Hawthorn Senior Coach Sam Mitchell says his side is excited about the prospect of playing against Collingwood in front of a massive crowd at the MCG on Saturday afternoon.
Speaking to the media on Thursday, Mitchell also congratulated defender Jack Scrimshaw ahead of his 100th game and spoke about some names in the mix for this week’s team selection.
Read the key points from his press conference below.
On the excitement around Saturday’s game
“I think the media world’s caught on that these games are huge for us. It’s 12th versus 13th so it doesn’t sound as good when you say it like that but when you have a look at the ladder and how close it is, we know it’s a massive game and we’re really looking forward to it. When you start building a group and think about getting games into players and you’ve got a future plan on what you want players to be, big games are a part of it. You need to be able to perform in big games. Not every game’s built the same, is it? So this game is worth more than one. There’s going to be a big crowd and it’s an important game for our season. We know that this is a great development chance for us but more importantly than that right now, it’s an important performance chance for us - can we perform against a team mostly built of premiership players on a huge stage on a Saturday afternoon?”
On how the team is dealing with the big game scenario
“I think everyone knows how important the game is. I think the players will be ready. It’s not like we haven’t got any excuses for not being ready for what’s going to come in this game. It’s not just important for us, it’s just as important for them (Collingwood) and we know that they’ve been in this position more times than us but they started about where we are at some stage. This is a team that we have an enormous amount of respect for the way they’ve gone about it, how they’ve played together and how they've created huge opportunities. We ran them close earlier in the year in a packed Gather Round fixture which was pretty significant as well. Now we get another chance and hopefully, we’re a little bit better.”
On the potential of Jack Ginnivan and Finn Maginness being selected
“Jack’s a competitor. Obviously, there’s the added media interest that he’s desperate to play because it’s Collingwood but he would be desperate to play regardless of who it is. He’s a really important player for us and we’ve missed him the last couple of weeks. We’re optimistic but he still needs to get through a couple of tests. Finn’s been in the mix. I think if we weren’t going so well, we’d find a way to get Finn in but because we’ve been playing some pretty good footy and been pretty consistent, we haven’t been able to fit him in the side just yet. He is one of those guys that I’d love to be able to get in. Obviously with his history on Nick (Daicos) and he played on Josh (Daicos) a bit earlier in the year, we know that he’s a player that the media would certainly love to see and he’s a player that I would love to see out there. We’ve got a couple of tests today so we’ll see how we go for match committee this afternoon.”
On Jack Scrimshaw’s upcoming 100th game
“I’m absolutely rapt for him. I’m really proud of what he’s been able to do over the last 12 months. I think he went from a player who had great skills whose good and not-so-good were a distance apart. I think his worst game this season would be his best bad game of his whole career. The consistency of effort that he’s been able to put in and the commitment he has to play the role he needs to do and do what he needs to do to help the team has been significant. He’s been a huge factor in our resurgence across the second part of the year.”
Watch Mitchell’s full press conference below.
