Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett has lashed out at suggestions that Hawthorn will push current coach Alastair Clarkson out of the door at season's end.

Clarkson is contracted until the end of the 2022 season where Sam Mitchell will take over the reigns as head coach in Hawthorn's recently announced succession plan.

Fox Footy's Tom Morris reported on Tuesday night that several people high up in management at the Hawks have a "strong preference" for Sam Mitchell to replace Alastair Clarkson at the end of this season, and not the next.

Embed from Getty ImagesKennett was quick to refute these claims whilst on radio this morning, firming a strong stance that these claims had no proof.

"I canโ€™t put a face to Tom Morris. I donโ€™t know who he is," Kennett told SEN Breakfast.

"Suffice to say, this is typical of sports journalists of which there are thousands, and they're all trying to create their own story and they put something out there without any proof."

"His comments are just wrong."

Embed from Getty ImagesKennett remains adamant that the announced succession plan was the right move to make and will prove to be a success in the long run.

"The decision by the board was unanimous. We discussed it for a long, long time but came to an absolute unanimous decision," Kennett said.

"โ€˜Clarkoโ€™ will be our coach next year. He will have his staff around him. Sam will continue as both development coach at Hawthorn, but also his role as coach of Box Hill."

"The reason we made him coach of Box Hill this year was to give him added experience in managing a team himself directly โ€“ which he will eventually do when โ€˜Clarkoโ€™ leaves at the end of next year."

"The club understands precisely what weโ€™re doing and why weโ€™re doing it."

"If we can get another year developing Sam, he will make an excellent coach โ€“ hungry to deliver as โ€˜Clarkoโ€™ was in 2004 when he came to us."

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Clarkson has made no indication that he will leave at the end of the season and is committed to seeing out the final year on his contract amid links to rival clubs in Collingwood and Carlton.

Hawthorn will take on the top of the ladder Melbourne on Saturday at the MCG, as they look to make positive strides in what has been a tough 2021 campaign.