Hawthorn Coach Sam Mitchell has praised his side’s performance following its 116-point victory over West Coast on Sunday.
Mitchell said it was rewarding to not only break through for a win, but to win in the right way.
“I was really proud of the boys,” he said.
“I thought we played the right way for the vast majority of that game.
“As the head coach of a club that’s going through a learning phase and a building phase, you need wins to build a strong culture.
“We’ll spend the next 24 or 36 hours enjoying victory because they’ve been a bit far apart.
“I think they deserve to enjoy the victory.”
Despite West Coast’s horror run of injuries, Mitchell gave credit to his Hawks outfit for their convincing performance.
He said the win was built off strong intensity during training sessions.
“Today, a lot of things went right, obviously,” he said.
“If you win by a margin like that, there’s a lot of things to be happy about, but some of the progress we’ve made from some of the training we’ve done was the thing that we were probably most proud of so far.”
It was Hawthorn’s midfield that again stood up to the test at UTAS Stadium, with Conor Nash leading the way.
The 24-year-old recorded 30 disposals, eight marks, eight tackles and eight clearances in arguably one of his best performances in a Hawthorn guernsey to date.
Mitchell said he sensed a performance like this was imminent from the talented midfielder.
“I think with Conor, we knew from a physical point of view, he had everything he needed,” Mitchell said.
“The thing about Conor is he played just about every game last year and he really struggled to get to 20 possessions.
“He was always having an impact, always doing the team role and we were always reasonably happy with him.
“But now, today was maybe the second game for him where he had 30 possessions so he’s taken his game to a whole other level.
“I think if it’s not him, it’s (Jai) Newcombe, then it’s (James) Worpel or it’s (Will) Day or it’s (Cameron) Mackenzie or (Josh) Ward or whoever so the balance of our midfield is one of the strengths that we’re producing at the moment.”
Hear more from Mitchell post-game.
