Update: 12.21pm
Sam Mitchell has received a $1500 sanction, instead of a $1000 sanction, as the incident from Sunday's match was Mitchell's second classified offence of the 2015 season.
HAWTHORN’S Sam Mitchell has acknowledged he needs to change the technique he uses to protect himself, after being fined by the AFL Match Review Panel in Round 15.
Mitchell has accepted a $1500 fine from the MRP after being charged with kneeing Fremantle’s Nat Fyfe in the second quarter of Sunday’s match.
“I looked at the vision that the MRP look at, and I can understand why it’s not a good look and it’s not a good thing for the game,” Mitchell said.
“Although it’s not my intention in that situation to hurt the other person – it’s purely just to protect myself – I guess the game has given me the feedback that I need to change the way I go about doing that.
“The mechanism I use to protect myself… is something that the AFL don’t like, and I can understand why looking at the vision.”
The MRP classified the incident as intentional conduct with low impact to the body.
Mitchell said the MRP sanction was a sign he needed to change how he protects himself.
“I’ll work on some techniques over the coming weeks and do it differently,” he said.
“It’s just an instinct thing that I’ve done for a long period and something that I now need to change.”
The experienced midfielder said he had no intent to injure Fyfe.
“I know what my intention is – it’s purely a reflex reaction – it wasn’t my intention to hurt Fyfe, it was my intention to protect myself,” Mitchell said.
“I have to do it differently – I need to find a new way to protect myself and get out of that habit of putting my knee up.”
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