Alastair Clarkson is well aware of what may lie ahead in football's toughest job, Caroline Wilson reports.

The prospect of rebuilding the Hawthorn Football Club at the age of 36 is daunting enough without the spectre of Don Scott hovering menacingly in the background.

Which could explain why it was the subject of the unpredictable former Hawk ruckman, who is plotting to take over the club, which finally provided a glimpse of the Alastair Clarkson not seen since that infamous 1987 London punch-up.

"In the end, if they bring in someone else and they sack me, well, I can't really give a s---," Clarkson said yesterday.

"I don't give a rat's, and I refuse to give one ounce of my time worrying about things I can't control.

"There are 15 other clubs we have to compete against and it's pretty obvious that if we don't come together soon and stop competing against ourselves we will explode."

Clarkson stopped himself at that point, saying that talking politics was never appropriate for AFL coaches however experienced and that he would await the outcome of the Scott versus Ian Dicker battle, whether that wait lasted two weeks or two months.

"When a club has been down for as long as we have, it would be unusual if there wasn't some disquiet," said the Hawks' new mentor, the second-youngest in the AFL behind John Worsfold.

Already, Clarkson, a surprise and rare foreign choice to replace Peter Schwab at the troubled club, has made massive changes in personnel at Hawthorn.

One, the appointment of fitness expert Andrew Russell, raised the ire of Clarkson's former boss, premiership coach Mark Williams, and Clarkson admitted it was a little tense when the pair met up, for the first time since he departed the club, in Canberra at the AFL draft camp. While he acknowledges and constantly refers to lessons learnt under Williams' tutelage, Clarkson singled out his first VFL coach, John Kennedy at North Melbourne, and his under-19s coach at the Kangaroos, Denis Pagan, as his most significant mentors.

"You've always got a soft spot for someone who first gave you a go," Clarkson said of Kennedy. "I've spoken to him on several occasions since I got the job.

"Denis was the next guy who moulded a lot of my thinking. He was the first person who created the model we all adopt today.

"He was the first to identify terminologies like 'game plan' and 'team rules'. Now everyone calls them that."

Clarkson is well aware that Hawks football director Dermott Brereton preferred Gary Ayres for the coaching job and argued long and hard for him ahead of the Port Adelaide assistant, whose senior experience took place over two successful seasons at Central District in the SANFL in which the club reached two grand finals for one premiership. He is also aware that Hawthorn supporter, media commentator and anchorman Stephen Quartermain publicly questioned his appointment in an extraordinary live-to-air comment at the end of the Channel Ten news the night Clarkson was announced as senior coach.

"As I said," commented Quartermain, "they (Hawthorn) are struggling."

Clarkson laughed. "A mate of mine rang when he saw it on television and said: 'What have you ever done to Steve Quartermain?' I guess you're going to have people with different opinions," he said.

"It's similar with Dermott. We have talked about it of course and he has made it clear that there were boxes of mine he ticked as well as Gary's and that it doesn't diminish the loyalty or support he will give me.

"One thing about Dermott, he is a tremendously loyal person."

Having delisted four senior statesmen at the club in the manner in which Neale Daniher delisted him at Melbourne at the end of his career (Clarkson played 134 games for the Kangaroos and Melbourne between 1987 and 1997), Clarkson has not only lost vice-captain Nathan Thompson, he faces entering next season with new football and medical departments.

And he has appointed two inexperienced assistant coaches in Damien Hardwick and Todd Viney. None of which he apologises for.

"You need people around you you can trust, who are loyal and of good character," he said.

"I think those characteristics are more important than experience. Experience is good but what we have is youthful exuberance, which I think is better."

The two-year contract Clarkson eventually received is reportedly worth $250,000 in year one and $300,000 in 2006.

Clarkson did not comment on his financial deal but joked in a separate conversation that a fitting wage for a first-time senior AFL coach was probably around $200,000 a year.

Anything extra, he said, could be justified as danger money.