EXPERIENCED midfielder Sam Mitchell spoke to the media at the Ricoh Centre today, about Friday night's loss to Richmond and the Hawks' upcoming match against West Coast Eagles.
Sam Mitchell spoke about...
Whether losing to the Tigers would provide added motivation this season
“I don’t think we really needed a kick up the backside… I think our motivation and our effort levels have been pretty high for a long period.
"Even on Friday night, I thought our effort levels were maybe not at their absolute best, but they were still reasonable.
"We weren’t able to get the points, but we feel like we’re doing a fair few things right and we’ve got a few things to work on from the weekend."
Ladder positions at the end of the home-and-away season
"Obviously you sit down and do the math on where you think you might finish and how it might play out, but there’s a little bit too long to go to worry about finals positions just yet.
"We want to make sure we finish in the top four, get that second chance – history tells us that if you want to be successful and win silverware, then that’s where you need to finish."
Is the Hawks best good enough?
"We feel like if we can play our best footy then that will be good enough to beat any of the other sides.
"We feel like we’ve got a blueprint that is pretty good, and if a few things fall our way then we feel like we’re going to be thereabouts come the first week of October."
The evenness of the competition
"There are some very good sides that are sitting just outside the eight now.
"The competition is very, very close – if you’re down a couple of per cent you can get knocked off.
"You have to bring your effort and your energy levels and all those things every week – otherwise you get done."
West Coast and their coach Adam Simpson
"They’ve been great, haven’t they?
"Simmo (Adam Simpson), I obviously know him a little bit from his time at Hawthorn, he’s put together a really good system.
"They’re all playing very much on the same page. If you watch the way they play, you can tell that they’re a team with a plan and they’re executing it really well."
Playing at Domain Stadium
"They play it really well… (but) it probably suits us a little bit.
"If you can get it into your front half, it’s quite hard to get it out of there and it’s a long way to the other end to score.
"I think the centre bounce will be really important, trying to get the game played in your own half and using the open space."
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