Hawthorn Senior Coach Sam Mitchell spoke to the media ahead of his team’s Thursday night game against Carlton at the MCG.
In his press conference on Tuesday morning, Mitchell discussed who might replace Jack Scrimshaw, playing in front of big crowds and Jarman Impey’s 200th game.
On replacing Jack Scrimshaw
“We’ve got selection this afternoon, but obviously there was a pretty good performance at Box Hill on the weekend as well so there’s a few guys putting their hand up. But we obviously need to replace Scrimma, he’s been a really important player for us, really consistent, in particular his last 18 months. Disappointed for him that we’ll miss him but for hopefully not too long.”
On improving each game
“We realise that we’re still a work in progress, we’ve got a fair bit of work to do on getting our game right as every coach does at this time of year and we feel like some parts of our game have been really strong but not consistently enough and being able to manage momentum has been important for us so far and will continue to be. We can’t afford to lose contests, clearance, tackles the way we did on the weekend, you’re not going to win too many games with some of the numbers we saw and the players are pretty clear on what’s going to be needed on Thursday night.”
On the committment of Hawthorn faithful
“I'm really proud of the Hawthorn fans that have come out, right since I started if I'm really honest. I think when we were not expected to do well, I was really buoyed by the fact that our fans sort of believed in what we were doing and were on the journey with us. And now that there's a little bit more hope they go to a game and they're thinking, alright well, the Hawks should play well today, I think that they're turning up now and feeling good about what we're producing. Our job is to try and live up to our own fans and our own expectations internally, and the more people that are there to see it, the better it is.”
On Jarman Impey’s 200th game
“Probably not meant to have favourites, but if we did he'd be certainly in that conversation. I mean Jars, I think anyone who spent time in and around Bunjil Bagora, out here at Waverley would know that he's just one of the players that you love having out here on the track. He's a great player, and we've seen what he's done so consistently for such a long period for us now, but also off the field he just has an enormous influence on our group, and he really rounds out a lot of our group. We missed him in a couple of preseason games and you really noticed him not being there, just for the amount of energy, he's not just someone that creates good moments himself, but he makes everyone else around him better. And I think if you talk to the players about who they love playing footy with, he certainly first or second in that conversation from just about everyone.”
Watch Mitchell’s full press conference below.
