SEN’s Gerard Whateley has revealed Alastair Clarkson’s response to reports that had him seeking an eye-watering contract value to coach again.
7 News’ Tom Browne reported during the week that Clarkson had placed a fee of up to $1.6 million on his head to coach next year, which would take up a huge chunk of the 2023 soft cap of $6,950,000.
However, Whateley, who spent much of Friday with Clarkson, suggested that wasn’t the case.
“How explicit do you want me to be?” Whateley began on AFL Nation when asked what Clarkson said about the reports.
“(He labelled it) ‘Bulls--t’.
“That was Alastair Clarkson’s reaction to what’s in the public domain about $1.6 million to join North Melbourne.
“He’s had an embryonic discussion with the Giants, he hasn’t had any contact from North Melbourne.
“I think it’s fair to interpret that he resents the assumptions being made about him, and he was really clear that he’s not picking the club, it can’t work like that, he will challenge the club to pick him if it gets to that stage, but he believes in alignment, and he specially mentioned the president and the chief executive, and the club has to believe in him and he has to believe in the club.
“It’s not as simple as a check and a phone call and here you go.”
Whateley also suggested that Clarkson will not necessarily coach again next year, suggesting he could wait for the “right fit”.
“He absolutely pushed back against the idea that he’ll only go to a successful team,” he continued.
“No, he’s totally happy to build success… he has no qualms about building that success, and if it takes years, he’s up to that… but only if the circumstances are right.
“He loves the works he’s doing at Tasmania and could easily see that through. He said he had a couple of other projects, including one in education, that he’s passionate about, so he’ll only come, back to coaching next year if he finds the right fit from him to the club and the club to him.
“Otherwise he’ll wait and he’ll busy himself with some of the projects he’s got on the go.”
Whateley and Clarkson hosted a function on Friday afternoon, with the four-time premiership coach revealing his learnings from recent overseas trips.
“It was interesting, I did a function with Alastair Clarkson today at Melbourne United, it was about building a championship culture,” Whateley said.
“He’s just back from Europe, he was at the British Open and then he spent some time with Ange Postecoglou at Celtic to add to the four months he had around the Golden State Warriors.
“He’s such a philosopher around sport and life and what he observed in the States and he condensed it to money and greed breaks down culture, and that’s what he sees in the States and that’s what he fears might come here.”
Clarkson made way for Sam Mitchell at Hawthorn at the conclusion of the 2021 season after four premierships with Hawthorn.