“We’ve just got to stick fat.”
That was the sentiment Alastair Clarkson delivered when speaking on AFL360 on Monday night.
Despite much scrutiny in the media over the past few weeks, Clarkson is maintaining focus on the task at hand: returning the Hawks to the winners' list, and uncovering the next generation of Hawthorn players.
“We’re going through a tough patch at the minute, but we’ll work our way out of it," he said.
"Out of this really tough patch that we’re going through, we’ll find some strength out of going through some hard times - that’s where you develop resilience, it’s also where you develop your appreciation and gratitude for when the times become a little bit better.
“Right at the present time, we certainly know what it’s like to be in the doldrums for a period of time. But tough times don’t last – tough people do."
Clarkson continued by saying there was no secret remedy to turning the club's fortunes around, with a hard-work approach the only way forward.
“For the first four games of the season that was looking pretty good, we went 3-1. Right now, our season looks in tatters, but there’s still nine games to go and we’ll see where we finish up at the end of the year."
"At the moment, we just can't find the button to press or the lever to pull to get us out of the slump we're in.
"What we do is that the swings and roundabouts in the game (mean that) it's our turn to be going through a tough patch at the current time."
In deed, it's certainly been a difficult month for members of the brown and gold, as they watched their side finish with a 0-4 return from the last four games while based in the Sydney hub.
But, as we all know in football, things can change faster than Sam Frost streaming out of the backline.
"It was only West Coast four weeks ago that were 'two old, too slow,'... and within four weeks they're the premiership favourites," Clarkson said.
"We're not hiding away from the fact our footy has been substandard, especially because we know what we're capable of, but we've just got to work our way through it.
"At some point in time, just when we probably least expect it, we're going to pull something from under the rug and find our confidence and ball movement and we'll be off and running."
It's hard not to feel just a touch more confident after hearing Clarkson's ever-measured take on things, isn't it?
Despite being aware of the criticism coming the Hawks way, the four-time premiership coach was quick to reaffirm his belief in the Hawks squad.
“At some point in time, whether it’s my role or whether it’s our players’ role or president’s – whoever it is at our club, we’re all temporary custodians and at some time we’ll all move on,” Clarkson said.
“But when we sat down at the end of last year, we thought that we still had a group that was capable of challenging really, really significantly in, what we thought was going to be, September this year.
“For the first four games of the season that was looking pretty good, we went 3-1. Right now, our season looks in tatters, but there’s still nine games to go and we’ll see where we finish up at the end of the year."
