Hawthorn Coach Sam Mitchell says it was pleasing to get some “reward for effort” following his side’s five-point win against St Kilda on Saturday.

Speaking post-game from UTAS Stadium, Mitchell praised his players ability to handle momentum shifts throughout the game.

We’ve summarised some of the key points from his press conference below.

On the win

“I was really proud of the players efforts. It was a scrappy sort of game with a lot of pressure, a lot of intensity around the ball, a lot of repeat stoppages. I thought the players handled it pretty well. We’re far from a finished product, but it was definite progress.”

On handling momentum shifts

“There were some momentum shifts and I thought that our players handled it well today – that’s the second week where we’ve had some problems in the game, but we haven’t been scored against as heavily as some other games. I think it’s really important as a young group to be able to manage momentum, we’ve done some work on it. We lost a lot of close games last year, but we hadn’t spent the time on it, we didn’t make it a priority, we were working on more basic parts of the game. Now, that we’ve had our group together for a little bit longer, we’ve done some more preparation, players know what to do. There is a little bit more predictability about it.”

On his young side’s development

“It gives a bit of reward for effort, and there is some confidence that the work we’ve done is starting to show – there is a lag effect to your learning. When you do a lot of learning, being able to actually execute it out on the field takes some time. There are little glimpses of it at different stages through the first part of the year – we’ve made some gains in that area, and we’ve started to hold each other and ourselves to a holder account in key moments in games.”

Listen to the full press conference with Mitchell below.