Hawthorn Senior Coach Sam Mitchell spoke to the media ahead of his team’s final home-and-away game against North Melbourne at University of Tasmania Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Mitchell opened up his press conference by paying tribute to Herald Sun journalist, Sam Landsberger, who tragically passed away earlier this week.
Mitchell then spoke about Saturday’s game as well as the availability of a key trio of players.
We summarised the key points from his press conference below.
On the tragic passing of Herald Sun journalist Sam Landsberger
“I want to throw my support to the Landsberger family. Sometimes things happen in our industry that are bigger than the game. Reading the story with my own family today, I felt that I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to send my love. I didn’t know him personally particularly well but from the colleagues he’s worked with and the people in our industry and his family, he’s obviously well respected and an enormously important part of what we do in our organisation and as a full industry. It’s important we support each other in these times.”
On Saturday’s game against North Melbourne
“For us, I’ve been saying it for a long time now, but every week’s a final. This is as good as an elimination final. For the game we have, we don’t want to put our season in anyone else’s hands so the final scoreboard will be the thing that matters for us and we know that if we win, we’ll play finals footy so the incentive is there to have a good performance.”
On Jack Scrimshaw’s availability
“We’re not sure. Today, we’ll see how he goes. He had to have a clean out so he’s got a nasty cut, if you like. There’s some bandaging and I think he might wear a glove for part of the session and see how it feels functionally. If he feels functionally that he can use it, he’ll be available for selection.”
On Changkuoth Jiath’s availability
“CJ won’t be available this week. He can sort of run at 75 per cent but as soon as he gets a little bit quicker than that, his 80 per cent is everyone else’s 100 but having him not feel quite good enough at that speed means that the risk is not worth taking for him.”
On Will Day’s availability
“He won’t be available this week and there’s no guarantees after that. There’s no surgical interventions needed. He doesn’t need anything except to feel good enough to play so how long that takes is up to his body and his healing powers. He’ll be doing everything he can to make sure he’s available as soon as possible. At the moment, it’s just pain and soreness that’s hurting him. He can actually move it okay but it’s just very sore and tender to touch and the movement so as soon as he gets that back, he’ll be available.”
Watch Mitchell’s full press conference below.
