HAWTHORN coach Alastair Clarkson is frustrated but not surprised that Gold Coast is attempting to lure Campbell Brown.
Brown, 26, confirmed months of rumours linking him to Gold Coast with his admission on Thursday night's The Footy Show that an offer had been made by the new club.
With the aid of salary cap exemptions, the Suns will likely be able to offer Brown a lot more money than the Hawks, but Clarkson remains confident the utility will stay.
"I don't think it's any surprise that the Gold Coast are out there and they've probably made approaches to several of our players," Clarkson said from Waverley Park on Friday.
"Some of those players have rejected those offers and signed contracts with us, [but] Browny at this point in time hasn't. He and the club have decided that we'll leave that until the end of the year.
"It's not going to be that we've got a bloke in our system who is not going to play genuine, hard footy or [not] play for the team over the next six weeks irrespective of what decision he makes.
"We're still pretty confident he's going to be a Hawks player next year.
"Browny has been at our footy club for a long, long period of time. He knows us well, we know him very well and we take him on face value that we'll make the decision together at the end of the year."
Gold Coast can sign one uncontracted player from each of the existing 16 AFL clubs in the lead-in to its debut season next year.
While Clarkson isn't pleased that one of his players has been targeted, he acknowledges the changing face of player movement with two new clubs entering the competition in the next two seasons.
"It is [frustrating] because you want to keep all the players that you possibly can, but that's the environment we live in," he said.
"You've got to make do with the system that you're in."
Having himself lured Shaun Burgoyne and Josh Gibson away from their previous clubs late last year, Clarkson wasn't about to bemoan a situation where players are more inclined to switch clubs.
"I'm sure if you go to Port Adelaide they'd be really disappointed that Shaun Burgoyne is playing for the Hawthorn footy club," he said.
"We're all guilty of it, aren't we?
"You're put in an environment, you try to be the best you can possibly be to secure silverware for your club and you're going to do everything you possibly can to fast-track that.
"If we've got a strong, stable club, we'll be able to retain those players as best we can. By and large, to date, we've been able to do that pretty well."
