‘I feel like my life’s shot’: Clarkson breaks silence on brutal axing
Alastair Clarkson said he feels like his life is “shot” after he was “blindsided” and his family “publicly humiliated” by his brutal sacking by the Kangaroos this week.
The club announced on Wednesday morning it would part ways with Clarkson with a year remaining on his contract.
Alastair Clarkson. AFL Photos
Speaking to renowned AFL journalist Caroline Wilson for The Age, Clarkson said he received a text message on Tuesday from president Sonja Hood asking if she and football boss Todd Viney could meet at his house at 5pm.
“In four years they’ve never come to my house like that. In four years I’ve never had one formal performance review,” Clarkson said.
“They said, ‘We can’t control what you’re going to say, Clarko, but can you be diplomatic? We know you’re going to have to talk at some stage, but we hope you don’t bag the club’. I never would have done that. They wanted me to be as dignified as possible.
“Any deficiencies I’ve got – and you know that I’ve got them – to be absolutely blindsided like that … I’ve got a daughter who works at Fox News – can you imagine how she feels? How we all feel to be so publicly humiliated.”
Wilson reported Clarkson was still in a state of shock after being sacked, the decision to do so seemingly having come from a review he helped instigate weeks earlier.
Clarkson said he was stunned by reports his relationships with assistant coaches had become strained, and that players had become fatigued by war analogies he used to try to create a culture of mateship and strength through adversity.
“Is that all my fault, is it?” Clarkson said.
“My mantra has never changed, and that has been to have care and empathy to help players chase their dream. I feel like my life’s shot.”
Hood and Viney have come under fire themselves for comments they made when fronting media to explain the decision.
Hood said Clarkson “no longer (had) the belief from enough people at the club”, before Viney referenced the bombshell allegations of systemic racism levelled at Clarkson from his time at the Hawks. No findings were made against any of the people accused of wrongdoing.
“That took an enormous toll on him for the first two or three years and in fact, I’m not sure the scars have fully healed to this point," Viney said.
Kangaroos bosses Todd Viney and Sonja Hood speak to media. AFL Photos via Getty Images
Clarkson said those comments in particular stung.
“They ask me to be as dignified as possible, and then they do this to me,” Clarkson said.
“... To sit there and say one man has lost his marbles in terms of the modern game. Wow. We’re just shocked, and we just thought we were owed a little bit of respect in being informed and warned. Instead, they chose to dance on my grave like this.”
The decision to sack Clarkson was signed off at an unscheduled board meeting on Monday night.
"To adopt two of the famous coach’s brutal analogies, there was no smoking gun which led to the decision. This had been a death by a thousand cuts," Wilson wrote.
