The club’s match against Collingwood at the MCG is expected to draw upwards of 70,000 fans; an environment the Hawks must master according to the coach.
“The MCG with a big crowd; last time we played in that type of game was in the Kangaroos’ final last year and we didn’t perform anywhere near our best,” Clarkson said before a training session at Waverley on Friday.
“It is a wonderful challenge for this group of players to try and see how they go in high pressure football with the big buzz of the big crowd.
“Collingwood obviously get an advantage in that area and it’s our goal as a footy club to try and generate enough membership and support and interest in the way we play to generate those types of crowds ourselves. Hopefully this is just the start of a roll of big games for our club.
“Every game’s tough but we know it’s always a fierce contest against a Collingwood side that are pretty keen to keep their win-loss [record] in the positive; it will be a pretty fierce contest tomorrow.”
After six wins from six starts, Clarkson’s game plan has attracted greater scrutiny than it has in past.
His rolling zone was lauded as ‘revolutionary’ by colleague Terry Wallace and has been explored in great detail by some areas of the media. But Clarkson scoffed at suggestions his side was doing anything ground breaking.
“It’s a little bit mythical to be honest,” he said.
“We’ve been, along with a lot of clubs, employing zones ever since Robert Walls instigated the huddle back in the early eighties.
“Teams have been working with zones from kick-ins to try and stop oppositions from sweeping the ball down the ground on a regular basis. We’ve done it reasonably effectively to date ... Sometimes that’s been successful against some oppositions and other times it hasn’t.
“It’s a great feature of Collingwood’s play; with their kick-ins sometimes they are man-on-man and sometimes they’re in a zone, and you’re not really sure what they’re going to be doing.”
A reported AFL investigation into whether Hawks’ leaders Sam Mitchell and Luke Hodge have been employing illegal ‘corking’ tactics has come to nothing and Clarkson was keen to put a full stop to the issue.
“That’s dead and buried from our point of view,” he said.
“We’ve got fierce competitors and that’s the way we like our players to approach the game, and there has been no official complaint so there’s no issue from our point of view.”
Clarkson applauded veteran recruit Stuart Dew’s application during his recovery from a hamstring tear suffered in round two, but the coach admitted he was loathe to tinker with a winning combination after the Port Adelaide premiership player was named on the emergency list.
“When your side’s performing well and there’s good stability and understanding of the way one another plays, you don’t want to make too many changes,” he said.
“He’s an experienced player and he’s been waiting for his opportunity again with a fair amount of interest and he’ll be ready to go for us in the next couple of weeks. He’s going to be a real important player for us in the back half of the season if we can keep him on the park.”
