the club had just come off its worst season since 1965 and immediately made tough decisions as he focused solely on the long-term at the expense of getting short-term improvement.
Clarkson not only surrounded himself with highly-regarded key personnel such as renowned recruiter Chris Pelchen - who was with Clarkson at Port Adelaide and along with the Hawks coach has re-built their playing list - but showed from the outset that he was not afraid to make tough decisions.
One of his first big decisions was to trade popular forward Nathan Thompson - the Hawks' leading goalkicker in 2003 and 2004 - to the Kangaroos as they went about gaining as many draft selections as they could to use on young talent.
Another key player in 2001, All-Australian full-back Jonathan Hay, was let go at the end of the following season while other experienced players in Kris Barlow, Luke McCabe, Mark Graham, Lance Picioane, Rayden Tallis, Simon Beaumont, Steven Greene, Nick Holland, Angelo Lekkas and Nathan Lonie were either retired or moved on within Clarkson's first 12 months.
Clarkson laid the foundation for the Hawks' present success immediately with his first draft in charge - at the end of 2004 - landing the club's prized key forwards Jarryd Roughead at pick two and this year's Coleman Medal favourite Lance Franklin at pick five as well as tough midfielder Jordan Lewis at pick seven.
And the following year there were even more draft riches for the Hawks with Xavier Ellis coming in at pick three, star defender Grant Birchall at pick 14, Travis Tuck at pick 38 and former St Kilda and Port defender Brent Guerra in the pre-season draft while goalsneak Cyril Rioli (pick 12) already looks the stand-out player of last year's draft.
Clarkson may have won just five games in his first year in charge in 2005 - as the Hawks went from 15th to 14th - but since then the club has improved steadily, winning nine games and finishing 11th in 2006 before making the finals last year for the first time since 2001.
And now it is second favourite for the flag this season with Clarkson's progress as coach so far resembling that of the club's most famous coach John Kennedy.
Kennedy took over as Hawthorn coach in 1967 - just two years after the club's most recent wooden spoon - and after finishing just 10th of 12 teams in his first year, the