New deal no distraction for Clarko

Fronting the media for the first time since the announcement of his three-year contract extension, Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson kept the door to his personal thoughts and insights into his reappointment bolted firmly shut on Friday.

Preparing to fly to Launceston for Saturday's assignment against Port Adelaide, Clarkson refused to acknowledge whether he was pleased, relieved, inspired, excited or challenged by the prospect of remaining at the helm at Hawthorn through to the end of 2011.

Presumably he is all of the above, but who would know judging by his pre-prepared responses to straightforward questions, such as the following, from journalists at Melbourne airport.

Q: "I know you've tried to keep the contract extension low-key, but I'm just wondering … how's it feeling personally for you?"

A: "It's just business as usual, we've got a game against Port Adelaide tomorrow and we've focused pretty heavily on that this week so we just roll on."

"Some of these things, despite them being fantastic media stories, it's just business as usual for us and we just wanted to get it out of the way and move on pretty quickly."

Fantastic media story? No. Business as usual? Yes.

Clarkson was slightly more expansive on his team's preparation for Saturday, saying that his four charges involved in last weekend's Hall of Fame Tribute match had pulled up well, while the rest of his squad had benefited from the week's break.

"I think the break was an opportune time for guys to have a little bit of a spell, recharge the batteries and get going again," he said.

"They've had 10 days to prepare for this game against Port Adelaide so we're not expecting any drop off in performance at all."

Clarkson said the Hawks had learned some important lessons from their most recent clash with Port Adelaide in Launceston in Round 20 last year, pinched by Port with a goal from Brett Ebert with two seconds left on the clock.

"We didn’t structure up very well in our back half on that particular occasion and … we'll be ready for that type of situation again," he said.

And while Collingwood's Mick Malthouse has taken issue with the introduction of the new interchange procedures mid-season, Clarkson has no complaints.

"Anything that cleans up the game in terms of those little idiosyncrasies that happen from time to time, I think that's a good thing, whether that's in season or whether that's at the end of the season when they change the rules," he said.

"Anything that helps the game and stops having any sort of controversial incidents like we say two or three weeks ago with the Sydney-North Melbourne game, I think it's a good thing for footy."