A report claims Sam Mitchell wants Clarko gone. If true, the Hawks picked ‘the wrong man’ to coach

Melbourne champion Garry Lyon does not believe Sam Mitchell has expressed a desire for Alastair Clarkson to leave Hawthorn at the end of the year and says that, if he has, the club made the wrong decision in entrusting him with the senior coaching job.

Veteran football journalist Caroline Wilson said on Monday that Mitchell made it clear in a “mediation session” last week that he wanted “clean air” in 2022 without Clarkson by his side, rather than embark on an 18-month handover that runs through until the end of Clarkson’s contract.

It was a report vehemently denied by Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett on Tuesday and one that Lyon, speaking on AFL 360, disputed given the gross departure it would mark for Mitchell a mere week after expressing his support for the handover plans.

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“Sam Mitchell sits alongside him and says ‘Yeah, I’m looking forward to the 18 months’ … a week later we are led to believe according to those reports has made it clear a week after agreeing to this handover that he wanted to be coach, and prefer Clarkson not be there,” Lyon said.

“One week after he sat there and agreed – and Hawthorn had shown this unbelievable faith in him by removing the great coach and saying ‘We trust our club with you in 18 months’, he says ‘What a great honour, what a great thrill, I accept that’ – now we’re being told a week later he’s saying ‘I want him out’.

“I don’t know that to be true – if it is, Sam Mitchell is the wrong man to coach Hawthorn. You cannot sit there and say agree to coach 18 months at Box Hill and coach under the great Clarkson and a week later turn around and say I want him out.”

Lyon said he had spoken to sources close to the situation who indicated that was not the case and that, while sharing a “robust” relationship, club figures expected Clarkson and Mitchell’s 18-month partnership to be “enduring”.

“I want to be fair to Sam – my understanding is he hasn’t said that. That is what I’m being told,” Lyon said.

“If in fact it was then he’s not the man to coach. To go back on an agreement in the space of a week and be belting the table (is poor from Mitchell).

“Clarkson accepts it … all he has said is ‘I will coach Hawthorn next year’ and the stuff we saw on the weekend to me look like an invested coach and someone who was enjoying the process of immersing himself in the young group trying to get them going, took on Melbourne and unravelled Melbourne to a large degree, nearly got the result and we’re told that Sam Mitchell’s banging the table saying I want him out.

“I can’t have it and if it is true then, Sam, you can’t be changing your tune in a week.”

For Lyon, a media conference from Mitchell addressing the report would be ideal, both for the club’s stability and the image the current report paints of Mitchell’s impatience.

“If Sam came out tomorrow and said ‘Can I just be very clear on this, the opportunity for me to spend 18 more months with this man is going to be invaluable. I know Hawthorn have made a show of faith in me, I will use that time, I will suck every little bit out of this and then Clarko goes and then I’ll be in the hot seat myself, move on’, is that not a plausible and feasible concept?”, Lyon asked.

“Those comments that were made last night, I don’t know if they’re true or not, it would stagger me if they were, so that is why I want to hear from Sam.