Clarkson vents frustration

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Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson's notorious short fuse re-emerged for all to see following his side's embarrassing 88-point loss to the Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium to cap off a forgettable Saturday night for the Hawks.

Clarkson began his mandatory post-match press conference well enough, and was forthright in his assessment of the Hawks' horrid performance which now leaves them with a win-loss ratio of 6-8 and their finals chances hanging by a thread.

But after about eight minutes of dissecting the match and fielding questions on whether Hawthorn could still figure in September - and possibly as a direct result of the situation his football team finds itself in - Clarkson had had enough.

When asked by a reporter if his team was capable of turning it around to play finals this year, Clarkson, who already has a well-publicised track record of altercations with journalists since he took over at Hawthorn in 2005, sternly posed: "You tell me. If we won the grand final last year, do you reckon we're capable of playing finals?"

When asked by the same reporter if his side could play finals based on its current form, Clarkson, in arguably the strongest indication yet this season that he is feeling the pinch, then invited the probing journalist to answer the very question himself on three occasions before offering this: "It doesn't matter too much what I think if we don't win games of footy, mate."

"If we play like we did tonight we're not going to go anywhere near the finals."

"But we've got the capabilities as a side to play finals footy and we won't give up on that until it's mathematically impossible to get there."

It was a fitting epilogue to one of the worst efforts produced by a Hawthorn team in Clarkson's reign.

The Hawks were obliterated by the rampaging Bulldogs and Clarkson described the first half, which saw the Dogs score 14 unanswered goals while keeping their opponent to its first goalless first half since 1979, as 'deplorable'.

"(In) the first half we played some deplorable footy," he said.

"Even (when) taking into account just how clinical the Western Bulldogs were with their ball movement and how slick they were we gave them too much opportunity - particularly from stoppages."

The Bulldogs won the clearance count 43-25 and the centre-clearance count 16-5.

Clarkson continued: "They cleared the ball far too easily, they had the first seven or eight centre-bounce clearances of the game ... we (were) just chasing their tails all the first half it seemed."

While Clarkson insists his Hawks will bounce back eventually and is heartened by the fact he knows they can play a lot better than they did on Saturday night, he still anticipates a frustrating time ahead for everyone associated with the club as they work their way through a worrying rough patch which has now seen them lose three matches in a row for the first time since 2006.

"We can't always have the cream on top, we delivered as a footy club some tremendous performances last year and saluted at the end of last year on the back of those performances," he said.

"We have been unable to consistently put those performances on the park this season but we know from our form last year that we've got it within this group so we just need to find out how we can best get it out of them."

"At the current time we're finding it very difficult."

"There's no easy solution, we all like to think we can just press a button and things will turn around but it's not always that easy."

"If we play well enough, well, we're still mathematically possible to get there (finals) but it's tough when you play footy like you did tonight."