Hear from Hawthorn Coach Sam Mitchell as the club closes in on its Round 1 clash against Essendon this Saturday at the MCG.

Mitchell has spoken about a range of topics in the lead up to the game, keep reading on to find out more. 

On Hawthorn's focus for 2024:

"I think the first two years have really been about embedding a foundation about how we want to go about things and this is the first year where we start to turn the dial a little bit towards some better performances. We are still going to be a very young side, I think we are the second youngest team in the competition so there’s going to be some exciting new faces. We're still continuing to get games into players that we know are going to be great players for this club over the journey, we want to make sure we develop them as quickly as we possibly can while putting really strong performances on the field. We need to make sure we are in more winnable positions this year than we have been over the last couple of years."

On debutant Nick Watson:

"He has just turned 19. I think if you look at every other first year players there are some ups and downs in their journey. Nick is going to play some really good footy, I don’t think anyone doubts that, but is he going to play well every single week and be a 50-goal first year player? I hope so, but I wouldn’t put that sort of expectation on him. I think what he has been able to do on the training track has been nice and consistent and it’s just not goals, it's pressure and other things he does around the ground. He is an exciting player for us."

On positional changes:

"It was a lengthy debate in match committee all week (on whether Blake Hardwick is playing in the forward line or back line), we still have a couple of final decisions after training today. I think we will definitely see Blake as a forward whether that’s the whole game this week or for parts of the game, or whether we decide to just settle him into the back half for a little while. I think what we’ve done is been able to play him a forward for a long enough time that were confident he can perform his role forward and back."

On the season opener:

"I think the players have been thinking about it for a long time. As soon as the fixture comes out everyone starts thinking about the team you’re playing, what day you’re planning, what ground you’re playing on and you start to visual that. The level of expectation of this game is significant, everyone’s an unknown and everyone goes into this week unseeded. We are really excited by seeing what we can do and we know it’s going to be a really big crowd so I expect it to be great game with a great atmosphere and am really looking forward to it."

Watch the full press conference below.