Hawthorn CEO Justin Reeves admits the club’s relationship with four-time premiership coach Alastair Clarkson isn’t as strong as he’d like.
Clarkson coached Hawthorn from 2005 to 2021, where he led the club to flags in 2008, 2013, 2014 and 2015 before it was decided that club great Sam Mitchell would take the reins in 2022.
Since his departure, Clarkson has taken over at North Melbourne where he currently coaches, as well as being embroiled in an ongoing historical racism review that came about during his time at the Hawks.
While Reeves hopes Clarkson one day returns to Hawthorn, he admits that the relationship isn’t strong with the 55-year-old at Arden Street.
“Alastair Clarkson will be, and is great of the Hawthorn Football Club,” Reeves told SEN Sportsday.
“I think when the time is right, like all previous coaches, I would like to think that the relationship would be strong.
“At the moment he's the coach of the opposition team, so it's hard to sort of have that strong relationship, which is probably not uncommon.
“I think all of our previous premiership coaches have gone on to coach at other clubs, and all in turn have come back to the club in some shape or form in the future.
“I would hope that that would be the case (with Alastair), but at the moment, I'm sure he is 100 per cent focused on North Melbourne and we’re 100 per cent focused on our side.”
While Clarkson left the Hawks in 2021, he was originally billed to leave at the end of 2022 until he opted to quit the club, with Reeves admitting their partnership didn’t end how they would have hoped.
Kane Cornes asked Reeves if there was any lingering volatility between the club and Clarkson.
“There's no doubt about it that the relationship didn't finish the way everyone would have hoped that it would have,” Reeves replied.
“I tend not to think about those things personally.
“There is a (10-year) premiership union, as you said, later this year.
“I would hope Alastair would be a central part of that and I hope he will be part of it.
“But I don't really think about that from a personal perspective.”
Hawthorn took the points in their first meeting against Clarkson’s North Melbourne side, winning 80-61 during Round 3 in Launceston.