Clarkson to receive 900000 payout as he and Hawthorn part ways

Alastair Clarkson will coach out the season at Hawthorn, despite a tumultuous day that has seen the club agree to a full payout of his contract.

High-level sources have told The Age that Clarkson will be paid approximately $900,000 for the year left on his contract in 2022. Sources said he will be paid over the course of two years to reduce stress on the club’s football department soft cap.

Alastair Clarkson is contracted to coach Hawthorn in 2022. Credit:Getty

If Clarkson is given a senior coaching role at another club - like Collingwood or Carlton - Hawthorn would only need to pay him the difference in wages.

The Age can also reveal that Hawthorn has agreed to terms with Sam Mitchell to be the senior coach from 2022.

The decision for the club to part ways with Clarkson was reached on Thursday after a meeting between the Hawthorn board and Clarkson’s management in which the two parties agreed that the coach would receive a full payout.

The arranged marriage between Clarkson and Sam Mitchell was further eroded earlier this week when a group of senior players confided to club bosses that the situation was proving untenable.

This meeting is understood to have taken place on Wednesday and involved the senior leadership group, club boss Justin Reeves, and football director Richie Vandenberg.

Vandenberg and Clarkson are understood to have spoken following that meeting and the two parties agreed that Clarkson would finish his illustrious tenure at the end of the season.

Clarkson’s management met Reeves and Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett on Thursday where the coach’s payout was negotiated.

Hawthorn’s board then ratified the decision on Thursday evening and the club had planned to hold the announcement until Monday.

Club sources have told The Age that players had become anxious in regards to the coaching handover in the past two weeks and that it had an impact on their performance against Adelaide, a game they lost by 19 points.

The leadership group told senior staff that the situation was impacting on the players.

Clarkson was due to be paid between $950,000 and $1 million in 2022, as a result of the pay cut he accepted from his contracted figure of about $1.2 million.

Hawthorn have asked the AFL about the rules for spreading a termination payment out over multiple years, perhaps three seasons. The club is taking into account the impact upon their soft cap, since a full payout of nearly a million dollars would pose difficulties.

In considering feedback from senior players - who had concerns about the transition - the Hawks were mindful that Clarkson and Mitchell wanted different game styles and that this would make next year’s transition period harder to manage.

Sources said Clarkson had become more agitated within the club since the handover to Mitchell was ratified and that there were concerns about how he and the Hawks would go forward together in this circumstance.

Clarkson’s potential availability - and it is unclear whether he will want to coach elsewhere next year - places significant further pressure on David Teague at Carlton, and will also be a topic of conversation at Collingwood, which had been told by Clarkson’s management recently that he intended to honour his contract with the Hawks and was thus not available. But, obviously, that position has changed.

Clarkson’s contract also included a two-year agreement, as The Age reported, to work as an innovative manager and ambassador, in 2023 and 2024. He was to be paid close to $250,000 over those two seasons, which would place the money outside the soft cap.

But it is unclear what, if any, ramifications that part of the deal will play in the expected termination payment.

Clarkson was due to hold his regular Friday morning media conference at 10.30. The club sent a note to media outlets just after 10.30 stating that the media conference had been postponed.

Word began to filter through to players while they were training.

The club is expected to make an announcement on Friday.

Sam McClure is a sport reporter for The Age and winner of 'best news reporter' at the AFL Media Association awards.

Caroline Wilson is a Walkley award-winning columnist and former chief football writer for The Age.

Jake Niall is a Walkley award-winning sports journalist and chief AFL writer for The Age.

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