In a decision which looks certain to cost the club a significant six-figure sum, the Hawks' move to delay the negotiation saw the coach take the contract talks off the table in August.

Clarkson, who has no intention of departing the club he has now coached to four flags, is expected to reach a new deal with Hawthorn before the end of the month. His current deal, with a base well below the highest-paid coaches in the AFL, ends after next season.

Fairfax Media understands talks between the club and Clarkson's management began in late June. While there was no suggestion the coach would not be offered a new deal, Hawthorn bosses expressed concerns regarding Clarkson's temperament and behaviour and stressed the club needed to follow a clear procedure before making a new offer.

The process saw the question of Clarkson's new contract put to the board in late July with the terms and the conditions to have been ratified by late August before Clarkson chose to delay talks until after the season.

Clarkson's manager, James Henderson, confirmed the talks had been taken off the table. "We had a preliminary conversation halfway through the 2015 season," said Henderson, who finalised Clarkson's last deal two years ago shortly after the Hawks had won the 2013 premiership.

"A lot of things were going on at the time and it wasn't a priority for Alastair. We all agreed to park the discussion and pick it up at the end of the season."

Hawthorn president Andrew Newbold has stressed several times over the weekend that the club was keen to come to a new agreement with the coach.

At last week's Grand Final Carbine Club lunch, Newbold was questioned about the contract and quipped that the Hawks were fortunate the AFL had placed a cap on football department spending.

Newbold confirmed last week to Fairfax that he had confronted, at the board's instruction, the issue of Clarkson's brand and his behaviour following the coach's clash in Adelaide with an aggressive member of the public. The contract talks were run between Newbold and his chief executive Stuart Fox and Clarkson's management before the latter, with Clarkson's agreement, chose to put them off.

The club was understood to have entertained before the delays the recommendation of a two-year extension for Clarkson whose current base sits at less than $1 million although it contains bonuses worth an estimated $200,000 for a premiership. While that deal would have lifted Clarkson over the million dollar mark, he still would have sat behind at least two other coaches.

Paul Roos' annual deal with Melbourne sits at about $1.5 million while Ross Lyon's base payment at Fremantle significantly exceeding an annual $1 million.

With negotiations expected to resume almost immediately, the length of the new deal could change, with Clarkson certain to command significantly more than the club was entertaining in July and August.

Having achieved another flag under some trying circumstances, against the odds of equalisation and with a formidable but ageing list — the oldest in AFL premiership history — Clarkson's current deal ends in line with a number of other senior coaches including Collingwood's Nathan Buckley, Richmond's Damian Hardwick and the Brisbane Lions' Justin Leppitsch at the end of the 2016 season.

The most respected coach in the competition, Clarkson, 47, lost yet another assistant, Brendon Bolton, to the senior position at Carlton on the eve of the finals.

Added Henderson: "We will sit down with the club in the next few weeks and talk about an extension. I would expect it will be a pretty straight forward process."

Clarkson, who will oversee the AFL's International Rules team which heads to New York and Ireland in November, will also undertake his customary fact-finding trip overseas at the end of this month, a trip which is also expected to take him to the US.