Hawthorn great Shane Crawford admits he initially thought the appointment of Alastair Clarkson as senior coach was a “disaster”.
Clarkson replaced Peter Schwab at the end of the 2004 season after the Hawks won just four games to finish 15th on the ladder.
“I thought disaster to be honest. I thought this is not good for a couple of reasons,” Crawford told SEN’s The Sporting Capital.
“I used to punch on with him whenever I played against him and then secondly I’m like, ‘What? We didn’t go with one of those Hawthorn greats to take over’.
“Obviously at that time we weren’t a very good team, we fell in a massive hole. By the end of 2004 we had a lot of injuries to players and we were virtually chucking out a Box Hill side at times.”
Crawford, who was weighing up his future at Glenferrie Oval at the time, had to be convinced by Clarkson to stay at Hawthorn.
The 1999 Brownlow Medallist opened up on his first meeting with Clarkson and the discussions that took place over brutal list management calls and his role within the team moving forward.
“It wasn’t a happy place especially for myself sort of thinking, ‘I love this place, but I don’t think I can finish my career here. I think I need to clear my head and go somewhere else’, so there was a lot of uncertainty,” Crawford said.
“Obviously ‘Clarko’ comes in and my very first meeting was an interesting meeting, because I was very uncertain about where I wanted to go, and I just didn’t think Hawthorn was that club anymore.
“I sat down with him at Glenferrie Oval … and he said, ‘Listen, I want you to stay around, I’m going to play all these kids, we’re going to draft all these kids and I’m going to play them, and they’re not going to be ready to go. I’d like you to try and help me teach them how to train hard and get them in the right space to hopefully go on and have a career’.
“And then he followed up with, ‘By the way, your good mates who have been very loyal to this footy club and had a crack - I’m going to sack them’. And then on top of that, ‘We’re not going to win many games. We’re going to try, but we’ve got to be realistic about it’.
“I’m like, ‘Do I flip this desk over and start swinging and try and punch him in the head?’ That was literally what was going through my head. I didn’t know what to do.
“I left that meeting and I took a few days to calm down, get my head together and try and work out whether or not I could hang around.
“That’s how it all started with Clarko.”
Crawford won a premiership in his 305th and final game for Hawthorn in the 2008 Grand Final under Clarkson.
Clarkson, a four-time Hawthorn premiership coach, will depart the club after Saturday's game against Richmond.