Hawks keen on Frawley: Clarkson

Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson has signalled the club’s interest in hot prospect James Frawley.

Reluctant to discuss the chances of a third successive brown and gold premiership, Clarkson said he is yet to turn his attention to next season.

But he didn’t mince words when it came to the subject of in-demand Frawley who has played his last game for Melbourne and is a free agent linked to Feelong and Fremantle as well as the Hawks.

“We are interested in James’s services,” Clarkson told reporters in Hobart on Wednesday, adding that coming days will prove crucial in securing the versatile forward.

“There’s a lot of things that have got to occur over the next few days if that was to occur.

“We’re probably a little bit behind the eightball given we’ve had a campaign to concentrate on in terms of trying to win a grand final. We’ll see how that materialises over the next week.”

There could also be changes on the sideline for the Hawks with assistant coach Brendon Bolton reported to be in the sights of Adelaide.

Clarkson on Wednesday paid tribute to Bolton, who stepped in mid-season when illness put the senior coach out of action.

“He did a super job and he helped the club win all five of those games in my absence so that helped us through a part of the year that was pretty scratchy for us,” he said.

Bolton didn’t accompany the team during a brief visit to Hawks’ second home, and also his home state – Tasmania – on Wednesday and instead jetted to Adelaide for talks with the South Australian club, Fairfax reports.

Clarkson is said to have endorsed Bolton’s promotion to the Adelaide role.

The Crows are looking for a replacement after sacking coach Brenton Sanderson in September.

Hawks captain Luke Hodge said Hawthorn has built a reputation for developing coaching staff and wouldn’t be surprised if Bolton was headhunted.

“No doubt there’s going to be interest in him in coming years,” Hodge said.

On a player front the captain indicated there is room for improvement in the 2015 Hawks’ line-up, both within the club and from new recruits.

“That’s where you get exciting new guys coming into your football club and seeing what they can do for us,” he said of the code’s enforced player rotation.

The league’s structure also makes Hawthorn’s back-to-back premierships an even greater effort, Hodge added.

“In this day and age it’s not made to happen with all the AFL equalisation side of things, you’re not supposed to win two in a row.”

With a couple of months of down time until training resumes in December Hodge said the Hawks plan to bask in their premiership glory.

But 2015 is already calling.

“Half of our list didn’t play so they’re already thinking about next season … and we know that every other club is already looking at next year.”

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