Alastair Clarkson was in Sydney on Monday, only it wasn’t to woo AFL free agent Stephen Coniglio.
While Clarkson says he has spoken to the GWS midfield ace about his future beyond this season, the Hawthorn coach says the trip north was on a different recruiting mission.
Clarkson says the action is feverish as clubs aim to bolster their football department staff, with the Hawks set to lose another person to Carlton.
“The significant thing for clubs right at this present time is not the movement of players, it’s the movement of staff,” Clarkson told AFL360.
“Poaching of staff is significant – half of Richmond is at Essendon and half of Hawthorn is at Carlton.
“We’re feverishly searching everywhere, including on a six-day break, interviewing and speaking to people about filling roles.”
Clarkson said he also had no problems with waiting until the Giants’ season is over for Coniglio to announce his intentions.
The Hawks and Carlton are waiting to pounce if the midfield ace decides to leave GWS.
“I’ve spoken to him, yeah, but not as much as Graham Wright and our (recruiting) group have,” Clarkson told AFL360.
“Our only attitude to it is if he decides to leave GWS, we’d like to be at the front of the queue … but we’re not trying to actually get a crowbar and pull him out.”
Meanwhile, the Hawks will decide on Tuesday if Jarryd Roughead has another swansong game on Saturday night against West Coast.
Roughead kicked six goals in Sunday’s win over Gold Coast and Clarkson later said it would be like shooting Bambi if they did not let him play against the Eagles.
Complicating the issue fellow key forward Mitch Lewis missed the Suns game with a shoulder injury.
“We’ll see how that all unfolds this week,” Clarkson said.
“We need to speak to Rough too, because after (Sunday) … he said ‘I’m cooked, I’m done, this is the best way to finish’.
“So he might not want to play either – we need to have that discussion and we’ll have that (on Tuesday).
“We’re still a very, very faint chance of getting there (top eight), so all that will come into the mix.”