HAWTHORN coach Alastair Clarkson and president Jeff Kennett have paid tribute to retiring premiership hero Stuart Dew.

The pair flanked Dew at the press conference to announce his retirement on Tuesday and both said he had left an indelible mark on the club in the 20 months he had been there.

Clarkson fought hard to recruit Dew to the club after they spent time together at Port Adelaide. The Hawthorn coach was the driving force behind the decision to draft Dew at the end of 2007.

“I can remember catching up with him a couple of years ago and trying to orchestrate this whole involvement he would have with our footy club and he had a passion to get back to playing AFL footy again,” Clarkson said.

“I was hoping it was going to be three years, as Dewey would, but somewhere in the time-frame he was going to be at our footy club we’d wanted to win a premiership.

“We’re indebted to him in a sense. He brought so much leadership both on the field and off the field for our group last year and played a pivotal role for us to be able to secure that flag.”

Clarkson said he felt the decision to take Dew was justified even though his stay at the club was brief.

“It’s not (about) trying to prove anyone wrong. It is trying to do what is best for our footy club to try and secure a premiership. In that regard, we showed that recruiting Dewey contributed enormously to us being able to win the flag,” he said.

“There was the on-field performance we saw on grand final day that helped turn the game on its head in the third quarter. There was the off-field guidance particularly in the last eight or nine rounds of the season including finals.”

Clarkson said he would be open to the idea of Dew joining the Hawthorn coaching staff in 2010.

“We’ll certainly do whatever we can in our capacity as a football club to keep Dewey involved because he has got so much he can bring to the group. We’ll work through that over the next little while,” he said.

Kennett said Dew would always be welcome at the club for his on-field work and his leadership off the field.

“I guess we’ll all remember that five minutes of glory last year in the grand final which played such an important part in the final result and securing us a premiership,” he said.

“He leaves the game with his reputation very much intact and respected. He leaves the game as a dual premiership player with two clubs and he leaves us as a player but not as a friend and not as a member of the family.”