Hawthorn Senior Coach Sam Mitchell was on hand to launch the club’s Le Tan Emergency Services Match alongside Victoria Police Inspector Matt Volk on Wednesday morning, as the Hawks prepare for an important clash with Richmond on Sunday.
We summarised the key points from Mitchell’s press conference below.
On the club’s Emergency Services Match
“I think we take for granted how safe we feel in Victoria and Australia. Thanks to all these guys (police) and all the other emergency services that give us that feeling of content. We’re certainly hoping for a huge Hawks contingent for our last home game in Melbourne for the season. If you get there a bit earlier, you’ll be able to hear the sirens and the boys will put on a show for you when the game starts but certainly, there will be a lot of action going on before the game. If your kids that are out there love the sirens like mine do, make sure you get there early and turn up at the ‘G on Sunday.”
On the group’s connection
“Connection’s a really hard thing to measure. Everyone’s talking about it now because there’s probably a bit more optimism about it but in the early part of the year, we were losing some games in the first part of the season but I never at any point felt like they weren’t playing for each other or they weren’t committed to what we were trying to achieve. Were the outcomes there? Of course not. But we still felt like we were working towards something and we’re far from a finished product. There’s still growth in our group. I think every team in the competition is going to be feeling the same way and we know that being a connected group and being on the same page is important and our players are doing a really important job of that at the moment.”
On the work of his assistant coaches
“As the head coach, sometimes you get a lot of credit pointed in your direction and it’s not accurate. Any head coach will tell you that there’s a huge amount of work that goes in from a huge amount of people. As a head coach, I look at all of the work that our other coaches have done. I think about someone like Kade Simpson and what he’s done to really get career-best type of seasons out of three or four of his defenders. I look at that and I think about the growth that he’s been able to create with his backline group. I think about David Hale and the consistency of the midfield. I think about Adrian Hickmott and how a really sort of new forward line - I think five of our forwards weren’t at the club last year so when you look at how those people have built their individual areas, you say okay, there’s a lot of growth coming from individuals, and they’re just the coaches. Our injury list is obviously reasonably healthy at the moment, the boys are running out the games, so there’s a fitness element as well. There’s an enormous amount of people that get us to a point where we have the opportunity to exceed expectations. We’re not finished just yet, we’ve still got some work to do and it starts this week.”
On Josh Weddle’s performance against Carlton
“I was rapt with Josh. He obviously didn’t play his best game the week before and he took that really hard, as all good, driven young men do. To be able to bounce back and have a strong performance shows his maturity and his competitive nature. We’ve got enormous belief in what he’s going to be. Already, he’s performing at a higher level and I think there’s a lot of growth in someone like Josh Weddle. The sky’s the limit as far as what he’s going to be able to produce in the future. At the moment, it’s about learning lessons every week and he would’ve learned an enormous amount from the GWS game but by the same token, he would’ve learned a lot in the Carlton game as well and that’s part of our journey.”
On Changkuoth Jiath’s fitness
“He probably was okay to play last week. He’s just had a bit of a tight calf but as long as that clears up then Changkuoth will be available to play and we’ll see what we do later in the week with him. He’s a really important player for us and we want to make sure that we don’t put him at risk. We want to make sure that later in the week, we make a good decision there.”
Watch Mitchell’s full press conference below.
