Alastair Clarkson was chased by both Adelaide and Melbourne before Hawthorn made the move to re-sign their coach for the next three seasons.

Head coach since 2005, Clarkson said he always wanted to stay with the Hawks but the coaching vacancies which opened up following the respective exits of Neil Craig and Dean Bailey were options.

"It was always my intention to try to work something out here and it was only once that was going to be exhausted I would have ever explored doing something else," Clarkson said on Friday after his deal was inked following months of speculation.

He said both Adelaide and Melbourne made inquiries to his manager Liam Pickering about his plans, although they didn't talk money.

"There were a couple of queries from Melbourne and Adelaide in terms of 'where's he at' and 'what's he going to be doing?'," said Clarkson.

"But I didn't receive any offers from those clubs and didn't speak directly to them."

The 2008 premiership-winning coach revealed he didn't want to rush negotiations to ensure he felt he was still the man for the job.

Assured of a top-four finish, he felt he was.

"From my point of view we had two disappointing years in `09 and `10 and I needed to be certain in my own mind that I was the right bloke to forge ahead with this group too," Clarkson said.

"I think they're an enormously talented group of players and we've got a great opportunity for success.

"But it was no point me continuing on as coach of the club if I didn't feel like my message was getting through.

"I think it's been quite clear through the year with the injection of some new players and also some stability of our more senior players that the progress going forward for this footy club is pretty good."

He said the Hawthorn board was "pretty pleased" with the progress of the team and the way they had met their key performance indicators.

Clarkson was delighted his future was settled ahead of the finals, giving more stability to his side.

"My observation of any successful teams in world sport is you've got stability as a football club and that's what's clearly demonstrated here; that stability is really important.

"We started on a process six or seven years ago of trying to bring about some success for this great footy club again ...

"Whilst we've achieved a little bit of success in that time, we've still got so much more that we want to achieve."

Outgoing Hawks president Jeff Kennett said the decision to re-sign Clarkson just ahead of its initial time-frame of season's end was not influenced by what the other two clubs were doing.

"I don't know (if there were other offers), we didn't discuss that," he told 3AW.

"It was a good deal and I thank (CEO) Stuart (Fox) and Liam and Alastair and the club can now focus on the things that matter."

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