Hawthorn Senior Coach Sam Mitchell was pleased with the effort of his side in its 66-point win over the Crows in Adelaide on Sunday afternoon.
Speaking to the media post-game, Mitchell reviewed the game, highlighted some individual efforts, and spoke to the team’s mentality about heading into the final stages of the home-and-away season.
We summarised some of the key points from his press conference below.
On the result
“In the first quarter, we were scoring okay but they were scoring far too easily. They probably should have had a couple of extra ones, they kicked five goals six and should have been and probably should have been a bit more in front. The players’ response after quarter-time was excellent. I thought they were very sound. I think we only kept them to a goal in the next couple of quarters. The energy and intensity of the game and the evenness of it was the thing to take out of it for us. Eight players kicked two goals so when you look at that offensive output, even defensively, none of our midfielders had over 22 possessions but they all made a really even contribution so I was really pleased with the evenness of the result.”
On James Sicily’s 150th match
“Sis has worked hard to get there. He’s obviously been through a knee and missed a whole season. I think when players have missed a huge chunk of footy, the milestones mean a little bit more so I’m wrapt for him to make a contribution and hit the scoreboard. He didn’t get too far from the goal square in the last quarter when he went down there but really pleased for him. He’s an important plyer for us and the captain of the club who’s doing a great job of leading us at the moment.”
On Will Day’s performance
“I think Will probably kept us in it, to be fair, at the start of the game. He was the one - every time he did something, everyone else came with him for small patches in the first half in particular. I think the other guys jumped on board after that. But he was really important for us in the early part of the game. I think that the evenness of our midfield - David Hale’s done a really good job of implementing that and making sure that it’s not about individual star-power, it’s about the collective impact that they can have and today, whether it’s Nashy who plays as a second ruck or Josh Weddle who comes in there or Josh Ward who mixes his time between inside and outside. I think the implementation of the midfield was quite a good battle today. They had some pretty good numbers and (Jake) Soligo in particular caused us some trouble, he’s a really good young player. But the evenness of our midfield, I thought made sure we got the chocolates in the end.”
On the team’s mentality
“There’s part of us that’s happy with how we’re playing and things are going well, but we’re still ninth. So we’re still out of the eight, we’re still not where we want to be. There are not too many easy games in the competition at the moment. We go to Canberra to play GWS and they had a fantastic win and they’re a side that brings an enormous work rate. Again, we play two of the top sides as far as work rate goes in Adelaide and GWS so we know there’s no week off for us. We’re ninth, we have to make sure we keep going. We’ve been in some good form, we’ve played some good footy but we’ve also had a couple of weeks in this run, like the Geelong game, where we’ve been blown away, so we know it’s a really important phase for us. Every game where we get the chance to keep our season alive is a great experience for our group, particularly our younger guys. A lot of seasons we’ve had recently have been over by now so we know we’re playing in games that genuinely matter which is a fantastic experience for us and we’re enjoying it.”
On Jack Ginnivan’s game
“I think Jack is going to get attention. He’s always had attention but defensive intent, that’s as tight a player as there is in the competition with what they did and I thought he worked really hard for everything he got today. He did not have a lot of space. I think as you progress through your career, you need to deal with different challenges and for him, as a 21-year-old athlete, dealing with someone who is just so tight, is a challenge. He did a pretty good job today which is a step in the right direction. If you want to be as good as you possibly can be, there’s going to be challenges in front of him, not just for him, but for Dylan Moore and Connor Macdonald and Nick Watson and those guys, they’re going to get good players.”
Watch Mitchell’s full Round 20 post-match press conference below.
