Hawthorn Football Club members received notification in the mail last week that there will be no election at next month's annual general meeting because the three retiring directors were standing for re-election unopposed.

Among the names was Jason Dunstall.

There had been talk that he former champion full-forward, the longtime director of football at the Hawks, would stand down at the end of last season.

Dunstall is a busy man, what with his business interests and extensive media commitments as a commentator and host with both Triple M and Fox Sports. He did admit, after some grilling on the matter from his Triple M colleagues one afternoon during the season that he was considering his position with the Hawks, with the rejoinder that if "someone more suitable" came along, he would consider making way.

Perhaps nobody more suitable did come along, or perhaps he felt the club is in a precarious place, because Dunstall is saddling up for another three year term as a director and what it means is that the man who brought Alastair Clarkson into Hawthorn as coach might well also be charged with seeing him out the door. Clarkson is entering the final year of his contract with the Hawks.

It was Dunstall who boldly pushed for Clarkson to get the job at the end of 2004. Despite the availability of Hawthorn premiership stars Terry Wallace, Rodney Eade and Gary Ayres Dunstall, the acting chief executive at the time, chose instead to search for the hottest - and hungriest - young assistant in the game, a search that ended at Alberton Oval where Clarkson was working under Mark Williams at Port Adelaide.

The one-time scrappy North Melbourne and Melbourne rover dazzled the Hawks with his presentation and his youth-led vision and the decision to appoint him proved to be a masterstroke. Within four years, the Hawks were premiers.

But after two poor seasons since, the Hawks are at an interesting stage. Club president Jeff Kennett will depart at the end of the season, as he makes good his pledge to serve two terms and and then get out. But in any event, Dunstall is the head of football at Hawthorn and Kennett would likely have deferred to his judgement in deciding Clarkson's future irrespective of his own tenure.

Clarkson and Dunstall are said to be very close and in general agreement on most football matters at Hawthorn. But Dunstall is also a shrewd and unflinching operator who doesn't play favourites and isn't one for sentiment, as Eade, Wallace and particularly Ayres would attest from 2004.

Dunstall won't hesitate for a moment to cut Clarkson loose if he feels he is no longer best equipped to coach Hawthorn. A repeat of last season's poor start and Clarkson might as well pack his bags.

But moves such as the installation of Luke Hodge as captain and the early-morning training session after the club best and fairest after some players returned poor skinfold results, would suggest there will be a harder edge to the Hawks in 2011.

Watch the video on the club website of Clarkson's speech at the best and fairest, and you get the impression that there are no more excuses for the Hawks, particularly when it comes to injuries. The clear expectation is one of a top-four finish at the end of the home and away campaign with a premiership push to follow.

Clarkson coaches his best when he's angry and the Hawks respond when they have this collective chip on their shoulder. It was the recipe that took them into the finals in 2007 and the flag in 2008, and while it is very, very early (pre-season training only commenced today) it would appear the Hawks are going back in time when it comes to their operating philosophy for 2011.