Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson reckons AFL hub life is a young man’s game and he’s racking his brain to figure out how to get the experienced Hawks out of their current form funk.
Clarkson has come under heavy fire during Hawthorns’ four-match losing run, which has left them in 15th place with a 3-5 record.
The losing run has coincided with the club leaving Victoria and Clarkson admits it’s been a struggle.
After playing and losing four matches in NSW, the Hawks are now in Perth, where they’ll lock horns with Carlton at Optus Stadium on Friday night.
Hawthorn have one of the oldest lists in the competition and Clarkson says he needs to figure out how to get them back into form in a foreign environment.
“The last eight games of last year, we won six of those games … including victories against GWS, West Coast, Collingwood, and Geelong,” Clarkson said.
“We thought there was some blue sky. And then we started this season 3-1, including victories over Richmond and Brisbane.
“We left on the road 3-1 and we’re now 3-5.
“Now I’m not complaining about the hub, the players aren’t complaining about it.
“But it’s made it very difficult for us to find our best form and for us to try to turn it around what has been pretty scratchy form.”
Clarkson pointed to West Coast’s struggles during their Gold Coast hub as proof about how tough it is for experienced groups to perform well living away from family.
“In the first instance I thought the experienced playing groups would be really strong,” Clarkson said.
“But it seems to be that this hub environment is better suited to the younger ones.
“We’ve just battled a little bit I think.”
Meanwhile, how star Carlton midfielder Patrick Cripps is treated by the Hawks and the umpires will be a big focus of Friday night’s match.
Cripps was clearly held off the ball several times in last week’s seven-point win over North Melbourne, with the Blues raising the issue with the umpiring department this week.
Carlton coach David Teague played a straight bat to the issue when asked about it on Thursday.
“Look, it’s got a little bit of media attention this week but this is quite common,” Teague said.
“What we love is the way Patrick goes about it. He keeps attacking the ball, he keeps competing for us.
“In terms of the umpiring, I feel like they’re doing their best and it’s very hard to watch every contest at once.”