Hawthorn great Jordan Lewis questions if Alastair Clarkson is the man to rebuild club

Four-time premiership hero Jordan Lewis has questioned whether Alistair Clarkson has the energy to rebuild an ageing Hawthorn list.

The oldest list in the competition sits in the middle of the pack of the AFL ladder and seem to need some rejuvenating after years of neglecting the draft in a successful chase of premierships.

Lewis believes the club needs to get young talent in the door and go back to the draft in similar fashion to what they did in the early 2000's.

But Lewis has raised some doubts over whether Clarkson is the man for the rebuild.

“I think (Clarkson) said on the weekend he’s realistic on where the club is at. No doubt he’s the best coach in the league, but whether you want to go back down that rebuilding phase, because it’s not quick, it’s a three-to-five-year process,” Lewis told SEN Breakfast.

“So whether he has that energy in him or whether it’s a Sam Mitchell who’s just sitting in waiting who has that energy and the smarts and the football IQ to take over the reigns and take that club forward through the transition period.

“As we saw on the weekend, their backline has no creative players apart from James Sicily and Hawthorn for a long period of time has relied on not necessarily winning stoppages or contested ball, but having that advantage down in their back six and being able to transition the ball really smartly and creatively and they just don’t have those players.”

When asked whether he was believed the Hawks should transition to Sam Mitchell as coach in the next 12 months, Lewis said Clarkson has earned the right to decide his own future.

“I think you’ve got to look over your list demographic, you’ve got to look at the inconsistencies of the season and their best players right now are Isaac Smith who’s 31 and I still think he’s got a few years left in him, you can’t keep rolling out the same players,” he said.

“The hardest thing to accept is ‘okay we may not be successful of the next two to three years, but we need to go down a path of getting in youth’.

“That’s the decision I think Alastair Clarkson and the Hawthorn Football Club needs to make because the worst position to be in is to be between 10th and 6th where you’re not really challenging, but you’re not getting high talented draft picks in.

“I’m sure they’re aware of where they’re at and where their list demographic is at and the chart they need to follow, but a rebuild is highly zapping for a coach that’s been around for so long.”

Lewis said the Hawks need to decide whether they can continue to top up their list or hit the draft over the next few years.

“I think they’ve got some serious questions. With the parity in the AFL, it’s hard to buy premierships,” the premiership Hawk said.

“You really do have to look at the past, well certainly the AFL era, the sides that have had long sustaining success have gone through the draft.

“Hawthorn has a decision to make – where do they want to be in five years? They currently sit 13th with the oldest team in the league. You’d rather be 18th with the youngest team and getting experience into these guys and try to build a side off the back of that.

“I don’t necessarily like the term rebuild, but Hawthorn has got a serious question to answer. Do they have to go down that path because what we’re seeing at the moment, it’s inconsistent, but yet there’s no young kids coming through that they can build a side around like a Lance Franklin or a Jarryd Roughead to have that 10-to 15-year period of success.”

Clarkson came out in 2019 and said he will “never walk away” from his commitment to the Hawks.

This came as clubs like Carlton and North Melbourne were on the look for new coaches and he was linked with a move out of Hawthorn.

Clarkson is contracted to the Hawks until the end of 2022.