Hawthorn Senior Coach Sam Mitchell has emphasised the importance of his team’s Semi Final battle with Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval on Friday night.
Addressing the media on Wednesday morning, Mitchell spoke about the last time the Hawks faced the Power, what he’s expecting from Port Adelaide and Luke Breust’s upcoming 300-game milestone.
We summarised the key points from his press conference below.
On the last time Hawthorn faced Port Adelaide
“We spoke a lot about it over the journey, I mean it was obviously one of those games where there was a lot of learning to be done. We didn’t handle the situation well. We were 11 points up with 40 seconds to go so there’s some confidence there that we’re able to play the ground and play against them. We watched a bit of it as coaches this week about some things that happened in that game and both teams are very different to then. There’s some things that are different personnel-wise but also system-wise, I think both teams have evolved since that period. We haven’t spoken about it specifically with the players this week, we might in the next couple of days, we haven’t decided just yet but it was one of the more heartbreaking losses of my coaching career.”
On what he’s expecting from Port Adelaide
“The narrative around Port Adelaide is really interesting. We obviously don’t have control over that element but there’s a lot of focus on that they didn’t play well last week and there’s a bit of negativity around them. But to me, they finished second, they had won six games in a row including beating Sydney by over 100 points. They had one bad performance and everyone’s riding them off so we need to not fall into the public persona. We’re going away to probably the most hostile environment in the competition, certainly one of if not the. It will be as loud as the MCG last week but instead of being a neutral or 50/50, 60/40 crowd, it’s going to be 95/5 so we aren’t taking this game lightly at all. We understand what’s going to come this week and it’s going to be massive for us and we need to be ready.”
On Luke Breust’s 300-game milestone
“Luke’s been phenomenal. I always make jokes that the first time he did his time trial, he had his mouthguard in, that’s how he came into the club. I look at him with such pride now. I spent so much time with him in his first couple of years and now to see the amount of time and effort that he puts into our young players and how far they’ve come off the back of his learnings and education, I think he’s a fantastic story. For him to get to 300 games, you’ve got to tip your hat to him. Will that give us extra motivation for this game? If you need extra motivation for a final, you’re probably playing the wrong game.”
Watch Mitchell’s full press conference below.
