AS HAWTHORN’s interim Senior Coach of Hawthorn Brendon Bolton won himself many fans outside the club with his genuine personality and honest assessments of his team’s performances.

Behind-the-scenes he was the same, maintaining his approachable and fun outlook and relationships with players, coaches and staff.

During his five-week stint as Hawthorn’s main man, while dual premiership coach Alastair Clarkson recuperated after being diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome, Bolton wanted to remain true to himself.

After all, being that knowledgeable and enthusiastic teacher who can challenge when necessary and praise when earned afforded him the respect that saw him assume the reins.

“I wrote down some things that I really wanted to achieve in that time and had that conversation with the leaders as well,” Bolton told hawthornfc.com.au of his experience as senior coach of Hawthorn.

“One of them was to make sure I was being myself and coaching the way I am and to my personality.”

Bolton achieved that goal immediately but it took longer for him to accomplish the job he was there to do and that was to coach the Hawks to victories in the games he was in charge.

His first experience was tougher than expected, overcoming GWS by just seven points at the MCG before victories over West Coast (44 points), Carlton (28), Collingwood (29) and Gold Coast (53).

Bolton’s coaching record was five wins from five stars – the best of any starting Hawthorn coach in history.

But it wasn’t without its challenges, having to overcome a spate of injuries that saw key personnel such as Sam Mitchell, Brian Lake, Cyril Rioli and Josh Gibson miss.

“We had to make sure in spite of injury we kept really high expectations amongst the coaching group and throughout the playing group,” Bolton said.

“They did that very well, particularly the leaders because they set the tone in the system to ensure the standards were kept at a high level.”

To achieve that, Bolton made sure his players and fellow coaches knew this was a team effort and nothing extra than what was already being done under Clarkson was required.

Playing your role, whether it be on the field or off it was enough.

“The challenge was to make sure that framework was all set up and adhered to,” he said.

“It was making sure no one needed to do anything more remarkable or different than what they already were doing.

“It was really important that we all played our role and were reliable.”

While he had already experienced life as a coach of his own teams in Tasmania, being the senior coach of an AFL club was different.

“There is a difference between understanding and living it – the opportunity to live it gives you the real in-depth understanding and what it feels like to do it,” he said.

“This is a brutal game – what I found as the most significant difference from being a line coach was that as a line coach you’re very specified and you need to play your role within that.

“When you’re senior coach, you’ve got to be far more holistic – you have input from all the line coaches, you’ve got to be across far more conversations and dealing frequently with the strength and conditioning team.”

Now back in his role as assistant coach to Clarkson and the man in charge of the forward line, Bolton can implement what he learnt while sitting in the senior coach’s chair to his day-to-day specific analysis of the game.

“The main thing is the lines review things that are more systematic and tight on just their area whereas the senior coach will look at the broad game,” he said.

“What I can take away from it is to make sure that those broad themes are pushed in the line meetings consistently.”

All in all, Bolton’s experience of being thrown the senior coach’s hat mid-season in somewhat unprecedented circumstances was a positive one because of the way in which everyone at Hawthorn pulled together.

“This competition throws up many challenges so I looked at it as an opportunity for our club to show just how robust it is in terms of leadership on the field and off it,” he said. “I had terrific support from all the coaches as well as the footy manager, Chris Fagan.

“It was a great opportunity for us to showcase that we are robust and resilient in spite of some challenges.

“I love coaching. I’m trained to be a teacher and my passion is footy so when you mix that together, I really don’t work a day in my life.

“It had its challenges, but at the same time, challenges are what help you develop.”