Despite the best endeavours of some sectors of the media wanting to paint some sort of looming crisis at Hawthorn with respects to the future of coach Alastair Clarkson, the truth is that there is no crisis.

The Hawthorn coaching job for next season and for one or two more, is Clarkson's if he wants it.

Adelaide will have a crack at the 2008 premiership coach and Melbourne, where Clarkson once played and where former teammates of his at the Demons wield enormous influence, will also make some sort of discreet inquiry.

But having climbed to the top of the mountain once with the Hawks, Clarkson is tantalisingly close to doing so again. Probably not this year, but if you were framing the premiership market for next year, you would have Hawthorn at the top, or very close to, the first line of betting. Which is why Clarkson won't be going anywhere.

Those trying to beat this into a bigger story than it is, are overlooking a few key factors when it comes to Clarkson and his coaching future.

1. This is his team

When the Hawks are at full strength, only Luke Hodge, Sam Mitchell Brad Sewell and Michael Osborne were at the club before he was appointed. With the exception of Hodge, all those silky left-footers at the club were brought in by Clarkson. He was the one who pushed on draft day 2004 to go for Jarryd Roughead and then Lance Franklin when the entire football world was waiting for him to call out the name of Richard Tambling. He put this team together and there remains considerable upside. Most Hawthorn people would say his job is not complete.

2. The Demons are miles away. The Crows possibly more.

Clarkson had a good look at the Demons on Sunday. They're developing a good list, but there are still some hard calls to be made on some veterans. Adelaide's list has plenty of holes and a gameplan that needs to be built from the ground up.

3. He likes coaching Hawthorn

Clarkson was interviewed on SEN in the days after Allan Jeans passed away. He and the three-time Hawk premiership coach became reasonably close and when asked if he had paused to reflect on what Jeans's passing meant, Clarkson said something along the lines of what a privilege it was to coach Hawthorn. Granted, coaching Melbourne to its first flag in a half a century would be special, but John Kennedy snr, David Parkin, Jeans and Alan Joyce is a select group of which Clarkson enjoys being part of.

4. The Kennett factor

This is totally over-rated. Kennett won't be president by the end of the year and while he will have a large say in the reappointment of Clarkson, or otherwise, it won't be the only say. The board decisions at Hawthorn, when it comes to football, carry the fingerprints of Jason Dunstall and he and Clarkson are close. For a bloke who is all over the media, Dunstall plays a wonderfully straight bat when it comes to affairs of the Hawks, but when he says that matters are in hand, and Clarkson's manager Liam Pickering agrees, then you have to think Clarkson isn't going anywhere.

At least not next year.