Appointed at the end of 2004, Clarkson took the Hawks to the premiership in 2008 and again last year.
He will surpass Allan Jeans as the club's second-longest serving coach this year and could yet go past Josh Kennedy (299 games) if he earns another contract beyond 2016.
"We've had to change a fair bit (since 2004)," Clarkson told Hawthorn's official website.
"We've become a respected football club again, which has been really important for us.
"This club has a very proud history and is enormously respected for its achievements over the last 50 years in particular. A key part of that was re-gathering that respect because we lost it there for a period of time as the game moved to being fully professional and became a national competition.
"We just lost a little bit of respect as a footy club and we've worked really hard to get that back but now that we do have it back, we want to keep it for a long period of time."
Clarkson still has as much passion today as he did when he first took over the role over 20 years ago.
Coming off a premiership last year, Clarkson is fully aware of the challenges he faces heading into this season and beyond.
"We've got an exciting group but what the game has shown with the draft and the salary cap over the years is that they like to have clubs have their moment in the sun and then perhaps drop away to give another club an opportunity," he said.
"Our big challenge having just won the flag is giving ourselves the chance to win it again.
"We just want to try and finish top four and then at the end of each year, give ourselves the best chance to go deep into September.
"We've got a great group of players, a terrific group of coaches and a really strong board and administration so while we've got that stability, it's really important we try and make the most of our chances."
There doesn't appear to be any end date for his coaching career either.
"It's an enormous privilege to coach this great club and I'm looking forward to the next few years, we've still got some things we want to achieve," he said.
"I'll probably pull up stumps when I either get sick of this place or they get sick of me."