Six days after directing the Hawks to a third consecutive flag, and his fourth at the club in seven years, Clarkson gives the impression that he and his senior offsiders have scarcely drawn breath.

Meticulous, wall-to-wall, physical assessments of players are complete and the past week, in Clarkson's view, is critical to ensuring Hawthorn does not fall off the perch as it did in the immediate aftermath of winning the first of those four flags.

Asked at the annual Roaring Forties Club lunch about the secrets behind having a list that remains the envy of the competition, yet is also the oldest in VFL/AFL history to win a premiership, the coach described how Hawthorn conducts medical and fitness tests on its players twice a week all season.

This strict monitoring process, Clarkson said, ultimately determined that Brian Lake and David Hale would no longer meet Hawthorn standards had either seriously pushed the case to play on there in 2016. He admitted "they're not easy conversations to have".

"With Lakey and Haley, both those guys throughout the course of the year – not that it would be known, perhaps, to the general football public – but the thing that we observed through our testing ... was that they were starting to wane in terms of what they were able to contribute on field as a result of their physical capabilities.

"We made the mistake after 2008, when we won the flag, that we didn't do really, really strong medicals with our players," Clarkson said.

"And nor did we have really strong dialogue with our players immediately post-grand final. The whole club was just that excited and ecstatic about winning the flag that we didn't think about 2009 until six weeks later.

"We made a terrible error, and 2009 ended up being a disaster for our footy club. So, as hard as it is, really the most important week for 2016 is this week. If we don't get it right then we're a hell of a lot behind the eight ball.

"So on Monday and Tuesday, for instance, Chris Fagan and myself met with 30 of our players. They do a half-hour medical [first] with our conditioning staff and medical team, and then we have a half-hour meeting with the 30 players, so there's 15 hours' work to be jammed into Monday and Tuesday ... but they're the most important couple of days of our year, really."

AFL Commission chairman Mike Fitzpatrick was another guest at the lunch. When asked about what an administration that shamelessly strives to create an equal competition could do to handicap a team that has bucked the system by winning the cup three years running, he said with humour: "Look they're [Hawthorn] not the Anzacs. In the end, age will weary them.

"And I must admit, early in the season, I thought this was the year that it would. I think clearly they've got terrific phys ed staff and so on that keep them alive, and they're just a terrific side.

"And I think the sad thing, in some ways, has been that a couple of sides against them, particularly Freo and the Eagles, basically got stage fright and in no way played anywhere near as well as they could, which was disappointing.

"But no, there's nothing I can think of in a policy sense that we can do to change things."

Chris Judd won the AFL Players' Association's Madden Medal, the annual award for a retired player judged to have made the most significant contribution on and off-field over his career. His win was announced at the function.

The medallist is selected by the AFLPA's 11-man board. Sydney's Adam Goodes requested that he not be nominated, maintaining his preference to be out of the spotlight after a final season in which he encountered regular racist taunting.

2015 MADDEN MEDAL

Winner: Chris Judd (West Coast/Carlton)

Runner-up: Daniel Cross (Western Bulldogs/Melbourne)

Third: Luke McPharlin (Fremantle)