Hawthorn Senior Coach Sam Mitchell spoke in-depth about his side's important clash with Carlton at the MCG on Sunday, as he fronted the media on Friday morning. 

Mitchell touched on the significance of the opportunity ahead for his team, whilst commenting on some of Carlton's weapons. 

He also expressed his gratitude for the Kennedy Community Centre donors whose names will feature on the team's guernsey at the MCG. 

We summarised the key points from his press conference below. 

On the importance of Sunday's clash 

"We've been playing for our season for five or six weeks, really. We thought maybe we'd get lucky and have one loss up on our sleeve and we've had that now so there's no margin for error and the boys know what's on the line this week. It's a fantastic opportunity for us, there's going to be a big crowd against a quality team that is in a similar position to us. I think everyone's pretty excited about it."

On how the side is handling these high-pressure games 

"I've been really proud of the players' consistency. We've had some bad moments but we haven't really had a bad game, really, for a while, other than the Geelong game out there. We didn't handle the conditions or the game that well that day but I think every other game for the past couple of months, the players have been able to produce close to their best footy and that's all they can ask for. We've got a young side who are loving the challenge and the excitement of playing every week. I feel like we've been able to bring the fans on the journey with us. Hopefully, we can put together a good performance (on Sunday). I think against a quality side, if you look at their last four, they've all been within a couple of goals so it's going to probably be a close game and we need to make sure we're on the right side of the ledger.

On matching up against Carlton 

"They're certainly a challenging match-up team. They've got the two big boys in the forward line, they've got (Jacob) Weitering or (Adam) Saad or (Mitch) McGovern or (Nic) Newman who can all really dominate games from behind the ball and their midfield, even someone like Blake Acres is still a little bit underrated across the competition if you think about the role he plays and how important he's been for them, and then both of the Hollands (Ollie and Elijah) have been pretty damaging as well. That's without mentioning (Sam) Walsh or (Patrick) Cripps, so I've nearly mentioned their whole team there. They're the challenges that you have as a coach against a side that's as talented as Carlton. We know that our players have performed in an admirable way for the majority of this season and we're going to give them every chance to do the same. They're going to be up for it."

On wearing the Kennedy Community Centre Guernsey this weekend

"The Kennedy Community Centre is going to be brilliant. I'm actually going there this afternoon. They're putting in wiring and working out where the TV screens are going so it's so exciting now, it's so close to being ready. Waverley's been a fantastic venue for us for a long time for the majority of my career. To be moving from here and to get out there, I think the boys are very. very excited by going out there. Most of us have been out a couple of times lately so working out how to create the best environment for our players is a really exciting prospect. I think the fans and the people who have made a contribution to that, to be able to reward them by wearing their names on our jumper this weekend is a very small thank you for something significant that they're creating for this football club and not just for this generation and all the generations to come."

Watch Mitchell's full press conference below.