Alistair Clarkson is officially entering the twilight of his coaching career. That is at Hawthorn at least.
Clarkson will hand over the keys to assistant coach and former player Sam Mitchell at the end of 2022. No future role has been identified for Clarkson beyond that point.
The master coach has long been linked with a move to Carlton who are currently conducting an external review of their entire football department including the position of head coach David Teague.
North Melbourne offered Clarkson a monster deal at the end of 2020 but he declined. There also remains a vacancy at Collingwood should Clarko want to take a new head coaching role before 2023.
Clarkson has reiterated that he will be remaining at Hawthorn until his contract expires but we have seen this move before. Mick Malthouse said he'd be a coaching director when succeeded by Nathan Buckley at the end of 2011 before he walked away from the role.
With that in mind we take a look at some of the best possible landing spots for the four-time premiership coach.
2. Gold Coast
Could the AFL ask a favour? Would they dare meddle? The Suns are developing but doing so slower than expected and probably slower than the AFL would like.
Could Clarkson head North and lend a hand another one of his past premiership players in Stuart Dew? It would probably take an AFL nudge but Clarkson could be the tonic many of the young Gold Coast kids need to take the next step.
He would be well suited to taking up a coaching director role and giving guidance to Dew and given he has family commitments in Melbourne he could do the role part-time. Paul Roos currently undertakes a similar role at North Melbourne.
His youngest child will still be in school in 2022 meaning the part-time schedule may be perfect for he and his family should he want to make the move.
Clarkson could help get the Suns flying while enjoying the twilight of his career between the Gold Coast and Melbourne.
