Alastair Clarkson has rejected a Carlton approach to be the club’s coach for a third time, despite a recent conversation with newly-appointed club CEO Brian Cook.
Despite Clarkson’s twin rejections, the appointment of the high-profile Cook, who oversaw three premiership sides in Geelong, led to renewed hope that the four-time premiership-winner would turn on his decision.
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However, Clarkson told Cook during a conversation on Monday that his prerogative was to take a year off from the coaching scene in 2022.
The 53-year-old opened up on his thought process during an interview with Fox Footy’s AFL360.
“I spoke to Cooky on the weekend and I appreciated the call enormously,” he said.
“I’m respectful of the process that they’re going through, but I’m sticking to what I said six or eight weeks ago, that I need a spell.
“I’ve only got two gears – flat out or stop, and I’m not ready to go flat out again right now.”
Despite rejecting the club on three separate occasions, Clarkson admitted that there was still prestige involved in the Carlton coaching role.
“I couldn’t respect two clubs greater than Collingwood and Carlton,” he said.
“The lure to coach those clubs is sitting there right there in front of your face, do you want to put your hand up to see whether you’d be selected to coach those sides, but I wasn’t strong enough to overpower it in terms of what my family and I need right now, and that’s a 12-month spell.
“In that 12 months, I might find out that I can’t recharge the batteries and I don’t want to go again, or probably it’s in my DNA to want to coach again at the end of next year or the year after.
“It’s more likely that I’m going to get to July or August next year and I can’t wait to get back into it again.
“I’ve been mindful that I don’t want to backflip again, there’s an element of trust of looking people in the eye and saying this is the intention.
“Both [Collingwood and Carlton] right at the present time it’s like, ‘Well, why would you want to coach them?’, that’s the reason you would want to coach them. That’s the attraction, it’s like imagine getting ahold of those sides.
“Craig McRae has got one and who knows who’s going to take the other, but it’s an exciting opportunity.
“The lure of doing that is significant, but not strong enough to overpower what our thinking was in terms of the family and our friends at this point in time.”
Clarkson’s latest rejection of Carlton puts Michael Voss in the box seat to be unveiled as the Blues’ next senior coach.
After interviewing for the role in 2019, when he was overlooked for the since-sacked David Teague, Voss again put his hat in the ring for the coveted role.
Voss coached the Brisbane Lions for six seasons before his contract was not renewed at the end of the 2013 season and has been an assistant at Port Adelaide since 2014.