COMING off one of his strongest seasons yet, veteran midfielder Sam Mitchell has no plans to put an end date on his AFL career.
The 33-year-old, who is completing his 15th AFL pre-season, says that while he has something to offer the Hawks, he wants to keep playing.
“I’m pretty comfortable with where I’m at at the moment,” Mitchell told SEN1116 on Monday morning.
“Most of us older guys, we know we’re one bad injury away from it being the end, and hopefully those things don’t happen, but I’m going to keep playing for as long as I can. As long as I can contribute in a strong way, I’ll keep going.
“If I feel the way I feel now, then I can keep playing.
“But I’m of the position that when I start to slow down and I’m not capable of doing what I’m doing at the moment, that I’m not going to be one who’s hanging on for every game I can get out of myself and taking a young kid’s spot if he can do as well as I can.”
The four-time premiership player averaged more than 31 disposals per game last season, missing just two games for the year.
Mitchell is closing in on 300 AFL games – his current tally stands at 285 – and was again among the best in Hawthorn’s NAB Challenge win against Carlton on Thursday night.
With 29 disposals, the midfielder picked up from where he left off in his first hit-out for 2016.
“It was good to get back into it,” Mitchell said.
“They (coaches and fitness staff) sort of give you the option – do you want to play, or do you want to just go and do a really tough running session. Anything that’s got a ball suits me better than anything with the runners on.
“It was actually really short game-time, sort of only about 90 or 92 minutes, so it only felt like we played three quarters for the game.”
Mitchell said the NAB Challenge match was just another step to prepare for the season ahead.
And while there’s already plenty of external focus on whether the Hawks can back-up their recent success in 2016, Mitchell says it’s not a big motivator for him.
“To be honest, it’s the furthest thing from the mind at the moment,” he said.
“If we can get ourselves up into the top four later in the year then it would perhaps be silly not to think of it at all, but at this point you’re very much focused on whatever the next little challenge is.
“So much water has to go under the bridge before we can even get close to giving ourselves that opportunity.
“We learnt the hard way a few years ago that if you start thinking about the end of the season too early, you actually don’t get there.
“As boring as it sounds, you focus on the next challenge, which is training tomorrow, the game on the weekend… (and) there’s a fair bit of focus going into Round 1 right now.”
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