North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson will return home on a separate flight to his club following the Kangaroos’ clash with Hawthorn on Saturday in Launceston.
Both Hawthorn and North Melbourne will travel to Launceston on separate commercial flights, but will share the journey home on the same AFL chartered flight post-game.
It is believed Clarkson still has strained relationships with several key Hawks officials following his exit from the club in 2021. He is also a central figure in the ongoing investigation into alleged historical racism at his former club.
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The four-time premiership coach said he had advised North he should not be on the same flight with the Hawks while the investigation is ongoing.
“We’ve got a charter flight coming back together. So, I won’t jump on that flight, I’ll come on a different flight,” Clarkson told reporters on Thursday.
“I just don’t think given the investigation that I’m embroiled in with Hawthorn, I don’t think it’s a great idea that we’d be sitting on a plane together.
“It’s only because of Covid that all of a sudden this is a great idea (two teams sharing a flight).
“But we actually said for a long period of time we don’t think the races should be together anymore, just because of the emotion of what might happen when two teams come off at halftime and at the end of the game, so let’s separate them.
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“Yet after the game it’s OK to put two teams on a plane. I don’t reckon it’s smart and I don’t think it is particularly smart given what’s going on with me at the present time that I jump on that plane.
“I spoke to the club earlier in the week. I don’t think it’s fair on anyone from within Hawthorn, I don’t think it’s fair on anyone from within North Melbourne to have to subject themselves to that and if I’m sort of the central figure in that then it just takes all the fizz out of it altogether.”
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Clarkson on Thursday played down the bitterness and heightened emotions ahead of Saturday’s match.
He referred to the clash with his old side as a “a little bit of a celebration”, rather than a grudge match between him and the man who replaced him as Hawks coach, Sam Mitchell.
“I spent 17 years coaching at that footy club and I’ve got some wonderful memories from that time, and I’ll cherish them forever and a day,” Clarkson said.
“I’ve still got a heap of really, really close friends that I still spend a lot of time with away from the football world.
“So, just because of what’s transpired in the last couple of years, it doesn’t diminish the memories that I’ve got, the relationships that I’ve got, and we’re not going to let that get in the road of just because you were working for an opposition club”.
