure. Mark Williams is a proven goal-kicker, Tim Boyle kicked 35 goals last year and so that sharing of the workload through those guys is, to me, the blueprint for finals success.
For various reasons, either because players are young in their development or through injury to Mark or whatever, we haven’t had a full complement of players to see that materialise as well as we’d like thus far. But hopefully in the next three to four years that forward line will evolve to be one of the most potent in the competition.
Given that sharing of the workload up forward you’re aiming for; did it make you cringe when it was dubbed ‘Buddy’s Box’?
Well, that’s a media term, it’s certainly not something that’s ever spoken about within our club because it’s all about sharing the workload between several players. Sometimes it’s three, sometimes it’s four, sometimes it’s six players who work through that area of the ground. We’re probably more pleased, if we’ve kicked 15 or 16 goals in a game, we’re a lot happier if five or six guys have kicked the goals rather than one or two.
I think there was a game last year when Geelong defeated Richmond by a pretty significant margin, they kicked more than 30 goals I think the Cats, but no one player kicked more than five. I reckon that sort of sharing of the workload makes it so much more difficult for opposition teams to try to pick off your forwards. If you’ve just got one that you rely on, they’ll just load up numbers against that player and make it very difficult for you to find your avenue to goal. If there’s multiple options down there it’s very difficult to try to quell.
I think we’re seeing that with midfields now, too. It used to be that you’d have two or three key midfielders and they’d just play in that position on the ground all the time, but the demands of the game have probably driven that you need to rotate guys through there more.
Just going back to Buddy for a second; are you confident now that he’s at a point where he can handle the adulation that will get thrown his way?
It’s taken him two or three years to get used to what’s required at the level, the demands of it, the focus of it. But the great beauty of Buddy is that he’s one of our best trainers because he just loves to get out there and kick the footy. That’s the beauty of him; he’s just a kid who loves the game and just wants to play. He doesn’t care too much for all the media adulation and the attention that he gets, he sort of just takes it all in his stride.
Speaking of brilliant trainers, Crawf (Shane Crawford) looks to be in superb nick entering his 16th AFL season.
Yeah, he is in good nick, but he’s always been like that, he’s always had a great appetite for preparing himself really well and that’s why he’s been such a successful player for our club, especially in the past 12 months.
I think in the first two years [I was here], despite him knowing what process we were going to go through and the strategy we had in terms of putting us on a path to deliver our next flag, he wasn’t certain how quickly that was going to happen. But last year, he thought, ‘Gee, if we have a little bit of luck going through finals anything can happen’.
So I think it’s been a real kick-along for him over the last 12 months, in particular, seeing the emergence of some of these young guys that he thought might take a little bit longer than what they did.
What sort of role do you see him playing this year?
His greatest strength is his running so it’ll be around the midfield somewhere, but we’re also mindful that we don’t want to wear him out. We want to share the workload so, at different stages, he’ll play across half-back and at different stages play as a half-forward, too; we’ll just see how that pans out. We’ve got a lot more flexibility and depth now, particularly if Ellis and Tuck and some of these lads can get going throughout the course of the year.
