Clarkson sees upside in Hawks’ injury toll

Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson feels Essendon are a blueprint for turning crisis into opportunity and sees similarities at his own AFL club.

The Hawks have had a shocking injury run this season, which has contributed to the strong likelihood they will miss the finals for the first time in eight years.

Even heading into Friday night’s MCG clash with Sydney they have Josh Gibson, Jaeger O’Meara, Cyril Rioli and Paul Puopolo among a long list of casualties.

But Clarkson said the short-term pain would lead to long-term gain.

“It’s an opportunity for some of our younger players to get some game time,” he said.

“You only need to look at Essendon over the last two years – they’ve been able to play some younger players because of so many of their club being on suspension and look what impact some of those young players have had.”

Clarkson mentioned youngsters such as small forward Orazio Fantasia, Zach Merrett and exciting forward Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti, who have become “A-grade” players.

“If all their suspended players are playing in the last two years, they’re probably still playing reserve grade footy,” Clarkson said.

“So opportunity is created when you have a crisis sometimes and we’ve had a bit of crisis with injury and illness and that’s made it a bit tough to get our more experienced players on the park but somewhere down the track that’s going to pay off.”

The four-time premiership coach said history had proven Hawthorn were never down for long.

“Our club has a history of winning a flag, falling a way a bit and finding a way to win it again and we’ve done that better than any club in the competition over the last 50 years,” he said.

“We’re in that phase now and it’s got nothing to do with rebuilding, it’s a slight recalibration.”

Supercoach Kevin Sheedy said he wasn’t surprised to see the Hawks regenerating so quickly under Clarkson.

“The gritty little tagger at Hawthorn – he’s good, he’s like a battery,” Sheedy said.

“I reckon he’s been watching those Mark Jackson ads. They give him another battery and away he goes again.”

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